Syria’s government cracked down on democratic protesters in the city of Hama on Sunday, leaving as many as 130 dead, according to activists there. Tanks and troops entered the city early Sunday morning, in a brutal show of force just as the holy month of Ramadan begins. There’s further tension in the Middle East this week, as Egypt’s former President Hosni Mubarak, his two sons and seven associates, will begin trial on Wednesday in Cairo for charges of corruption and ordering the killings of protesters. The trial will be televised. And in Libya, rebel commander Abdel Fattah Younes was shot dead Friday by Islamist-linked militia. Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat professor for peace and development at the University of Maryland, talks about the news coming out of the Middle East.
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