Monday, November 02, 2009 SYDNEY: A boat carrying 40 people has sunk off the Cocos Islands, west of Australia, a report said on Monday. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority received a distress call on Sunday saying the boat was taking on water about 700 nautical miles northwest of the Cocos Islands, media reported. A merchant ship from the Bahamas responded to a broadcast for help but found the stricken vessel had sunk when it arrived 12 hours later, and its passengers were in the water.The merchant ship's crew were trying to rescue passengers and an Australian Defence Force plane was heading to join a search for survivors, it said. The report did not say how many passengers had been accounted for but added that authorities have yet to confirm whether the boat was carrying asylum seekers.
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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