Opposition rallies in Lebanon to counter Hezbullah rally

An even more massive rally occured in Beirut yesterday as the anti-Syrian opposition movement gathered over 800,000 people in responseto a huge pro-Syrian rally organised by the Hezbullah party last week, which attracted 500,000 people and to demand an international inquiry into the assassination of former Prime minister Rafiq Hariri.
With both pro-Syrian and anti-Syrian opposition mustering hundreds of thousands of Lebanese to take to the streets in protests and express their differing views passionately, it's becoming even harder to determine what the situation is there, except to say that the atmosphere is highly charged and there are fears that a civil war is looming in the near future.

Chechynan rebel leader and former elected president Aslan Maskhadov was killed after a firefight with Russian forces. Known as a moderate,as opposed to extremist, leader who was willing to negotiate peace terms with Russia, his death signifies the ruthlessness of Russian forces as they continue to try to crush the Chechynan resistance and reconquer this breakaway "nation" which declared independence from Russia in 1994.