Hezbollah Blocks Jihad Azur's Bid for President

Berlusconi's death is clearly a hugely important moment for Italy and for Italians because he was a deeply divisive figure. On the politics side, the most likely scenario is that his party will somehow wither away and its MPs will likely join other parties. For the business side, instead, it's interesting that chairs in MFE jumped by as much as 10% because traders are speculating that his death will hasten the possibilities of a merger or a sale of the family business. To Lebanon, an estate of political paralysis now in its eighth month, Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah armed movement is set to torpedo an attempt to elect a senior IMF official as president this week.