AFP, Beirut
Supporters of Michel Aoun gathered in the Lebanese capital Monday ahead of a parliament session expected to elect him president and end a political stalemate of more than two years.
Lawmakers will convene at noon (1000 GMT) for their 46th attempt to elect a president but the first expected to actually produce a result.
Security was tight around the parliament and Beirut’s Martyrs Square, where supporters of Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), dressed in their trademark orange, have been gathering for days.
Kerry, Boris Johnson host meeting on Libya
AP, London
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson are hosting a meeting in London designed to break Libya’s political stalemate.
Monday’ session comes after the U.N.-backed Libyan government’s failure to win legitimacy – or to function at all – amid deep political fragmentation.
They are joined by the head of a U.N.-brokered presidency council and designated Prime Minister Fayez Serraj and other diplomats. The ministerial meeting is designed to deal with economic and security issues facing the government.
33 coal miners trapped in China
AP, Beijing
A gas explosion ripped through a coal mine in western China on Monday, leaving 33 miners trapped, a local government official said. Two other miners were rescued, he said. The condition of those underground isn’t known and rescue work is continuing, said the official, reached by phone at the Yongzhou district government propaganda office in the sprawling Chongqing region.
Riyadh says two IS cells busted
AFP, Riyadh
Saudi authorities said on Sunday they had foiled a plot to bomb a football stadium during a World Cup qualifying match and dismantled two “terrorist” cells linked to the militant Islamic State (IS) group.
The interior ministry said in a statement that four suspects from each cell had been arrested. One of the cells had planned to park a bomb-laden vehicle outside Al-Jawhara stadium in Jeddah during an October 11 World Cup qualifying football match between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the ministry said.
