Saturday, December 26, 2009 SYDNEY: A moderate earthquake struck off the south Pacific island state of Samoa on Saturday, seismologists said, but there was no tsunami alert and no immediate reports of damage. The US Geological Survey said the 5.5-magnitude quake struck at 2204 GMT around 281 kilometres (174 miles) south south-west of the capital Apia. It struck at a depth of 35 km. Nine people died in September when a tsunami hit the northern Tongan island of Niuatoputapu following an 8.0-magnitude earthquake. The tsunami also killed 143 people in Samoa and another 34 in neighbouring American Samoa. Earthquakes are common on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where continental plates in the Earth's crust meet.
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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