These political maneuverings unfold against a backdrop of sectarian violence that the police call the worst since 1981, when Catholics rioted in support of hunger-striking Republican prisoners.
What followed were a succession of delays, against a backdrop of sectarian violence and warnings that Kirkuk could blow apart the Shiite-Kurdish alliance that has governed Iraq since the Americans invaded.
She hoped to write a simple romantic story, but it shaped out to be a relationship drama in the backdrop of sectarian violence.
The Protestant parades, which drew about 30,000 marchers, took place against the backdrop of heightened sectarian violence in Belfast.
The violence came amid the backdrop of worsening sectarian tensions in Homs, which is populated by a Sunni Muslim majority and a minority of Alawites, a heterodox Muslim sect from which Mr. Assad draws much of his leadership.
His poetry takes place both against the backdrop of Irish sectarian violence and in the glare of "that cold intense/English light"; his feeling of displacement between the two places described in lean, simple phrases".Love's Bonfire", his latest collection, is no less stark.
Sunni Muslim tribal leaders in Iraq are demanding a federation that would give them greater control of their own affairs against the backdrop of increased sectarian violence.
Mr Obama's new chief of staff is Jacob Lew, his budget director.Living in violent timesAgainst the backdrop of an increase in sectarian strife, strikes and disturbances spread across Nigeria as people protested against a cut in fuel subsidies that, since the new year, has doubled the cost of petrol.
While mainstream journalists have dutifully documented the ongoing sectarian tensions, they have largely forgotten the backdrop to these events.
It is not just that these elections are technically sound: unlike the much-hailed polls in Iraq in the last decade, they are not taking place against a backdrop of civil war and military occupation, or with the sectarian calculations that have defined Lebanon's elections.
