Thursday, October 15, 2009 WELLINGTON: An earthquake of magnitude 6.0 struck off the South Pacific island nation of Samoa on Thursday, seismologists reported, two weeks after a violent quake caused a tsunami that devastated Tonga, Samoa and American Samoa. No immediate tsunami alert was issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii following the quake, which struck at 6:00 am (1800 GMT Wednesday) at a narrow depth of 10 kilometres (six miles). The epicentre was 365 kilometres southwest the Samoan capital of Apia, the US Geological Survey said.
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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