Carpet-bagging politicians rolled up in Mercedes cars with tinted windows, alongside turbaned Shia clerics and baggy-trousered Druze elders.

ECONOMIST: Israel��s mess in Lebanon

And the health centre in Kongho may never be completed, because someone appears to have trousered the government allocation for building it.

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During the meeting the 65-year-old was hailed as "the red-trousered wizard of democracy" by councillor Simon Cook, leader of the Liberal Democrats in the city.

BBC: George Ferguson