Updated at: 0109 PST, Sunday, August 16, 2009 ALGIERS: A head-on collision between a lorry and a minibus in Algeria on Saturday killed 16 people, including more than a dozen members of the same family travelling together, the Algerian civil guard said. The minibus driver and his 5 passengers were killed in the accident that occurred on the outskirts of the city of Ghazaouet, more than 500 kilometres (313 miles) west of the capital Algiers, the civil guard said. The cause of the collision was not y?et known. All the passengers on the minibus were members of the same family who had gone to the beach earlier in the day, the El Watan newspaper said on its website. It had earlier reported that 17 people were killed. The Algerian government recently toughened the penalties against drivers due to the number of fatal accidents from speeding or reckless driving.
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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