Pro-Syrian elected Lebanese parliament speaker

Lebanon’s newly-elected parliament re-elected a pro-Syrian, Nabih Berri, as speaker today in a move seen as a political compromise by the anti-Syrian coalition which won the recent elections, the first conducted without Syrian influence in 30 years.

The parliament voted 90 in favour of Berri in a secret ballot. Another 37 MPs in the 128-member legislature cast blank votes in what was seen as a protest against Berri.