4 Migrants Drown Off Morocco Trying to Reach Europe

A Moroccan boy swims using bottles as a float, near the fence between the Spanish-Moroccan border, May 19, 2021. REUTERS/Jon Nazca/File photo
A Moroccan boy swims using bottles as a float, near the fence between the Spanish-Moroccan border, May 19, 2021. REUTERS/Jon Nazca/File photo
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4 Migrants Drown Off Morocco Trying to Reach Europe

A Moroccan boy swims using bottles as a float, near the fence between the Spanish-Moroccan border, May 19, 2021. REUTERS/Jon Nazca/File photo
A Moroccan boy swims using bottles as a float, near the fence between the Spanish-Moroccan border, May 19, 2021. REUTERS/Jon Nazca/File photo

Four Moroccan migrants trying to reach the European Union have drowned in the Atlantic Ocean, officials and relatives said Friday.

Three other migrants were rescued after their vessel sank off the resort of Skheirat, south of the capital Rabat, on Thursday.

"We are in shock. My cousin, who was 29, was among the dead," said a relative of one of those who drowned.

"They were all Moroccan. We had no idea he was going to try to make the voyage."

Officials said the migrants' vessel was believed to have had a capacity of up to 20 people, and a search was continuing for any other survivors.

Authorities in Laayoune detained 106 migrants in two groups as they prepared to put to sea on Friday, Morocco's state-run MAP news agency reported.

Authorities said they had thwarted other attempted departures from elsewhere along the Atlantic Coast, making multiple arrests and seizing several boats.

On Thursday, Moroccan authorities said they had intercepted a boat 30 kilometers off Laayoune Port carrying 114 migrants trying to reach the Canaries.

A total of 27,136 migrants reached Spain between January and the end of September, a 53.8 percent jump on the same period last year, according to Spanish interior ministry figures.

The Portuguese coastguard said the navy had picked up 37 migrants on Thursday, most of them Moroccans, according to Portuguese media reports.



Lebanon Parliament Meets to Elect President

The Lebanese Parliament building a day before a session to elect the Lebanese president, in Beirut, Lebanon, 08 January 2025. (EPA)
The Lebanese Parliament building a day before a session to elect the Lebanese president, in Beirut, Lebanon, 08 January 2025. (EPA)
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Lebanon Parliament Meets to Elect President

The Lebanese Parliament building a day before a session to elect the Lebanese president, in Beirut, Lebanon, 08 January 2025. (EPA)
The Lebanese Parliament building a day before a session to elect the Lebanese president, in Beirut, Lebanon, 08 January 2025. (EPA)

Lebanon's lawmakers on Thursday began a session that could see army chief Joseph Aoun elected as president following a vacancy of more than two years, an AFP reporter said.
The 128-lawmaker chamber, which has failed to reach consensus a dozen times amid tensions between the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and its opponents, started discussions at 11:00 am (0900 GMT).
The leading candidate, Lebanese army commander Joseph Aoun, no relation to the former president, is widely seen as the preferred candidate of the United States, whose assistance Lebanon will need as it seeks to rebuild after a 14-month conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Hezbollah previously backed another candidate, Suleiman Franjieh, the leader of a small Christian party in northern Lebanon with close ties to former Syrian President Bashar Assad.
However, on Wednesday, Franjieh announced he had withdrawn from the race and endorsed Aoun, apparently clearing the way for the army chief.
Lebanon’s fractious sectarian power-sharing system is prone to deadlock, both for political and procedural reasons. The small, crisis-battered Mediterranean country has been through several extended presidential vacancies, with the longest lasting nearly 2 1/2 years between May 2014 and October 2016. It ended when former President Michel Aoun was elected.
As a sitting army commander, Joseph Aoun is technically barred from becoming president by Lebanon's constitution. The ban has been waived before, but it means that Aoun faces additional procedural hurdles.
Under normal circumstances, a presidential candidate in Lebanon can be elected by a two-thirds majority of the 128-member house in the first round of voting, or by a simple majority in a subsequent round.
But because of the constitutional issues surrounding his election, Aoun would need a two-thirds majority even in the second round.
Other contenders include Jihad Azour, a former finance minister who is now the director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund; and Elias al-Baysari, the acting head of Lebanon’s General Security agency.
A president is needed to appoint a permanent prime minister and cabinet. The caretaker government that has run Lebanon for the last two years has reduced powers because it was not appointed by a sitting president.
The next government will face daunting challenges apart from implementing the ceasefire agreement that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war and seeking funds for reconstruction.
Lebanon is six years into an economic and financial crisis that decimated the country's currency and wiped out the savings of many Lebanese. The cash-strapped state electricity company provides only a few hours of power a day.
The country's leaders reached a preliminary agreement with the IMF for a bail-out package in 2022 but have made limited progress on reforms required to clinch the deal.