Lebanon Explodes

(Newser) - Portfolio profiles Saad Hariri, the billionaire who now leads Lebanon's pro-Western majority party and America's last, best Middle Eastern hope. Hariri, pulled into politics when his former-PM father was assassinated in 2005, spends most of his days barricaded inside his Beirut mansion, trying to avoid being murdered by Hezbollah guerrillas. More »

(Newser) - The complex political crisis in Lebanon deepened yesterday when a Christian opposition candidate  defeated a  pro-government former president in a special parliamentary election—one of two held to fill seats of anti-Syrian politicians assassinated last year. Ex-president Amin Gemayel, a key player in the US backed majority coalition, was running for the seat left vacant by the murder of his son More »