Sunday, August 09, 2009 BEIJING: China's state news agency says a plane has been hijacked in the restive western region of Xinjiang, which was rocked by ethnic riots last month.China’s official News Agency did not give any details about the hijacking in a brief report Sunday.A man on duty at the government office in Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital, said he had not heard about the hijacking.The region saw the worst ethnic violence in China in decades last month when deadly rioting in Xinjiang's capital of Urumqi killed 197people and injured more than 1,700, according to official count.The government said the violence was the work of terrorists, separatists and foreign forces as part of a plot to carve up China.
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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