UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday called on Lebanese leaders to hold a presidential election on time next week and said the successor to the pro-Syrian incumbent should enjoy broad support.

A Somali Islamist commander, thought to be Al Qaeda’s man in Mogadishu, has ordered his fighters to attack African Union (AU) peacekeepers in rare taped comments intended to bolster an anti-government insurgency.

Lebanon’s powerful Maronite patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir has been thrust to the forefront of a bitter struggle between pro- and anti-Syrian political camps as a line for a presidential election looms.