Friday, September 11, 2009 WASHINGTON: The US Coast Guard, on high alert for the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, fired 10 rounds on a suspicious boat on the US capital's Potomac River, a US news channel reported Friday.It was not immediately clear if the boat posed any danger to Washington, as President Barack Obama for the first time led ceremonies to mark the eighth anniversary of the attacks.The vessel was challenged in a restricted part of the river, adjacent to the Pentagon where Obama was attending a ceremony to mark the 2001 attacks, the channel said.Contacted by a foreign news agency the coast guard said they could not immediately confirm the incident, and were checking the details. Police declined any comment saying they were not handling the situation.
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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