The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Thursday to prolong by six months the UN investigation of the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, and it cited Syria for not providing the inquiry "full and unconditional cooperation."
The measure also authorized the inquiry to give technical assistance to Lebanese officials investigating 14 assassinations, attempted murders and bombings since Oct. 1 last year, including the car-bomb killing on Monday of Gebran Tueni, a prominent journalist and member of parliament known for his anti-Syrian views.
Negotiated up until moments before the vote to meet objections raised by Algeria, China and Russia, the final draft dropped language accusing Syria of deliberately hindering the investigation and of delaying examination of the role of high-ranking officials.
But it demanded that Syria respond "unambiguously and immediately" to requests from the investigators, and it kept a reference to Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which empowers the Council to consider penalties in the future.
A resolution passed on Oct. 31 had threatened Syria with unspecified "further action" if it continued to obstruct the investigation.
US ambassador John Bolton said that the sponsors of the measure had agreed to modifications in the interests of obtaining unanimity, and that none of the changes crossed the sponsors' "red lines." The resolution was initiated by France and co-sponsored by the UK and US.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
Myanmar yesterday published a parliamentary bill proposing the death sentence for those who detain or violently coerce people into working in online scam centers. Internet fraud factories have flourished in Myanmar, part of Southeast Asia’s scam economy, targeting Internet users worldwide with romance and cryptocurrency investment cons. The multibillion-dollar black market attracts many willing employees, but repatriated foreigners have also reported being trafficked to sites in Myanmar and tortured by scam center operators. The draft legislation would allow capital punishment for “violence, torture, unlawful arrest and detention, or cruel treatment against another person for the purpose of forcing them to commit online scams.” The
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