All the Beirut news.

Washington's and Tehran’s allegations against each other have a curious symmetry. Each side blames the other for causing unrest in the region. Both huff and puff through the media. They make arrests. They claim confessions. They point to unspecified evidence,...

By Usama Rheda in Baghdad Even in the middle of a war, nothing will keep students from their prom. The graduating class at the University of Technology threw a party to remember this year. Of course in Baghdad, no one...

by Michael J. TottenMoment of Truth in Iraq, by Michael Yon (Richard Vigilante Books, 227 pp., $29.95)

Army Sgt. Victor M. Cota, 33, of Tucson, Ariz., died Wednesday in Baghdad of wounds suffered Tuesday when his vehicle encountered a roadside bomb in Kadamiyah, Iraq, the Defense Department has announced. He was assigned to the Special Troops Battalion,...

President Bush received several rousing standing ovations during his speech Thursday to the Israeli Knesset. Not everyone was quite as enthused. Several Arab Knesset members staged a walkout before the speech, and one Palestinian activist angrily dubbed his speech "a...

Human rights advocates have decried the apparent arrests this week of six leaders of Iran's embattled Bahai community. Rights groups say Fariba Kamalabadi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Saeid Rezaie, Behrouz Tavakkoli and Vahid Tizfahm were all unofficial leaders of Iran's...

Pity Amr Moussa. For months the dour Arab League secretary-general shuttled between his Cairo home and the Lebanese capital in a futile attempt to get Lebanese factions to talk, only to walk away in abject failure. Then along came a...

Joshua will be away this week. I will be posting a series of contributions from our readers. Alex  Syrian Media – The Challenge and the Need to Act  by Averroes With the latest events in Lebanon, Saudi channel Alarabiya is again doing what it does best, inflaming Arab public opinion against Shiites, Syria, and the [...]

Cpl. Miguel Angel Guzman was the last to be buried of the four Marines killed by a roadside bomb in Karma on May 2. He was laid to rest Wednesday at Rose Hills Memorial Park, south of Los Angeles. Sgt....

During their regular visits to the far-flung U.S. military bases across Iraq, the generals commanding American forces here usually give handshakes, cigars and perhaps one of their personal collector's coins to a few soldiers chosen to be honored for special...

By Tony Badran (cross posted at Across the Bay)Two excellent items in NOW Lebanon:One, a superb piece by Michael Young on the repercussions of Hezbollah's mad, and failed, coup attempt on the Lebanese Shi'a. It's really a must read (and you can see echoes in Abu Kais' moving post yesterday).

Thank you Hezbullah: now we understand who you are; your disrespect for politics and freedom of speech (etc., etc.) are now self-evident.

Did Samir Jaja give up on sectarian politics and murder, and go in for the international telephony business?

For Hizballah, the prospect of exiting this most severe of crises with anything resembling a positive [let alone a victory], seems dauntingly distant. As the dust settles, Lebanon’s besieged (literally!) government remains in place, its fortitude continuously reinforced by the common disgust felt across the nation at the fact that the Iranian-backed group turned its [...]

By Tony Badran (cross-posted at Across the Bay)In three years, since the murder of former PM Rafik Hariri, Hezbollah has attempted three coups — and failed.On March 8, 2005, Hezbollah thought that by rallying supporters they would nip the independence movement in the bud, maintain the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, and move on as though nothing happened.One week later, March 14 happened, in large part as a reaction to Hezbollah's rally. It secured the expulsion of the murderous Assad regime's occupying force.Then in 2006, with the July war and its aftermath, especially the movement in December 06-January 07.