Under the gaze of an Israeli tank, Syrian bulldozers slice through rocky terrain to build roads just inside a ceasefire line separating the occupied Golan Heights from the rest of Syria.

Russia said on Wednesday the landmark Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) must be replaced with a formal, binding pact when it expires in 2009 and not the informal arrangement that the United States proposes.

Russia’s top general said on Wednesday compromise proposals Washington has offered to Moscow on its planned missile defense shield were not constructive, local news agencies reported.