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Oct 25, 2024 - World

The killing of Hezbollah's powerful leader Hassan Nasrallah a month ago has marked a fundamental shift for the Iran-backed Lebanese movement and revived calls for it to surrender its vast weapons arsenal."The death of Nasrallah marked the end of an era," said analyst Sam Heller of the US-based think tank Century Foundation.After decades at the helm, Nasrallah's death "will necessarily mark a shift for the organization", Heller added.Nasrallah's influence extended far beyond his loyal Shiite Muslim support base in Lebanon.He was a key pillar in Iran's "axis of resistance" against the United States and Israel, which includes other armed groups in the Middle East as well as Syria.Israel dealt Hezbollah a seismic blow when it assassinated Nasrallah on September 27 in a huge air strike on Beirut's southern suburbs that has thrust the movement into a new age.Hezbollah was already mired in a year of cross-border exchanges of fire with Israel, which it began in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas after the October 7, 2023 attack.Last month, Israel ramped up strikes on Hezbollah strongholds and sent in ground forces while killing one member of the group's top leadership after another.Nasrallah, who had led the group since 1992, spearheaded operations against Israel for decades, and gained cult status among his supporters during the 2006 war.According to Heller, "he was the foremost decision-maker in the organization as it rose to prominence in Lebanon and regionally."The group's governing Shura Council has yet to appoint a successor.Hashem Safieddine, a cleric tipped for the post, was killed by Israel just days after Nasrallah.- Home turf -Hezbollah is now run by a group of leaders, according to its deputy head Naim Qassem.Lebanese officials, including Prime Minister Najib Mikati, have said that their contact with the group has been cut off for weeks.Nabih Berri, Lebanon's parliament speaker who heads the Hezbollah-allied Amal Movement, is tasked with speaking on the group's behalf, Qassem said in a recent speech.Berri is believed to be pushing for a ceasefire, according to local media reports.Hezbollah had long linked a ceasefire in Lebanon to an end to fighting in Gaza, a position it has yet to formally reverse.Even with the group appearing on the back foot, its fighters continue to fire dozens of rockets daily into Israel, some reaching major cities like Haifa and Tel Aviv.This week, Hezbollah claimed a drone strike on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's home in the coastal town of Caesarea.The group says Israeli forces have not been able to take full control of any village in Lebanon, weeks into a ground invasion.Israeli forces operating in Lebanon "face very fierce resistance and are forced to retreat under heavy blows", said a source close to Hezbollah."The maximum depth the Israelis have reached is estimated at about two kilometers (1.2 miles)," said the source, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.Hezbollah, he said, has the advantage because it is fighting on its own terrain, knowing which "trees and rocks" to hide behind.- 'Disarm' -Hezbollah is widely believed to be better armed than Lebanon's national military, and remains the only group that did not surrender its weapons after the 1975-1990 civil war.After years of dominating political life in Lebanon, Hezbollah is facing new calls from its critics within the country to change.Lebanese computer engineer Elie Jabbour told AFP he believes the only way forward is for Hezbollah to give up its weapons."The war cannot end before Hezbollah is disarmed," he said."When that happens, it can join state institutions as a political party only," said the 27-year-old.A ceasefire in Lebanon has been tied to the implementation of a UN resolution that ended the last Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.UN Security Council Resolution 1701 states that only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers should deploy in areas south of the Litani River -- an area Hezbollah has long operated in.But Lebanon is grappling with a prolonged crisis, leaving the country rudderless until a president is elected after a two-year void.Many in Lebanon blame Hezbollah for blocking the vote.Samir Geagea, leader of the Lebanese Forces party and a longtime Hezbollah opponent, said any new president must not "leave any group or weapon outside the framework of the state".Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Thursday that only the state should carry weapons.But in a country long wracked by division, attempts to "marginalize Hezbollah politically will... invite a violent response" from the group, Heller said.It "will end in intra-Lebanese conflict," he added.

Oct 24, 2024 - World

A specialist London bookstore is selling an original typescript of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's children's classic "The Little Prince", complete with the author's hand-written corrections and revisions.The battered book and Saint-Exupery's passport, issued by the French culture ministry, will go on sale at the Abu Dhabi Art 2024 fair which opens on November 20, with an expected price of at least $1.25 million.It was acquired earlier this year for an undisclosed sum by rare books specialist store Peter Harrington.The typescript also contains numerous drawings by the author as well as his famous phrase "One only sees clearly with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eyes".Sammy Jay, of Peter Harrington Rare Books, said it was one of three known versions of the transcript, one of which is held by the National Library of France (BNF)."Unlike the other two which were given to people, he kept this one and it was his own working copy of the typescript so that's what makes it extra special," Jay said.In addition to the handwritten corrections, the version due to be sold includes passages that were later edited out.Such a book is extremely unusual in the rare books market, where sky-high prices are not the norm."You don't usually get something of this status," Jay said, citing the example of the scroll typescript for Jack Kerouac's novel "On The Road", which sold for $2.4 million in 2001."The market for rare and ancient books is very different from any other market in the sense that you don't often sell for millions," he said."The Little Prince" remains one of the world's best-selling books having sold more than the first "Harry Potter" and "The Hobbit" combined, according to Jay.The typescript, he said, had generated a lot of interest and was expected to be snapped up by a museum or private collection, possibly in Asia or the Arab world.Saint-Exupery wrote his tale about an alien prince and his interstellar travels while in exile in the United States in 1942, having fled France after the Nazi invasion.The pilot-explorer left the United States in 1943 to fight on the north African front and the book was published the same year in the United States only.Saint-Exupery disappeared during a flying mission over the Mediterranean in July 1944, and never saw his book's worldwide success.

Oct 24, 2024 - World

Frelimo presidential candidate Daniel Chapo is said to have received 70% of vote, after claims of riggingThe candidate of Mozambique’s ruling party has won the presidential election with a thumping majority, after two opposition figures were killed by unknown gunmen and amid allegations that the results were rigged.Daniel Chapo, the candidate of Frelimo, received 70.7% of the vote, the election commission said on Thursday, comfortably clearing the 50% mark needed to avoid a second round. Continue reading...

Oct 24, 2024 - World

Austrian lawmakers on Thursday elected for the first time a far-right politician as parliament president despite the Jewish community criticising the nominee for having paid "hommage to Nazi criminals".The far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) won national polls for the first time last month, gaining almost a third of the votes, though it has been unable to find partners to form a government.But as the strongest party, it nominated lawmaker Walter Rosenkranz, 62, a lawyer and a former presidential candidate, as the parliament's president.In parliament's first session following last month's national elections, Rosenkranz was elected with 100 out of 162 valid votes that were cast, current parliament president Wolfgang Sobotka said.Rosenkranz, who has been widely criticized for being a member of a far-right student fraternity known for its strident pan-German nationalism, was elected in a secret ballot.In a debate before the vote, conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer -- who hopes to head another government -- said his party was "committed to the customs and traditions" of parliament of the strongest party nominating the president.FPOe leader Herbert Kickl praised Rosenkranz for his "loyalty to democracy, the constitution and the rule of law".Ahead of the vote, Oskar Deutsch, president of IKG that represents Vienna's Jewish community, expressed his indignation in an open letter to parliament members, describing Rosenkranz as someone from the "revisionist camp", who "pays outright homage to Nazi criminals".

Oct 24, 2024 - World

King Charles III took part in a traditional kava-drinking ceremony before a line of bare-chested, heavily tattooed Samoans and was declared a "high chief" of his Pacific island realm on Thursday.The British monarch is on an 11-day tour of Australia and Samoa, independent nations where he is still head of state -- the first major foreign trip since his cancer diagnosis earlier this year.Wearing a white safari-style suit, the 75-year-old king sat at the head of a carved timber longhouse where he was presented with a polished half-coconut filled with a mildly narcotic kava brew.The peppery, slightly intoxicating root drink is a key part of Pacific culture and is known locally as "ava".The kava roots were paraded around the marquee, prepared by the chief's daughter and filtered through a sieve made of the dried bark of a fau tree.Once ready, a Samoan man screamed as he decanted the drink, which was finally presented to the king.Charles uttered the words: "May God Bless this ava" before lifting it to his lips. The ceremony concluded with claps.Charles's wife, Queen Camilla sat beside him, fanning herself to ease the stiffing tropical humidity.- High Chief -Many Samoans are excited to host the king -- his first-ever visit to the Pacific Island nation that was once a British colony.The royal couple later visited the village of Moata'a where Charles was made "Tui Taumeasina" or high chief.According to local legend, the area around Moata'a is where the coconut originated."Everyone has taken to our heart and is looking forward to welcoming the king," local chief Lenatai Victor Tamapua told AFP ahead of the visit."We feel honoured that he has chosen to be welcomed here in our village. So as a gift, we would like to bestow him a title."Tamapua also planned to raise the issue of climate change with the king and queen and show them the local mangroves."The high tides is just chewing away on our reef and where the mangroves are," he told AFP, adding that food sources and communities were being washed away or inundated."Our community relies on the mangrove area for mud crab and fishes, but since, the tide has risen over the past 20 years by about two or three meters (up to 10 feet)."The king is also in Samoa for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting which is taking place in Apia.- Colonialism and climate -The legacy of empire looms large at the meeting.Commonwealth leaders will select a new secretary-general nominated from an African country –- in line with regional rotations of the position.All three likely candidates have called publicly for reparations for slavery and colonialism.One of the three, Joshua Setipa from Lesotho, told AFP that the resolution could include non-traditional forms of payment such as climate financing."We can find a solution that will begin to address some injustices of the past and put them in the context happening around us today," he said.Climate change features heavily on the agenda.Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Fiji have backed calls for a "fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty" -- essentially calling for Australia, Britain and Canada to do more to lower emissions.Pacific leaders argue the trio of "big countries" have historically accounted for over 60 percent of the Commonwealth's emissions from fossil fuels.Vanuatu's special envoy for climate change Ralph Regenvanu called on other nations to join the treaty."As a Commonwealth family, we look to those that dominate fossil fuel production in the Commonwealth to stop the expansion of fossil fuels in order to protect what we love and hold dear here in the Pacific," he said.Australia's foreign minister Penny Wong said her gas and mineral-rich nation was working to be cleaner."We know we have a lot of work to do, and I've been upfront with every partner in the Pacific," she said.Pacific island nations -- once seen as the embodiment of palm-fringed paradise -- are now among the most climate-threatened areas of the planet.