... Syria's conflict into Lebanon could "end very badly" and suggested some Western states were playing a double game by calling for peace but supporting rebels seeking President Bashar Assad's ouster. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Western and Islamic countries should increase pressure on Assad's armed opponents to stop attacks and try to avert what he said were deliberate efforts to sow discord between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. "There is now … a real threat of the conflict spilling over...

... said the men had identified themselves as members of Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov's security service. Kadyrov issued an angry statement earlier this week in which he accused Khasavov, who hails from Chechnya, of provoking Muslims and damaging Islam. Arslan Khasavov said Friday that his family was being threatened. "We receive threats, although not from serious people," he told the Rapsi news agency. He refused to elaborate. Khasavov did not confirm a report by the BBC's Russian...

... "rip his legs off." "You're going to crawl around on two hands, you understand?" she says. The video then cuts to a group of men arriving to the scene in a car. Soon after, a fistfight breaks out. News reports said Mingayeva's son Islam was among the group that came to the scene. In an interview Thursday with Russian News Service radio, StopKham leader Ilya Fadeyev said the group was satisfied with the results of the incident, and implied no legal action would be taken. "Our...

... Russian statehood, would issue a statement in reaction to Khasavov's words. Unfortunately, the only response came from church spokesman and archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, who offered the following tolerant words: "There is no reason to limit the Islamic community's ability to live by its own rules." As for Khasavov's appeal to establish Sharia courts, they already de facto exist in the Caucasus. No one in Russia, the United States, France or elsewhere can deny any two Muslims the right to...

... boasted before the onslaught of the civil war in 1992, which razed two-thirds of the city. They all charge the equivalent of about $1 per ticket. Later the Taliban banned cinema, music and television outright during their five-year rule, deeming them un-Islamic and ending a rich tradition in a country that started showing films in the 1920s during the rule of King Amanullah Khan and shot its first movie in Lahore in 1951. Now Afghan directors are desperately trying to salvage what is left of their industry...

... what will happen after NATO troops are gone. Few believe that there will be any kind of peace in Afghanistan after NATO forces leave. Civil war and unrest could easily spread to the Central Asian republics, and that means a wave of refugees, as well as Islamic radicals, could soon spill into Russia. If Moscow needs a pretext to criticize the West, it should focus on Afghanistan, not missile defense. In place of pointless bickering over what the U.S. missile defense system might be able to accomplish...

... According to DNV, an organization that classifies ships, giving them documents necessary for insurance, the Alvan changed names and owners three times since 2011. Until February, it was owned by Statira Maritime, a firm listed by the EU as a front for the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, which is subjected to EU sanctions. Since then, the ship has withdrawn from DNV classification, instead listing on the Russian Maritime register with new owners. SYRIAN CRUDE Syria's own crude exports, while small...