BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said Saturday that nations with military ties to Israel must not be part of the UN peacekeeping force that will police a truce along Lebanon-Israel border.

MARJAYOUN (AFP) — “God bless them, they are coming to protect us,” said south Lebanon resident Mohammed as government troops proudly waving national flags took up position in the Hizbollah stronghold in the first such operation in decades.

Envoy says Israeli soldier could be exchanged for 600 Palestinian prisoners PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday armed groups had agreed to stop firing rockets into Israel from Gaza, but fighters said such a move would be dependent on Israel halting its offensive.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Car bombs killed 10 people in Baghdad on Thursday as violence persisted in the capital despite the US-led security crackdown. Two more American soldiers were killed in combat, the US command said.

HALOUSIYA — Stoic and unflinching, clutching a yellow and green Hizbollah flag, Yehya Mouanis stood by his brother and sister’s sides until the last smattering of soil filled their grave.

KHARDALI (Reuters) — Lebanese troops deployed in south Lebanon on Thursday, linking up with UN peacekeepers to take control of Hizbollah strongholds as Israeli forces pulled back after their 34-day war with the fighters.

  Iran’s state television today said the military would launch a series of large-scale exercises on August 19. State television quoted army deputy commander General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani as saying that the upcoming maneuvers “aim at introducing Iran’s new defensive

Rafiq Qori Kamoluddin, the prominent ethnic Uzbek religious leader who was killed during a security raid in southern Kyrgyzstan on August 6, is not the first imam to have been targeted by law-enforcement agencies in the region. Several other Uzbek imams have been persecuted before. But he is the first …

August 17, 2006 — The Moscow city court has sentenced the former head of security at the bankrupt oil firm Yukos to 24 years in prison for a series of contract killings. Aleksei Pichugin is already serving a 20-year sentence on charges of organizing several murders,

 Rome/Brussels: The European Commission said yesterday it was closely following Russian gas monopoly Gazprom’s cooperation deal with Algeria’s Sonatrach after Italy said it could lead to higher gas prices in Europe.