Friday, September 11, 2009 HOUSTON: The first two opportunities to land the space shuttle Discovery were abandoned Thursday due to thunderstorms and high winds around the landing site in Florida, NASA said. "We know everyone worked it as hard as they could," shuttle commander Rick Sturckow told mission control when informed of the decision to wave off for the night. "We will look forward to trying again tomorrow." Discovery and its seven-member crew will try another attempt to return to Earth on Friday, the 14th day of a mission to the orbiting International Space Station.
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...
Comments