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...then dominated Lebanon. Since Syria disengaged from Lebanon in April 2005 following mass street protests, Suleiman has steered an even course amid feuding Lebanese factions. His priority has been to preserve the integrity of the Lebanese army, widely regarded as almost the only functioning state institution. Suleiman's profile rose considerably last summer when the army engaged in a bloody three-month battle against the Al-Qaeda-inspired Fatah al-Islam faction in north Lebanon. But during the recent street battles in Beirut, Suleiman studiously avoided deploying the army against the warring parties, worried that the military could unravel along...
...other as Iraq's two main Shi'ite power players. In the early days of the occupation, Sistani's call for calm undoubtedly allowed American troops to avoid fierce resistance to their presence in southern Iraq. But Sistani's repeated appeals for peace lost their weight as sectarian violence rose in Iraq, with Sadr leading the Mahdi Army militia in an inexorable year-long quest for Shi'ite revenge following the bombing of a revered shrine in Samarra in early 2006. As a result, Sadr, a mere cleric, towered as the most powerful Shi'ite figure in Iraq, eclipsing...
...cost of nuptials isn't a bad one to check--particularly in our party-obsessed culture--because it shows what people are willing to spend on nonessentials. According to the Wedding Report, a research firm that compiles stats on the wedding industry, the average cost of an American wedding rose to $28,732 in 2007, as the festivities have grown increasingly elaborate and personalized. But for the first time in almost a decade, that number is forecast to drop slightly this year, to $28,704. Nearly half of caterers and event planners surveyed by the National Association of Catering Executives...
...also put an end to cheap credit. Mortgage lenders were happy to coddle British homeowners with easy money during the boom years, helping to push the rate at which U.K. house prices rose over the past decade far higher than economic drivers like income growth and low interest rates could justify. Now banks are throttling back. They have slashed the range of available mortgages and cut the amount they'll lend relative to the value of a property; no more can U.K. customers borrow more than a home is worth, as many had done...
...series of interest-rate cuts by the Bank of England since December has so far failed to tame mortgage interest rates; the average rate on a two-year fixed deal with a modest deposit rose to 6.94% in April from 6.6% the previous month. Annual inflation in the U.K. hit 3% in April, well beyond the government's 2% target, making further cuts soon highly unlikely. The central bank offered in late April to swap around $100 billion of lenders' old mortgage debt for safer government bonds, but the effect on the housing market has been muted. "It certainly...