Financial times, By Roula Khalaf, The newly built stone mansions in the village of Kfar Jos symbolise the changing fortunes of Lebanon's Shia community, the country's largest minority sect. Nestling at the edge of the town of Nabatiye, known as the Shia capital of southern Lebanon, Kfar Jos's landscape has been transformed by a wave of immigrants who brought home part of the wealth earned in Africa and America.

At Nabatiye town hall, officials say almost every family in this part of the Lebanon has a member working abroad, their remittances helping to lift the living standards of one of the country's most deprived regions. They proudly list the social and economic achievements, including the establishment of 16 bank branches, five hospitals and more than 15 schools.Signs of the Shia community's political empowerment are visible too, with posters of revered political chiefs plastered all over town and in surrounding villages.

Among them is the late Musa Sadr, the charismatic leader who was the first, in the 1970s, to assert the Shia's political rights and fight discrimination by the then dominant Sunni Muslims and Christian Maronites.

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By Lin Noueihed , BEIRUT (Reuters) - Rival politicians resumed talks on Friday to end Lebanon's political crisis but were unlikely to decide to dismiss the president or agree on the fate of Hizbollah's weapons. The "national dialogue" conference, the first top-level political gathering since Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, was adjourned on April 3 with a promise to lay to rest a dispute over whether Emile Lahoud should stay or go.

Lahoud has been under pressure to resign from politicians, who see him as the last vestige of Syrian tutelage that ended a year ago. The president, who has appeared relaxed and assertive on television in recent weeks, has so far refused to step down.

Parliament chooses the president in Lebanon, but political sources say that even the anti-Syrian bloc, which won a majority in the 128-seat house in May-June elections, has been unable to agree on its own preferred candidate let alone one that would be acceptable to other deputies. That being the case, the sources envision two scenarios.