Monday, September 21, 2009 SRINAGAR: Residents of restive held Kashmir jammed the markets on Sunday in defiance of a rise in violence to stock up for Eid al-Fitr, the biggest Muslim festival marking the end of Ramadan.The festival to celebrate the close of the holy month will be held Monday or Tuesday, depending when the new crescent moon is sighted over the region where Islamic militants have been fighting against New Delhi's rule for 20 years.Shopkeepers set up extra kiosks to cater for the mad shopping rush.Hundreds awaited their turn outside the city's well-known confectionery shops and customers filed past with pastries and walnut cookies.Meanwhile, mosques and shrines have been spruced up for tens of thousands of worshippers.
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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