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ing three years ahead of schedule after its current minority government, made up of Germany's main national opposition parties, narrowly failed to get a budget passed in March.
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• TRIPOLI, Lebanon (AP) -- Sectarian violence linked to the unrest in neighboring Syria shook the

northern Lebanese city of Tripoli on Sunday, with the state news agency reporting a soldier and two civilians killed in the street clashes.
• The fighting highlights how easily trouble in Syria can raise tensions in Lebanon, with which it shares a complex web of political and sectarian ties and rivalries.
• Residents say gunfire broke out in the city Saturday and continued through the night primarily between a neighborhood populated by Sunni Muslims who hate Syrian President Bashar Assad and another area with many Assad backers from his Alawite sect.
• Lebanon's national news agency NNA said one soldier was shot dead by a sniper in the city early Sunday. Another man was found dead on the side of a road while a third died after a shell landed in a residential neighborhood.
• An Associated Press reporter in the city said the Lebanese army sent reinforcements to the city, but that gunmen still patrolled the streets and intermittently shot at each other with automatic rifles. Heavier weapons, like rocket-propelled grenades, have also been fired.

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