Feared by his people, his neighbours and the West, Russia’s President Putin is ruthlessly rebuilding the Soviet Empire. The tragedy, as he hosts his country’s first ever G8 summit this week, is that we are letting it happen.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — By wasting little time withdrawing troops from northern Gaza over the weekend after a two-day operation, Israel made clear it did not want to get bogged down in territory it quit less than a year ago.

DAMASCUS (AP) — Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in the Syrian capital Monday in a government-sanctioned protest to support Palestinians in the Gaza Strip under attack following last month’s capture of an Israeli soldier.

BEIRUT — Rarely have Western news organisations wooed Arab hearts and minds so avidly — or with so little certainty of political or commercial reward.

KUWAIT CITY (AFP) — Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah approved Monday a new 16-member Cabinet that remains dominated by the ruling family despite the opposition’s victory in June elections.

BAGHDAD — While condemning in public the sectarian death squads that gunned down 40 people on Sunday in a Sunni part of Baghdad, some Iraqi Shiite leaders say in private retaliation for Sunni insurgent bomb attacks is understandable.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union hopes for a substantive response from Iranian nuclear negotiators on Tuesday regarding a package of incentives offered to Tehran as a way of ending the standoff caused by its nuclear programme, an official said.

OCCUPIED  JERUSALEM (AP) — The two most powerful players in the violent standoff over the capture of an Israeli soldier offered up sharply differing visions Monday on how to resolve it.

Vice-president of CRI, the Military Amir Abdallah Shamil Abu-Idris (AKA Shamil Basayev) has officially thanked the Iraqi Mujahideen for elimination of a group of Russian diplomats the spies in Bagdad, the Kavkaz Center has learned. In the telegram for mass media, Basayev specifies:

SANAA (AP) — Nineteen alleged Al Qaeda members accused of plotting to assassinate Westerners and blow up a hotel used by Americans were acquitted by a judge who also exonerated some of fighting US troops in Iraq.