Thursday, November 26, 2009 LONDON: Around 150 people have been forced to abandon their homes after a huge fire broke out at a building site and engulfed adjoining buidlings in Peckham, south east London. London Fire Brigade said around 150 firefighters were tackling the blaze which is covering an area half the size of a football pitch. Residents from flats in several nearby three to four-storey buildings and a pub were moved out amid fears that the fire on the neighbouring construction site was spreading to their properties. However, the blaze, which was reported just before 4.30am, has since taken hold of the pub and maisonettes on Sumner Road and Rosemary Road. One person has been taken to hospital suffering from the effects of breathing in smoke. Their condition is understood not to be life-threatening. Ambulances are on standby but no other casualties have so far been reported from the blaze.
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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