UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday he was worried that Lebanese militias were arming to prepare for a "constitutional void" if parliament cannot agree on a new president.
The presidential election was delayed for the second time until Nov. 12 to allow time to find a compromise candidate to succeed pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, whose term expires on Nov. 23.
Agreement on a new president is seen as vital to resolving Lebanon's most serious political crisis since the 1975 to 1990 civil war. It pits the Western-backed, anti-Syrian government against the opposition, led by pro-Syrian Hezbollah. If no president is elected before Lahoud's term expires, there are fears that the country could end up with two rival governments and even slide back into armed conflict.
"There must not be a constitutional void at the level of the presidency, nor two rivaling governments," Ban said in a report for the UN Security Council distributed on Wednesday, urging Lebanese leaders to engage in dialogue on a president.
Many Lebanese lawmakers have been holed up in a Beirut hotel for weeks for fear of joining a growing list of anti-Syrian parliamentarians assassinated in the past two years.
Ban said Lebanese security forces reported that militias, including Hezbollah, were conducting military training around the country, and handing out weapons to their supporters.
"The re-emergence of militias is certainly one of the most disturbing developments over the past six months," Ban said.
Meanwhile, Lebanese troops opened fire yesterday on Israeli warplanes flying low over southern Lebanon, but no hits were reported, Lebanese officials said.
A security official said a total of 150 rounds were fired as soldiers opened up at two planes that flew by just east of Marjayoun town.
A senior military officer said the army "confronted" the planes.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not