Shortly before the fire they had broken up a loyalist blockade near the Quinn house, and protesters ran off into the darkness.

ECONOMIST: From forward march to retreat

He was shot at a house in Summer Street in the loyalist Oldpark area of north Belfast on Wednesday night when his 12-month-old child and girlfriend were inside.

BBC: Tight security as feud tensions high

Meanwhile, in another sign of the Waxman ascendancy, President-elect Obama has named Philip Schiliro, a Waxman loyalist and his former chief of staff, as the new White House director of Congressional relations.

WSJ: The Waxman Democrats

Both Shia and Sunni voters largely backed respective Islamist parties, whose influence the king then diluted by filling the upper house of parliament, whose seats he appoints, with loyalist liberals, including a Christian and a Jew.

ECONOMIST: Trouble in Bahrain