5) Belarus opposition leader addresses UN debate
The urgent debate of the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council on alleged rights violations in Belarus didn’t go smoothly.
Till the last moment, a representative of Belarus, backed by Russia, China, and Venezuela, tried to limit speeches.
That also happened when opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya tried to talk about her supporters’ reported suffering under longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko.
But the president of the Human Rights Council, Elisabeth Tichy-Fisslberger, put an end to the repeated interruptions. “If anybody doesn’t agree with this, we would have to take a vote. But I would at this stage ask the secretariat to show us the rest of the video,” she said.
In it, opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya appealed for a change in Belarus. “We demand to cease violence against peaceful citizens immediately. We demand the immediate release of all political prisoners,” she said.
6) Beirut residents in shock after yet another blaze
It’s the second blaze this month, creating havoc and fear in the city that is still reeling after a massive blast and explosion in August.
There were no immediate reports of injuries in the fire that engulfed a building in downtown Beirut on Tuesday morning, and authorities said it is not clear what caused the blaze.
But Beirut residents are traumatized and still in shock from the blast in the port area on August 4th that killed 220 people, injured over 6,000 and displaced about 300,000.
They couldn’t believe it when another large fire broke out five days ago near the city’s port, and today’s fire compounds their deep sense of uncertainty, instability and fear caused by the spiralling economic and political crisis that has brought the nation to its knees.
The seafront building that went up in flames today was the work of late Iraqi-born British architect Zaha Hadid. It had been under construction for years and its curved, futuristic lines had become a prominent feature of Beirut’s central commercial area rebuilt after the 1975-1990 civil war as a sign of hope and rebirth.
Sorrow for the damage wreaked to this building is overshadowed by the tragic August blast, the cause of which is still under investigation.
In the wake of that blast, the government has resigned and the people of Lebanon are struggling to “get by” mired in an unprecedented economic emergency and financial collapse. The crisis is blamed on decades of mismanagement and corruption by an entrenched political class and has led to record unemployment, inflation and the collapse of public services.
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