{"id":663,"date":"2008-05-18T12:00:51","date_gmt":"2008-05-18T17:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/?p=663"},"modified":"2008-05-18T12:00:51","modified_gmt":"2008-05-18T17:00:51","slug":"news-and-analysis-517-1808","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/?p=663","title":{"rendered":"News and Analysis (5\/17-18\/08)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hezbollah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s recent tour de force in Beirut has helped reignite political talks in its favor\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2008\/05\/17\/AR2008051701292_pf.html\">Hezbollah Emerges in Forefront of Power in Lebanon<\/a> (Washington Post)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6however, its victory comes at a very high price, as sectarian flames re-ignite with a new intensity:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.voanews.com\/english\/2008-05-16-voa58.cfm\">In Lebanon, Sectarian Tensions May Endure Even if Political Deal is Reached<\/a> (Voice of America)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Egypt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s civic movements seek to gain steam going digital, but Cairo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Leviathan state is there ready to crackdown:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/story\/2008\/05\/17\/ST2008051702711.html?hpid=topnews\">Fledgling Rebellion on Facebook Is Struck Down by Force in Egypt<\/a> (Washington Post)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Economic concerns in the Middle East provide traction for Islamists to gain further ground at the grassroots level and in the ballot box:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/nationworld\/world\/la-fg-food18-2008may18,0,3333384,print.story\">Food Crisis Creates an Opening for Muslim Fundamentalists<\/a> (Los Angeles Times)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/middle_east\/7406082.stm\">Islamists Dominate Kuwait Polls<\/a> (BBC News)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Part of a larger counterterrorism strategy with Taliban militants, Pakistan secures the release of its ambassador after three months of capture\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2008\/05\/18\/world\/asia\/18pstan.html?_r=1&#038;oref=slogin\">Militants Free Ambassador of Pakistan in Exchange<\/a> (New York Times)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 meanwhile, Pakistan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lawyer movement aims to ratchet up the pressure after disappointment with politicians\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 failure to restore the judges:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/wiredispatch.com\/news\/?id=173621\">Lawyers Up Pressure On Pakistan Coalition Over Judges<\/a> (Reuters\/Wiredispatch)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hezbollah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s recent tour de force in Beirut has helped reignite political talks in its favor\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Hezbollah Emerges in Forefront of Power in Lebanon (Washington Post) \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6however, its victory comes at a very high price, as sectarian flames re-ignite with a new intensity: In Lebanon, Sectarian Tensions May Endure Even if Political Deal is Reached (Voice [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}