Three Story Sunday

Lebanon is heating up.

Lebanese soldiers deployed in the northern city of Tripoli on Sunday after fierce battles between rival clans as the Hezbollah-led opposition handed over control of west Beirut to the army.

The Arab League was set to hold emergency talks in Egypt on the crisis amid regional Sunni Muslim fears about Shiite Iran's influence in divided Lebanon.

A security official said fierce battles erupted overnight in Tripoli between Sunni supporters of the Western-backed government and members of an Alawite sect loyal to Hezbollah, which is backed by both Syria and Iran.

One woman was killed and at least five people were wounded as thousands fled the clashes . The fighting eased by mid-morning and the army was able to enter the affected areas.

Many homes and businesses in districts where the battles raged were torched, shop windows were broken and bullet casings littered the streets, AFP correspondents reported.

Residents of Tripoli could hear heavy machine gun fire and the thump of exploding rocket-propelled grenades throughout the night.

Going to get worse before it gets better?

Somalia still trying to exist.

Fifteen men and one woman sat on the floor of a sunlit room. It was hot. Many people were sweating. The elders of the Ayr clan had called a political meeting, and very quickly it was clear that their attitudes toward the nation's newly empowered transitional government were unanimous — and bitter.

"The government is weak," said Mohammed Abdi, an Ayr elder. "We can't support it."

Somalia, which has been an archetype of Africa's ills for so long, has waited 16 years for this government. The United Nations has invested millions of dollars into propping it up. American officials are so intent on its succeeding that, in the interests of regional stability and counterterrorism, American forces have ventured onto Somali soil for the first time in more than a decade to hunt down the last of the Islamist leaders who held a firm grip on much of the country until just a few weeks ago.

Peace in the Middle-East? How about peace in Somalia?

Sudan cuts ties with Chad.

Sudan says it has cut off diplomatic relations with Chad, blaming it for helping rebels from Darfur to launch an attack on Sudan's capital, Khartoum.

Both Chad and Jem rebels deny working together to launch the assault on the Khartoum suburb of Omdurman, which the rebels say they have taken control of.

The government said the rebel advance, the closest they have come to Khartoum, had been defeated.

An overnight curfew imposed on Khartoum has been lifted, but not in Omdurman.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir made the announcement that his country was breaking off diplomatic ties with Chad on state television.

"These forces [behind the Omdurman attack] are all basically Chadian forces supported and prepared by Chad and they moved from Chad under the leadership of [rebel chief] Khalil Ibrahim," President Bashir said in his televised statement.

How can things get worse in that region?

Just another Mother's Day.