DAMASCUS (AFP) — When Hizbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah launched “Operation Kept Promise” the day after his fighters captured two Israeli soldiers to use in a prisoner swap, little did he know the same name would be bestowed on a newborn refugee girl two weeks later in Damascus.

UNITED NATIONS — The Israeli air strike on the Lebanese town of Qana may be part of a larger pattern of violations of international law in the war between Israel and Hizbollah, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report.

TYRE — In his spacious sun-splashed apartment in Tyre’s old city, surrounded by a dozen grandchildren and feasting on generous portions of lamb, Tawfiq Bahr, like many of his Shiite brethren, has seen his lot improve since his youth.