LEBANON’S HEZBOLLAH ACCUSES SAUDI OF DETAINING HARIRI

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Friday (Saturday in Manila) accused Saudi Arabia of detaining Prime Minister Saad Hariri and of asking the Shiite movement’s arch-foe Israel to launch strikes. Hariri’s sudden resignation on November 4 in a statement made from Riyadh took the Lebanese political class by surprise and has sparked international concern. The United States warned against using the tiny country as a “venue for proxy conflicts” and the United Nations said it was “essential no new conflict erupt in the region.” France called for Hariri to have “all his freedom of movement” amid rumors he was being held against his will. “The head of the Lebanese government is detained in Saudi Arabia, he is banned from returning to Lebanon until now,” Nasrallah said in a televised address. Hariri’s situation was not completely clear but calls, including from his Lebanese political rivals, mounted for Saudi Arabia to guarantee the premier’s freedom of movement.

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE ACCUSED OF ABUSING TEEN DENIES SEXUAL MISCONDUCT

WASHINGTON, D.C.: A Republican Senate candidate reported to have sexually abused a 14-year- old girl lashed out at his accusers Friday (Saturday in Manila), calling their allegations a “dangerous lie” that would harm real victims of molestation. Roy Moore—a former state judge and Christian evangelical whose defense of a Ten Commandments display brought him national attention—added he had “never engaged in sexual misconduct.” “I cannot understand the mentality of using such a dangerous lie to try to personally destroy someone,” Moore said in a statement. “False allegations are gravely serious and will have a profound consequence on those who are truly harassed or molested,” he added. The issue has reverberated through Washington weeks ahead of a crucial Senate election in which the conservative Republican party is hoping to hold on to its slim 52-48 seat majority. Four women, speaking on the record, told The Washington Post that Moore pursued them when they were 18 or younger, while he was in his early thirties working as an assistant district attorney.

INDONESIAN MUSEUM REMOVES NAZI- THEMED EXHIBIT AFTER OUTRAGE

JAKARTA: An Indonesian museum that allowed visitors to take selfies with a lifesize wax sculpture of Hitler against a backdrop of Auschwitz concentration camp has removed the exhibit following international outrage, the manager said on Saturday. De ARCA Statu e Art Museum in the Javanese city of Jogjakarta drew swift condemnation from rights groups after details of the controversial display were published in foreign media. The exhibit features a sure-footed Hitler standing in front of a huge photo of the gates of Auschwitz—the largest Nazi concentration camp where more than 1.1 million people were killed. The museum’s operations manager, Jamie Misbah, said the wax sculpture had been removed after the building was alerted to criticism from prominent Jewish human rights organization the Simon Wiesenthal Center. “We don’t want to attract outrage,” Misbah told Agence France-Presse. “Our purpose to display the Hitler figure in the museum is to educate,” he added.