Pro-West bloc retains control in Lebanon

Lebanon’s pro-Western bloc will retain its control of the country’s government despite a strong challenge from a Hezbollah-dominated alliance, according to official election results released Monday. The “March 14” coalition won 71 seats in Lebanon’s parliament, while the Hezbollah-dominated “March 8” alliance won the remaining 57 seats, Lebanese Interior Minister Ziad Baroud announced

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Obama Calls for New Beginning Between U.S., Muslims

— Quoting from the Quran for emphasis, President Barack Obama called for a “new beginning between the United States and Muslims” Thursday and said together, they could confront violent extremism across the globe and advance the timeless search for peace in the Middle East.

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Obama using online tools to advance Cairo speech

A day before President Obama was to give a widely anticipated speech in Cairo, Egypt, the administration was using online networking tools to further reach out to the Muslim world. “In the spirit of engagement, we invited the international audience to submit comments via text message,” reads a page at America.gov, which will begin posting messages as soon as Obama’s speech begins, about 6:10 a.m. ET Thursday.

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Egyptians await Obama, saying, ‘It can’t all be rainbows and roses’

Languishing in a Cairo prison last year, a prisoner noticed that every day, the prison staff would clean the adjacent cell, even though there was no one in it. Why, the prisoner asked his guards, did they do it It’s for Barack Obama, they responded.

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Commentary: Obama must speak to young Muslims

In his speech Thursday to the Muslim world from Egypt, President Obama must seize the moment to stress that the U.S. is not at war with Islam, to appeal to millions of young men and women burdened by economic hardship and political oppression, and to help broker an Arab-Israeli peace settlement

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Time to Face Facts on Our North Korea Ignorance

It’s not what we know about rogue states and their nuclear bombs that should scare us — it’s what we don’t know. North Korea’s test of a nuclear device on Monday may not have come as a surprise to Washington, but only in the sense that Washington knew Pyongyang was defiant enough to set one off.

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