Monday, November 23, 2009 DUBLIN: A car carrying a 400-pound bomb was driven through barriers at the Policing Board headquarters in Belfast, Northern Ireland, police said Sunday.Two men ran away from the vehicle, and there was a small explosion about half an hour later, as the building was being evacuated, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said in a statement. They believe the bomb exploded only partially.PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott condemned the attack as "reckless."Barry Gilligan, the chairman of the Policing Board, called it "an attack upon the entire community."He said the target was "not just an empty office building on a Saturday night," as a significant number of people who lived nearby were "put at risk.""Had this device functioned as the terrorists planned, there would have been widespread damage and destruction," an unnamed police spokesman said in the PSNI statement.There were no injuries, the police said.The car crashed through barriers at Clarendon Dock in Belfast at about 7:10 p.m. (2:20 p.m. ET) Saturday night, police said.They said there was no warning before the attack. Irish terrorists often -- but not always -- send messages warning about bombs before they explode.
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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