Tuesday, June 09, 2009 ASADABAD: A blast near a U.S. troop convoy in Afghanistan killed at least one child and wounded 34 civilians on Tuesday, officials said, but witnesses blamed a U.S. soldier for throwing a grenade into a crowd. Abdul Jalal, chief of police in Kunar province, said officials were investigating whether the blast in the provincial capital Asadabad caused by a grenade thrown by U.S. troops or by an insurgent attack.A U.S. military spokesman in Kabul said he was checking the reports. Several of the wounded and other witnesses told a U.S. soldier had thrown a grenade after the military convoy had stopped because a vehicle's tyre had burst.
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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