Lebanon

, -- At least six people were killed Friday in heavy clashes between sectarian factions in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli, medical sources said. An additional 50 people were wounded as gunmen from the Sunni Bab Tibbaneh district and the Alawite Jabal Mohsen area of Tripoli fought. Residents fled as the fighters exchanged machine-gun and grenade fire. At least 19 people in the mostly Sunni city have died in the last two months in sectarian violence linked to Lebanon's political troubles.

When it comes to strange Middle East bedfellows, Lebanon's latest political partnership may be the most unlikely: The leader of one party has a reputation as a playboy with ties to neoconservatives in the Bush administration. The other group is widely viewed as a community of extremists whose puritanical strain of Sunni Islam inspired Osama bin Laden.

A Lebanese man accused of planting faulty suitcase bombs on two German trains was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to life in prison. Youssef Mohamad Hajdib, 24, was one of two main suspects accused of planting the bombs at Cologne's main station in July 2006. The bombs' triggers went off, but the explosives did not detonate and no one was harmed. Hajdib was arrested the next month in the northern German port city of Kiel; another suspect, Jihad Hamad, fled to his native Lebanon and has been sentenced to 12 years in prison there.

When the warlord finally tried to repent, no one would accept his apology. They'd already formed their opinion of Samir Geagea, once the leader of a fearsome Christian militia. His supporters loved him regardless of what he did. And his rivals and enemies would never see him as anything but a caricature of the excesses, brutality and impunity of Lebanon's civil war. But there are twists to Geagea's tale.

Lebanon chose its first ambassador to Syria, the latest step toward normalizing relations since the neighboring countries agreed this year to establish diplomatic ties. Information Minister Tarek Mitri made the announcement after the Cabinet approved the nominee. He told reporters the government would not disclose the ambassador's name until Syria had approved the choice. Lebanese TV stations, however, reported that the position will go to Michel Khoury, Lebanon's ambassador to Cyprus.

As Hala Haddad watched thousands of families return to their towns and villages in southern Lebanon last summer after a devastating war between the Islamic militant group Hezbollah and Israel, she remembered the night she was forced to flee her home. After bombing intensified over their village, her father summoned Haddad and her four siblings to leave everything behind and run away. An 11-year-old then, she had to walk for miles, as her tiny, slippered feet swelled with pain.

Protesters blocked roads around Beirut and other regions to enforce a general strike aimed at toppling the government. The opposition, led by Hezbollah and its allies, set out early to burn tires on major highways north and south of the capital and on a road around downtown Beirut, sending black smoke billowing into the sky. Army forces and fire engines moved in to remove the obstacles.

Hezbollah and its allies paralyzed Lebanon on Tuesday, sending thousands of demonstrators to seize control of major roads, brawl with government supporters and choke the seaside capital in the acrid smoke of burning tires. The swift seizure of the country's roads took many here by surprise, and marked a major escalation in the militant group Hezbollah's campaign to overthrow Lebanon's U.S.-backed government.

By the time morning commuters headed off to work Wednesday, the fires had been snuffed out. The roadblocks had melted away. The rampaging youths who had been burning cars and choking off the nation's roads seemed to have evaporated.

Tensions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims churned in the Lebanese capital Thursday as armed clashes at a university killed at least two people and overflowed into surrounding neighborhoods. Hours after dark, the army imposed an overnight curfew in an effort to restore order. Community leaders took to the airwaves to soothe their followers' inflamed emotions.