QALQILYA: A Hamas militant was killed and two Palestinian policemen were injured in exchanges of gunfire in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Sunday, Palestinian security officials said. The clashes erupted when security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, which administers the West Bank, raided a neighbourhood in the city of Qalqilya to arrest gunmen of the rival Hamas group, which rules the Gaza Strip. The officials named the militant as Mohammad Yasin and said policemen were combing the area in a search for more gunmen. Witnesses said several Hamas gunmen holed up in buildings had ignored calls to surrender.
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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