KABUL: Presidents Hamid Karzai and Barack Obama have spoken on the phone for the first time since Obama's inauguration. Karzai's office says the two presidents talked about security issues and the Afghan presidential elections in August.Karzai admitted last week that almost four weeks after Obama's inauguration he still had not spoken with the U.S. leader. Karzai spoke with former President George W. Bush regularly; fueling speculation that Obama was sending a clear signal that Karzai's standing with him was much lower.
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
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