Friday, October 23, 2009 MOGADISHU: Mortar bombs killed at least 30 people in Somalia's capital Mogadishu on Thursday after rebels launched shells at the president's plane and African Union (AU) peacekeepers responded with heavy artillery fire.President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, who was leaving for a summit in Uganda, was not hurt. But residents and medical workers said at least 30 people died and scores more were wounded in one of the heaviest exchanges to rock the city for weeks.Farah Olow, a shopkeeper in the sprawling Bakara market, told sources by telephone that six people were killed by a shell that demolished a home there."They were taking cover in a concrete building, but such big shells can penetrate the strongest house," he said. "We can't go out to count how many more are dead. Bombs are raining on us."Bakara, which is notorious for its open-air weapons bazaar, has long been viewed by the government and the AU force AMISOM as a stronghold of hardline Islamist al Shabaab insurgents trying to overthrow the country's transitional administration.Washington accuses the rebel group of being al Qaeda's proxy in the failed Horn of Africa state.
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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