KHARTOUM: A Sudanese court has sentenced to death 10 members of the Darfur rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) for an unprecedented 2008 attack on the Sudanese capital here on Thursday.The men were found guilty of involvement in the attack on the Khartoum suburb of Omdurman in May 2008. Three others were acquitted and will be freed, the court said.After the sentence was announced, the men raised their shackled hands and shouted in unison "Allah Akbar" (God is great) and "Revolution until victory".The men were found guilty of 12 charges, including treason, violence against the state and illegal possession of weapons. The group has seven days to appeal the decision.The sitting judge rejected requests for leniency from their lawyers.More than 200 people were killed and hundreds injured when JEM launched the shock attack.
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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