Tear gas and flying flag sticks

After what seemed like a fairly inflammatory speech by some political big cheese at the end of the otherwise-uneventful funeral of the recently assassinated Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan, an odd combo of hard-line Sunni and right-wing Christian groups (for anyone wondering why these two make odd bedfellows check here) made a rush for the Serail (the Lebanese government's Whitehall, I guess) and had it out with the army and police who were guarding it. Sticks and stones versus tear gas wasn't really a fair fight, but I guess they started it. As an aside,  for any one with a stuffy head, tear gas, it seems, is great for clearing sinuses once you get passed the whole retching confusion thing.

There's a few more here too.

Picking up the pieces

I missed the fighting in Tripoli on Saturday but on Sunday, myself and colleagues Josh Wood and Zak Brophy went to sift through (almost still smoldering) the rubble. We saw residential apartments in both neighbourhoods that had been wrecked by RPG/Energa fire, with people from both sides claiming that the other was entirely to blame.  

This scenario is old news here, these neighbourhoods have been fighting for years. However, the current conflict in Syria has given them yet another reason to have at it, and sadly, likely the the funds to do so too. During the Civil War Lebanon was a sandpit in which the world waged its wars; it'll be a sad day if this becomes the case again.