Tuesday, November 24, 2009 BRUSSELS: A Belgian man diagnosed as comatose for 23 years was in fact awake and conscious the whole time, doctors have revealed.Rom Houben, 46, had no way to tell his family and doctors he could see them and hear what they were saying after waking up following a bad car accident in 1983. He spent more than two decades in excruciating isolation until a neurologist realised he was not in a coma just unable to communicate. The former engineering student and martial arts enthusiast, now 46, told German newspaper that he meditated to pass the long years trapped in his own body. He remains haunted by the moment he first woke from the accident and realised something was wrong. Mr Houbens is now in care in a hospital near Brussels and able to communicate through a computer.
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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