negotiating settlements [but not for your mom]

WP: Hezbollah seizes "most of Beirut"
Pro-government politicians criticized the army for not doing more to counter opposition forces. Hezbollah and the allied Amal movement remained in control of the capital's streets and maintained a presence in many West Beirut neighborhoods whose residents are mainly government supporters...Lebanon has many armed groups, but Hezbollah is the only officially sanctioned armed force besides the military. The movement repeatedly has vowed to use its arms only against Israel, but the events of this week seemed likely to undermine that assurance...The army had issued a statement saying the fighting had compromised its unity. Soldiers were intervening only to contain clashes and negotiate settlements between fighters."
Gdn: Hezbollah announces it will cede West Beirut to Army

NYT: in another city across the way, truce approved for Sadr City by Sadr's militia and parliament

LAT: PKK launches attack on Turkish military base, at least 20 die

LAT: Burma continues to export rice, distribute rotting food to cyclone survivors
BBC: appropriately, mock referendum held despite hellish conditions

NYT: Tsvangirai will return to Zimbabwe for runoff election

Gdn: Q&A on Serbian elections tomorrow
Radicals are ahead in polls

BBC: former column of Tamil Tigers preparing for election run, with party Tamil People's Liberation Tigers
"'We were trying to get a separate state for ourselves with guns in our hands,' [former child soldier and party leader] Pillaiyan told the BBC.
'Despite all our efforts we couldn't get a proper solution for our Tamil people, an independent state for them. So we left the Tamil Tigers, our responsibility is to the Tamil people. We want to do better for them through the political process.'"
BBC: meanwhile, the LTTE sinks ship hours before voting begins

BBC: Sudanese rebels, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM, from Darfur), just outside Khartoum

Reason: how expensive Iraq really is, and how the administration hides it
WP: the politics of the military: Army Chief Liaison to Pakistan replaced because of public protest over his involvement in Guatánamo

NYT: Russia parades its military, "in echo of Soviet days"
WP: speaking of the Cold War, US and Russia each expel military attaches and diplomats
[for no discernible reason from the article]

BBC: gender politics in Spain and Italy

Washington Monthly: "confessions of a former sweatshop inspector"

Reason: recommendations for dealing with inner city crime from Ed Burns (creator of The Wire)
no. 1? "end drug prohibition."

WP: Republicans hate mothers [this really happened]