LEBANON: Seeing the bad moon rising
Wissam Sharaf is not the kind of guy you'd welcome to your neighborhood, or to your city or country, or even the one next door, for that matter.
World-weary at 34, the television journalist is a veteran of conflicts and strife in Pakistan, Liberia and the Darfur region of Sudan. This year he's moving from France to his native Lebanon. And not because he wants to get closer to his family roots.
"Now I want to come to Beirut," Sharaf tells me, smirking. "Because I think it's gonna move."
Dark clouds loom on Lebanon's horizon. In the streets, young men gather weapons. Off the Mediterranean shore, U.S. warships have approached for the first time since the 1980s. The Shiite militia Hezbollah boasts that it has rearmed in preparation for the next round of conflict with Israel.
— Borzou Daragahi in Beirut
Photo: Lebanese protesters burn tires during a demonstration over power cuts in the southern suburb of Beirut earlier this year. Credit: ANWAR AMRO/AFP/Getty Images
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