Wednesday, September 30, 2009 ISLAMABAD: The two-day fourth Interfaith Conference under the aegis of the Muslim World League (MWL) will begin in Geneva, Switzerland, today.The custodian of the two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, who took initiative of the Interfaith Dialogue, will inaugurate the major event. As many as 128 prominent religious leaders and officials from around the world, including the US, the UK, China, Italy, India, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Japan and the Philippines, will take part in the conference.According to the MWL website, the main theme of the conference is ‘The Impact of King Abdullah’s Inter-Religious Dialogue Initiative in Disseminating Human Values’. Other topics for discussion in the conference are: King Abdullah’s Initiative and the Scope of Coexistence Among the Various Civilisations; the Role of Religion and Culture in Promoting Dialogue; the Impact of Religious Values in Reforming Societies; and the Role of Media in Strengthening Dialogue and Human Values.The first conference was held in Makkah in June 2008, the second in Madrid in July 2008 and the third at the United Nations headquarters in New York in September 2008.The Makkah conference, which was held from June 6 to 8, 2008, brought together about 500 Muslim leaders from around the world in order to set an agenda for the building of better relations between Muslims and followers of other faiths.
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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