BEIRUT – Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah vowed on Friday to avenge the assassination of his senior commander Imad Moughniyah and threatened to deal Israel a crushing blow if it attacked Lebanon again.

Putin introduced the 42-year-old Medvedev to leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) as “one of the candidates” in the March 2 election, but left no doubt he was more than that.

MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday promised to end the almost daily violent attacks in Moscow on migrant workers from the former Soviet states.

BELGRADE – The U.S. embassy in Serbia ordered on Friday the departure of support staff and dependents of diplomats after a mob attacked the mission the day before, a spokeswoman said.

LONDON – Lawyers for five Iraqis have accused British soldiers of mass executions and torture and called for a police investigation into an “atrocious episode” in British army history.

Embattled Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said in a column published on Friday that he was ready to work with the newly elected parliament to fight terrorism and build a stable democratic government to promote long-term economic growth.

BRUSSELS – The European Commission said on Friday it was awaiting responses from Poland and Romania to charges that they hosted CIA prisons where al Qaeda suspects were questioned and guards used methods akin to torture.

ISLAMABAD – A roadside bomb ripped through a vehicle carrying a wedding party in Pakistan’s northwestern valley of Swat on Friday, killing 13 people, officials said.

The parliament of the Serb Republic adopted a resolution late on Thursday branding Kosovo’s declaration of independence an illegal act that violated Serbia’s territorial integrity.

FALLUJA, Iraq – A suicide bomber killed six policemen and wounded nine on Friday when he detonated a vest packed with explosives outside a mosque in Falluja, a mainly Sunni Arab city west of Baghdad, police said.