A mournful farewell to a top general slain in a car bombing turned on Friday into a rallying point for calls for Lebanon's deeply divided politicians to agree on a new president and end the country's worsening political crisis.
The assassination three days ago of Major General Francois Hajj, the first military figure to be killed by a string of attacks since 2005, shook a Lebanese public accustomed to death but unprepared for an assault on the army -- seen as the sole institution holding the country together.
Citizen's from feuding factions seized on that emotion on Friday, standing together in the rain to say goodbye to the military's second highest ranking officer with a shower of tears and rose petals.
PHOTO: AP
Army chief General Michel Suleiman -- seen as the likely consensus candidate for president -- bid farewell to Hajj during the funeral with a sharp salute in front of his coffin, as the military called on Lebanon's Western-backed government and pro-Syrian opposition to end their political deadlock.
"In unity, we will have the strength and we can achieve the impossible," army chief of staff, Major General Shawki Masri said during Hajj's funeral.
Masri promised the military would "not rest until the murderers are apprehended and punished," a reassuring message to Lebanese citizens who saw Hajj's assassination as an assault on the country itself.
Hundreds of grieving Lebanese stood in the downpour as Hajj's flag-draped casket was taken from his home in the Beirut suburb of Baabda to a Maronite Catholic basilica in Harisa.
An old woman threw rose petals in front of the procession as it passed through the port city of Jounieh.
Hajj's slaying has heightened tensions at a time when Lebanon is embroiled in the latest chapter of its yearlong crisis -- a dispute over electing a new president. The post has been empty since Emile Lahoud's term ended Nov. 23, with supporters of the Western-backed government and the opposition, led by the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, unable to agree on a successor.
There was no claim of responsibility for Wednesday's bombing. Investigators are focusing on the possibility that Hajj was killed by Islamic militants because he led a three-month campaign this summer against an al-Qaeda-inspired group holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon.
But investigators are also looking into the possibility he was killed in connection to the dispute over the presidency. Hajj was expected to succeed Suleiman at the military helm if he was elected president.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy appealed to political leaders in Lebanon on Friday to elect a president who can unite the nation, saying a parliamentary vote scheduled for tomorrow was "the last chance."
"France urges all parties, at home and abroad, to do all they can for Lebanon to have a president of unity and consensus," Sarkozy said after a EU summit in Brussels.
Pro-government and opposition politicians, including a delegation from Hezbollah, attended Hajj's funeral mass in Harisa. Bells tolled while army pallbearers carried the coffin and hundreds of mourners applauded.
The service was led by Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, head of the influential Maronite Church from which Lebanon's presidents are drawn and to which Hajj belonged.
"Today, the hand of treachery has reached the army and its brave leaders," Sfeir told mourners at the ceremony.
After the mass, the coffin was driven to Hajj's hometown of Rmeish near Lebanon's southern border with Israel for burial in his family's cemetery.
Also on Friday, Hajj's driver, Khairallah Hadwan, a Shiite who was killed alongside his boss in the bombing in Baabda, was buried in the eastern Bekaa Valley.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS