Free Republic

Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad arrived in Lebanon on Wednesday to a hero's welcome and blaze of fanfare that belied the country's rising intercommunal tensions and Western misgivings about his visit. Shouts of "khosh amadi" ("welcome" in Persian) and showers of rice, sweets and petals greeted the Iranian leader as he waved to crowds from an open-topped car after arriving in Beirut at the beginning of a two-day trip. It's Ahmadinejad's first visit to Lebanon, where Iran has cultivated close relationship with Hezbollah, the Shi'ite Islamist group that fought a bitter five-week conflict with Israel in 2006. He was expected to...

An anti-Syrian Lebanese opposition alliance won the final phase of a parliamentary election in a landslide on Sunday, giving it a clear mandate to steer Lebanon out of Syria's shadow.An unofficial count for north Lebanon showed an alliance led by Saad al-Hariri sweeping all remaining 28 seats, while its rivals conceded they were heading for defeat.The ballot, staggered by region over four weekends, is the first for three decades with no Syrian military presence, after Damascus pulled its troops out in April."Final results show that we are ahead and show that the people have voted for change," Hariri, son of...