To the Point

Lebanon's Government Resigns

Two weeks after the assassination of his predecessor and with 25,000 thousand demonstrators in the streets of Beirut, Lebanon's Prime Minister announced the end of his government. On Lebanese Radio, Omar Karami said he did not want to be an "an obstacle to peace." Meantime, the crowds are demanding pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud resign and that Syria withdraw its troops from Lebanon, as required by a UN Security Council resolution. Will regime change occur without violence? What's the role of American pressure? We hear from a political analyst in Beirut, Middle East experts from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Southern California, and a veteran State Department official who's served throughout the Middle East Making News: Massive Suicide Bomb Kills More Than 100 Iraqi Police The deadliest single insurgent attack of the war in Iraq struck in Hilla today, 60 miles south of Baghdad. At least 115 people were killed and 132 wounded at a busy market and an office where police recruits were waiting for physical examinations. From Baghdad, where he reports for Newsweek, Babak Dehghanpisheh updates today's events, including the arrest of one of Saddam Hussein's half-brothers. Reporter's Notebook: How Serious Is the Threat from Avian Flu? The World Health Organization and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are warning that the avian flu, recently found in Asia, could mutate to spread among humans and become a pandemic, killing millions of people worldwide. Is that sound science? In today's Los Angeles Times, Wendy Orent, author of Plague: the Mysterious Past and Terrifying Future of the World's Most Dangerous Disease, writes that bird flu isn't the peril it's made out to be.