Wednesday, November 25, 2009 LA PAZ: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Bolivia for a short visit Tuesday on the second leg of a Latin America tour of three leftist nations sympathetic to his administration. President Evo Morales greeted Ahmadinejad at the airport with full military honors before accompanying to the center of La Paz. There, a small group of feminists held a protest over Iran's treatment of women in front of the presidential palace as Ahmadinejad and Morales headed inside for talks. The leaders oversaw the signing of a deal that would see Iran involved in mining research in Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni, a vast salt desert near the Chilean border that holds half the world's known reserves of lithium -- a key mineral used in rechargeable batteries for cell phones, laptops and electric cars. French, Japanese and South Korean companies are competing to invest in the area, estimated to contain up to 100 million tons of lithium. The Iranian leader began his itinerary on Monday in Brazil, where his host President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva reiterated support for Iran's controversial nuclear energy program.
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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