Hezbollah-run television joined Lebanese and foreign networks in a live broadcast yesterday of Pope John Paul II's funeral from the Vatican.
The al-Manar television station, run by the pro-Iranian Shiite Hezbollah movement, conducted a live show with a Catholic priest talking about Christianity and Islam and the late Pope's call for co-existence among religions.
"We are a television which addresses all religious sects and Pope John II is a high-ranking religious figure and it is our duty to broadcast it live in memory of this great man of peace," Ali Haj, al-Manar's news editor told reporters.
"This is an event that involves millions of Christians around the world. We will be airing special programs on the pope's journey and how the elections of his successor will take place," Haj added.
Meanwhile, Beirut's Christian churches were full yesterday with worshippers who came to pay tribute to the late pope and light candles.
In the nearby mosques, Moslem preachers also paid tribute to the late Pope during Friday prayers, describing him as a "great man of peace and co-existence."
Koranic versus echoed throughout Beirut as the Pope was laid to rest, while both Moslem and Christian schools across Lebanon closed for the day.
In eastern Beirut a group of Christian and Moslem students gathered to observe a minute's silence near a Christian church.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
‘POINT OF NO RETURN’: The Caribbean nation needs increased international funding and support for a multinational force to help police tackle expanding gang violence The top UN official in Haiti on Monday sounded an alarm to the UN Security Council that escalating gang violence is liable to lead the Caribbean nation to “a point of no return.” Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Haiti Maria Isabel Salvador said that “Haiti could face total chaos” without increased funding and support for the operation of the Kenya-led multinational force helping Haiti’s police to tackle the gangs’ expanding violence into areas beyond the capital, Port-Au-Prince. Most recently, gangs seized the city of Mirebalais in central Haiti, and during the attack more than 500 prisoners were freed, she said.
RSS