IT’S over a month since the last democratically elected president of Chechnya, Aslan Maskhadov, was murdered by Russian forces.

Israel’s attack on Syria will enhance the country’s role in the Middle East, instead of diminishing it as the Israelis seek, Syrian President Bashar Assad said today.

A Lebanese boy was killed early today in an explosion near the border with Israel, hours after an Israeli soldier was killed in a cross-border shooting.