WORLD / Middle East
Car bomb kills anti-Syrian MP, 9 others in Beirut
(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-06-14 09:11
BEIRUT - A powerful car bom
Sports / Other Sports
Indonesia book Sudirman Cup semis berth
(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-06-14 09:44
Indonesia booked a place in the semi-finals of the Sudirman Cup world
team tournmament with a 4-1 win over Hong Kong on Wednesday. Winners of
the inaugural tournament in 1989 but unsuccessful since, Indonesia rested
Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat but replacement Sony Dwi Kuncoro obliged
by ousting Wei Ng 21-16 15-21 21-17.
Unbeaten South Korea, who overcame Indonesia 3-2 in earlier group action
on day one, seek to secure their slot in the last four later on Wednesday
when they play Denmark.
Holders China are already through and England play Thailand on Thursday
with the remaining semi-final position at stake. China are hot favourites
to retain the title but Indonesian doubles player Candra Wijaya, a winner
against Hong Kong, told reporters: "We have not come here just to take
part."
A total of 48 nations, split into six divisions, are contesting the event
but only countries in the top division play for the Cup itself.
In the final in 2005, China beat Indonesia in front of an 18,000 crowd to
lift the trophy for the fifth time.
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WORLD / Middle East
Arab League to hold Mideast crisis talks
(AFP)
Updated: 2007-06-15 01:01
Arab foreign ministers will hold an extraordinary meeting in Cairo on
Friday to discuss the violence in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, a league
official told AFP.
Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa attends a meeting at the Arab
League headquarters in Cairo, 2006. Mussa called for an immediate halt to
deadly infighting in the Gaza Strip, warning of the danger it poses to
the Palestinian cause.[AFP]
"We will hold an extraordinary meeting on Friday to examine the situation
in the Palestinian territories and in Lebanon," Hisham Yussef, Arab
League Secretary General Amr Mussa's chief of staff told AFP late
Wednesday.
Yussef said the meeting -- initially scheduled for Saturday -- had been
brought forward because of the severity of the situation.
On Wednesday, Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora called for crisis
talks to discuss the murder of MP Walid Eido, a vocal critic of the
Syrian regime, who was killed along with his eldest son, two bodyguards
and six other people in a seafront bomb blast.
In the Gaza Strip, fierce gunbattles between loyalists of president
Mahmud Abbas' Fatah party and supporters of the Islamist Hamas movement
have killed more than 70 people in three days and were continuing in Gaza
City on Thursday.
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b killed anti-Syrian Lebanese lawmaker Walid
Eido and nine other people on Wednesday in an attack his allies blamed on
Damascus.
A soldier secures the area next to a burnt car after an explosion in
Beirut, June 13, 2007. [Reuters]
A parked sports utility vehicle packed with 60 to 80 kg (132 to 176 lbs)
of explosives blew up as Eido's car was driving away from a Beirut beach
club, a senior security source said.
One of the parliamentarian's sons and two bodyguards were among the dead.
At least 11 people were wounded.
Eido, 64, belonged to the majority anti-Syrian parliamentary bloc of Saad
al-Hariri, which controls the government.
A Sunni Muslim lawyer, he had been a foe of Syrian influence in Lebanon
and an ally of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, who was
assassinated by a suicide truck bomber in February 2005.
Eido was killed just three days after a UN Security Council resolution
came into effect setting up an international tribunal to try suspects in
Hariri's assassination.
"This crime is a clear message from the Syrian regime to Lebanon in
response to the establishment of the international tribunal," Saad
al-Hariri's coalition said in a statement.
Hariri says Syria was behind his father's killing and later attacks.
Damascus denies involvement. Including Eido, seven anti-Syrian figures
have been slain in Lebanon since 2005.
"It is the same fingers that assassinated the martyred premier Rafik
al-Hariri," Hariri said of Eido's killing.
There was no immediate comment from Syria. Its allies in Lebanon
denounced the assassination.
"Big, ugly cloud"
The blast, near a seafront amusement park and a football club, destroyed
several cars and shattered windows of nearby buildings. It hurled the
bodies of Eido and his son over a wall and into the football ground,
witnesses said.
Two players in the Nejmeh football team, which is in Lebanon's top
league, were among those killed.
"It sounded like it was in your backyard," said Herbert Lahout, 45, a US
citizen who had been playing volleyball on a nearby beach. "It was like a
mushroom cloud, a big ugly cloud."
Five less powerful bombs have exploded in and around Beirut in the past
month, killing two people.
Eido's death was likely to fuel tension between the government and the
pro-Syrian opposition led by the Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah group, which
has condemned the killing.
Condemnation also came from the United States, France, Britain, the
European Union and the United Nations.
"There has been a clear pattern of assassinations and attempted
assassinations in Lebanon since October 2004," US President George W.
Bush said. "Those working for a sovereign and democratic Lebanon have
always been the ones targeted."
"The United States will continue to stand up for Lebanon, its people, and
its legitimate government as they face these attacks," he added.
The Beirut government declared Thursday, when the funerals were due to
take place, a day of national mourning.
"Lebanon and the Lebanese will not submit to terrorism," Siniora said
after an emergency cabinet session.
He said the government was asking the UN commission investigating
Hariri's assassination to help with the inquiry into Eido's killing and
add it to the tribunal's work.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the Lebanese government to bring
the perpetrators to justice.
"When Lebanon's people are going through a democratization process, this
kind of heinous terrorist attack to assassinate political opponents is
just unacceptable," he added.
The UN Security Council, in a policy statement initiated by France,
condemned "any attempt to destabilize Lebanon through political
assassination or other terrorist acts."
Tension was already high in Lebanon, where the army has been battling al
Qaeda-inspired Islamist militants at a Palestinian refugee camp in the
north for more than three weeks.
Hariri's bloc linked Eido's assassination to the clashes with Fatah
al-Islam, saying these were "two sides of same coin which is the
terrorism of the Syrian regime."
Damascus denies any links with Fatah al-Islam.
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