Friday, October 23, 2009 SYDNEY: A 6.0-magnitude quake hit the Santa Cruz islands in the South Pacific on Saturday, US seismologists said, but there was no immediate warning of a tsunami.The quake struck at a depth of 35 kilometres (22 miles) almost 390 kilometres north-northwest of Luganville on the island of Santo, part of the Vanuatu archipelago, at 2:14 am (1514 GMT Friday), the US Geological Survey said. No tsunami warning was immediately issued as a result of the tremor, which followed a series of huge quakes last week that triggered a region-wide tsunami alert. The Pacific is still recovering from an 8.0-magnitude earthquake and huge tsunami that crashed into Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga on September 29, wiping out villages and resorts and killing 184 people.
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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