political nonsense

Israel’s army left all of south Lebanon except for one small border village on Sunday, as part of a handover to the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers.
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China pledged to increase its peacekeeping presence in Lebanon to 1,000 troops.
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Israel’s cabinet on Sunday approved the appointment of an investigative committee nominated by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to examine how the government and military managed the recent war in Lebanon.
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Israel lifted its eight-week-old maritime blockade of Lebanon on Friday.
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The UN reported that Israel has committed seventy violations since the ceasefire with Lebanon was reached. Hezbollah has committed four.
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International experts are predicting it could take Lebanon 10 years to clear the country of unexploded cluster bombs used by Israel.
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Israel rejected a call by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to lift its air and sea blockade of Lebanon, saying it would only end the seven-week-old siege once all aspects of a cease-fire were in place.
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The UN’s humanitarian chief accused Israel of “completely immoral” use of cluster bombs in Lebanon. UN clearance experts have so far found 100,000 unexploded cluster bomblets at 359 separate sites, Jan Egeland said.
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UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said it was time for Israel to lift a “humiliating” blockade on Lebanon.
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Lebanese are split over United Nations demands for the disarmament of Hezbollah following the month-long war between Israel and the Shiite militant group, a poll found Monday.

The poll conducted by a local company called IPSOS found 51 per cent of Lebanese supported the group’s disarmament, while 49 per cent are against it.
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The European Union pledged up to seven thousands troops for an expanded UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon.
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Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has admitted he would not have ordered last month’s capture of two Israeli soldiers had he known Israel would have responded as it did. In an interview with Lebanese TV, Nasrallah said:

“We did not think, even one percent, that the capture would lead to a war at this time and of this magnitude… Had we known that the kidnapping of the soldiers would have led to this, we would definitely not have done it.”

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The U.S. State Department has begun investigating Israel’s use of U.S.-made cluster bombs in southern Lebanon.
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UNICEF is warning that Lebanon’s water infrastructure has been largely destroyed makign a major obstacle for people to return home. Water and sanitation systems were badly damaged in Israeli air strikes across southern Lebanon. A water and sanitation specialist from UNICEF said

“I have never seen destruction like this. Wherever we go, we ask people what they need most and the answer is always the same: water.”

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France agreed to send 2,000 soldiers to keep the peace in Lebanon.
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A report by the human rights organization Amnesty International accused Israel of deliberately attacking civilian targets during the recent conflict in Lebanon, the UN reported that Israel dropped cluster bombs on at least 170 villages and other places in south Lebanon, many of which have yet to explode, the UN Development Agency is reporting that Lebanon’s 15-year economic and social recovery from civil war has been wiped out over the past month, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora accused Israel of breaking the 10-day-old ceasefire, and France demanded that Israel lift its blockade on Lebanon.
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President George W Bush has announced that the US is to boost its aid package to Lebanon to $230m, up from the previous pledge of $50m. The pledge includes 25,000 tonnes of wheat.
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Helicopter-borne Israeli commandos landed near the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek on Saturday and engaged in a lengthy firefight in what the Lebanese prime minister, Fouad Siniora, called a “flagrant violation” of the cease-fire brokered by the United Nations.
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Hundreds of Israeli Army reservists have signed a petition criticizing the military’s top brass for failing to clearly define the goals of the war. The reservists wrote

“The heavy feeling is that in the echelons above us there is nothing but under-preparation, insincerity, lack of foresight and inability to make rational decisions. It leads to the question: were we called up for nothing?”

Many critics of Olmert are calling for the establishment of a state commission to investigate the government’s handling of the war.
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Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has pledged new furniture and a year’s worth of rent to some 15,000 families whose homes were destroyed. The funding will come from Iran. Meanwhile, Lebanese aid officials are complaining over a lack of funding from the US government.
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