MOSCOW – President Vladimir Putin’s chosen successor, Dmitry Medvedev, will win 71 percent of the votes in March’s Russian presidential election, state-owned pollster VTsIOM predicted on Thursday.

BEIRUT – Lebanon’s prime minister said on Thursday that an Israeli report on the war against Hezbollah guerrillas in 2006 set the scene for a possible future conflict and failed to address “Israel’s crimes against Lebanon”.

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan – A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque in southern Afghanistan on Thursday killing a deputy provincial governor and at least five other people, officials said.