The chief UN investigator into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri went to Syria yesterday to interview President Bashar Assad, senior Lebanese security officials said.
It will be the first time that Assad answers questions about Hariri's assassination from the UN commission appointed by the Security Council. Assad declined two previous requests for interviews filed last year by the commission, which is based in Beirut.
Chief UN investigator Serge Brammertz will also talk to Vice-President Farouk al-Sharaa about Syria's alleged involvement in the massive truck bombing that killed Hariri and 20 people others on Feb. 14, last year, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
According to testimony to the UN investigation, Assad threatened Prime Minister Hariri when they met at the Syrian president's offices in August 2004. Assad allegedly said he wanted the term of Lebanon's pro-Syrian president to be extended, a move that Hariri was known to oppose.
However, Assad has told reporters that he did not threaten Hariri and he has also denied any Syrian role in the former Lebanese prime minister's murder.
Lebanese officials at the Masna crossing point on the Syrian border said Brammertz entered Syria at about 9am Lebanese time in convoy of 10 bulletproof vehicles.
Lebanese troops guarded the road that the convoy took to the border, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to talk to the press.
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
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It turns out that looming collision between our Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies might not happen after all. Astronomers on Monday said that the probability of the two spiral galaxies colliding is less than previously thought, with a 50-50 chance within the next 10 billion years. That is essentially a coin flip, but still better odds than previous estimates and farther out in time. “As it stands, proclamations of the impending demise of our galaxy seem greatly exaggerated,” the Finnish-led team wrote in a study appearing in Nature Astronomy. While good news for the Milky Way galaxy, the latest forecast might be moot
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