Saturday, October 03, 2009 WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama on Friday congratulated Brazil and the city of Rio de Janeiro for beating out his hometown of Chicago and winning the right to host the "historic" 2016 Olympics. Obama spoke at the White House moments after arriving back from a swift trip to Copenhagen and a failed bid to rally the International Olympics Committee to Chicago's Olympic dream. "I do want to congratulate Rio de Janeiro and the nation of Brazil for winning the 2016 Olympics. I think this is a truly historic event as these will be the first Olympic Games ever to be held in South America," Obama said. "One of the things that I think is most valuable about sports is that you can play a great game and still not win," Obama said. "And so, although I wish that we had come back with better news from Copenhagen, I could not be prouder of my home town of Chicago."
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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