Friday, December 25, 2009 WASHINGTON: Mother Nature’s rage has hit Oklahoma hard as a winter storm erupted today causing four deaths and keeping thousands stranded. The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning through 6 p.m., Roads are expected to be slick and hazardous, heavy wind is expected, authorities have requested people to avoid driving unless and until absolutely necessary.A 50-car pileup is clogging Interstate 40 eastbound near Hudiburg Drive in Midwest City, there have been so many accidents that troopers are not no longer responding to non-injury accidents in the Oklahoma City-area, instead focusing on fatal crashes.Oklahoma City-area airports were closed this afternoon, 16,000 households were without power about 2 p.m. Christmas day is expected to be partly sunny said the weather forecast.Interstate 44 had a crash were a person died and State Highway 51 near Sand Springs had fatal crash that resulted in three deaths.A major winter storm is sweeping across the central United States rapidly on Christmas Eve Thursday, prompting the governor of Oklahoma to declare a statewide emergency. "I am urging all Oklahomans to take winter storm precautions and stay off the roads unless travel is absolutely necessary," Brad Henry, the governor, said in a statement. Blizzard warnings were issued for parts of Oklahoma, Texas, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). "Anyone with travel plans over the Christmas holiday period should keep up to date with the latest weather information," it said in an online statement. Tornado watches were issued for southern Louisiana, Mississippi and southwestern Alabama. A Louisiana man was killed Thursday when strong wind caused a tree to fall on his house. Flooding was reported in and around Little Rock, Arkansas, after heavy rain fell throughout Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Flood watches, warnings and advisories have been issued for much of Missouri and Illinois, where several inches of rain is causing flooding in streams and rivers. The inclement weather is the second major storm system to hit the United States in a week. Last weekend, a major snowstorm blanketed a swath of the U.S. east coast in snow, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights.
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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