Friday, August 14, 2009 TAIPEI: About 300 people are estimated to have been killed by a massive landslide that wiped out much of a village in southern Taiwan, news agency reports quoted a government official, as saying on Friday.The tragedy is said to have taken place in the village of Hsiao Li.The official death toll in Taiwan from "Typhoon Morakot" till last weekend stood at 116. The worst floods in decades washed out roads, snapped bridges and sent low-rise buildings crashing into rivers, according to the latest statement by the disaster agency.Pressure is mounting on Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou to expedite operations to rescue hundreds of residents of remote mountainous villages buried or stranded in the aftermath of the typhoon.
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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