Day-by-day: Lebanon crisis - week three BBC News
A day-by-day look at how the conflict involving Israel and Lebanon is unfolding in its third week.

• Day-by-day: Week one
• Day-by-day: Week two

SUNDAY 30 JULY
Dozens of people are reported to have been killed or injured in an Israeli air strike on a building housing civilians in the southern Lebanese town of Qana. In Beirut, hundreds of protesters stage a violent demonstration, attacking the UN building and chanting slogans against the US and in support of Hezbollah. Hezbollah guerrillas meanwhile battle Israeli ground forces that have made a fresh incursion into southern Lebanon. Israeli naval vessels fire shells into the hills to support ground forces. Hezbollah's TV station says the group has fired more rockets into Israel. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to meet Israel's defence and foreign ministers in an apparent effort to rally support for the deployment of a large UN-backed peacekeeping force in the region.

SATURDAY 29 JULY
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice returns to the region. She is expected to lobby for a UN Security Council resolution that would lead to an international force being deployed in southern Lebanon. Without specifying, Ms Rice said that she was about to enter intensive difficult negotiations that would require hard and emotional decisions for both Lebanon and Israel. Israeli officials tell the BBC that Israel may be willing to stop fighting as soon as a UN resolution is passed next week - before the arrival of any new peace force - and that they will not insist on Hezbollah disarming first. In more raids, a Lebanese mother and her five children are killed in a new wave of Israeli air raids in southern Lebanon, Lebanese medics said. Israeli forces withdraw from the southern Lebanese village of Bint Jbeil - a Hezbollah stronghold - which they had been trying to take for some days and where they sustained their heaviest one-day losses since the campaign began. An Israeli air strike closes the main border crossing from Lebanon into Syria, witnesses and officials say. Missiles hit the road between the two states' immigration posts, but apparently on the Lebanese side. A separate Israeli strike wounds two UN monitors in their observation post, the UN says, days after four were killed. This follows a warning by the UN that the killing of its observers on Tuesday may deter countries from contributing to a future peacekeeping force. The UN says children, the elderly and disabled people have been left stranded and supplies are "running out very, very fast" in southern Lebanon and calls for a three-day truce to let aid in. But an Israeli government spokesman says there is no need for a temporary ceasefire because Israel has opened a humanitarian corridor to and from Lebanon. In a new television message, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah says more central Israeli cities would be targeted if the Israeli offensive continues.

• Israeli army relatives speak
• Mercy mission into Beirut
• Bush-Blair axis solid

Annan calls for action

FRIDAY 28 JULY
US President George W Bush says an international force must be quickly despatched to Lebanon, to bolster the Lebanese army and help distribute humanitarian aid. After talks in Washington with UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Mr Bush says the US and UK want to achieve a "lasting peace" in the region, but neither leader calls for an immediate ceasefire. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will return to the region on Saturday, Mr Bush says, ahead of a UN Security Council meeting on the crisis next week. A US state department spokesman dismisses an Israeli suggestion that it has the world's authorisation to continue bombing Lebanon as "outrageous", insisting the US is doing all it can to bring an end to the conflict. The UN calls for a 72-hour truce in the conflict zone to allow humanitarian aid in and to get casualties out. Israel carries out dozens of fresh strikes on Lebanon. Lebanese officials say at least 12 people are killed. Hezbollah fires a barrage of more than 100 rockets into northern Israel. It says it has made its deepest strike into the country so far with a new long-range rocket called the Khaibar-1. Israeli police confirm an attack by a previously unknown rocket near the town of Afula. Two mortar rounds strike a convoy of vehicles carrying civilians escaping the violence in southern Lebanon, wounding two people travelling in a German TV car. The Israeli Defence Forces say they do not believe the mortars were theirs. The UN announces plans to relocate unarmed observers from their post along the Israeli border to positions manned by Unifil, the UN peacekeeping force.

• Bush aims for rapid Lebanon force
• UN calls for humanitarian truce
• US 'outrage' over Israeli claims

Video - Blair and Bush news conference in full

THURSDAY 27 JULY
Israel says the decision in Rome not to call for an immediate ceasefire indicates backing from world powers for the offensive to continue. The Israeli security cabinet decides to call up more military reserves to refresh troops fighting in southern Lebanon but rules out widening the military offensive. Israel launches further air and artillery attacks on suspected Hezbollah targets, while fighting continues around the Hezbollah stronghold of Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon. More rockets are fired into northern Israel by Hezbollah militants despite warnings from the Israeli army that any village from which rockets are launched will be totally destroyed. Al-Qaeda deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri warns al-Qaeda will respond to attacks on Muslims in Lebanon and Gaza.

• Israel says world backs offensive
• Al-Qaeda 'to avenge Israel deeds'
• Israeli press says fight must go on

Video - Al-Qaeda video

WEDNESDAY 26 JULY
EU and Arab states, together with the US and Russia, agree at talks in Rome to work towards a ceasefire with "utmost urgency", but stop short of calling for an immediate truce. A joint statement backs the idea of an international force with a UN mandate. It says a ceasefire must be "lasting and sustainable", reflecting the US position. An initial UN report into the deaths of four UN observers says the UN repeatedly urged Israel to stop firing in the area around its post before a rocket landed on the site. Israel describes the event as a "tragic mistake". Nine Israeli soldiers are killed and 22 injured in fierce fighting around the town of Bint Jbeil, a strategically located Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon. It is the biggest Israeli loss of life since the conflict began. Another dies in the nearby village of Maroun al-Ras. In Gaza, at least 23 people are killed in Israeli air strikes, medical sources say, and Israeli tanks move back into the north of the Gaza Strip.

• Agencies struggle to provide aid[list]
• High death toll in Gaza clashes

Video - The UN post

Dr Mahathir Mohamad Tells World To Use Dollar Weapon To Pressure Washington:

Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad Saturday urged countries in the world to stop using the US dollar in their international trade in order to pressure Washington to end its support for Israel's savage attack on Lebanon.
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=211207

Hamas, Hezbollah don't make Russia's terrorist list:

Russia on Friday published a list of 17 groups it regards as terrorist organizations, but did not include the Palestinian militant movement Hamas or Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrilla group, both regarded as terrorists in Washington.
http://www.brandonsun.com/story.php?story_id=26713

Mexico rally to demand vote recount:

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the candidate who claims he was robbed of victory in Mexico's contested presidential election, is preparing to lead a protest rally to press for a vote-by-vote recount.
http://tinyurl.com/f2nkh

Ill Castro Steps Down Temporarily, Says Cuba CBS 4
In an unprecedented announcement, the Cuban government announced Monday night that Fidel Castro was temporarily giving up power to his brother and Vice President Raul, due to surgery for an illness he developed while traveling to Argentina. This is the first time Castro has turned over power to anyone since taking control of Cuba in 1959. The announcement was made at 9:15 Monday night on Cuban Television, monitored in Miami. A spokesperson for the Cuban government made the announcement, which came in the middle of a newscast. There was little advance notice of the special announcement. The announcement ended with a screen showing Castro’s signature, making the order official. Little information was given about the details of Castro’s illness. The statement, read by Carlos Balanciaga, said Castro requires several weeks of rest. Balanciaga also announced that Castro was turning over his functions in the area of health care and education and as head of the national energy program to other Communist party and government figures. The announcement said that the operation was filmed and that all the medical records including endoscopy, x-rays, and others exist but did not specify if they would be released. Balanciaga said the Communist Party has to stand firm to defend the revolution threatened by Washington. Balanciaga said Castro would be out of public life for two months, during which time Raul Castro, designated as his brother’s successor, would have complete control of the country. The announcement was met with shock and surprise in Miami, home of the largest Cuban exile population in the world. Joe Garcia, a director of the Cuban American National Foundation, said he believed the Cuban government is not revealing all it knows about Castro’s illness. Garcia says he believes this may be Cuba’s first attempt at a transition of power to Raul Castro, the official plan for Fidel Castro’s departure from power. Castro, the longest serving leader in the longest in the world, is just 14 days from celebrating his 80th birthday August 13th. The nation had been getting ready for the event, preparing for parties and celebrations to celebrate the day. The announcement Monday asks that the celebrations planned for his 80th birthday August 13 be postponed until December 2, which is the anniversary of the Cuban Armed Forces. Castro has been rumored for years to be ill. In 2001, he fainted after a 7 hour speech in the hot sun. In 2004, he tripped and fell in public, and was out of public view for a week. In 2005, the CIA reported it believed Castro suffered from Parkinson’s Disease, a claim Castro himself denied, but then said he wouldn’t care if he had it; he pointed out Pope John Paul II suffered from Parkinson’s, and he still managed to travel around the world.
By Maggie Rodriguez
Fidel Castro Places Brother In Charge During Surgery All Headline News
Castro undergoes surgery Reuters
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Life after Qana Salon
Human Rights Watch will issue a formal accusation of war crimes against Israel later this week, but the bombing will resume Wednesday. The Israeli bombardments were so intense that it took rescue teams eight hours to reach the southern Lebanese village of Qana yesterday. They found a three-story building collapsed sideways by missiles fired by Israeli planes and 54 people, including 27 children, crushed to death. The hours that followed were the stuff of nightmares: hardened Red Cross workers in tears, fighting for breath; body after body pulled, with bare hands, from the rubble of the reinforced basement; little corpses wrapped in plastic, tied at head and foot and laid side by side.Not one of the dead was a fighter, and no arms were found in the building. Locals denied Israeli claims that Hezbollah fighters had been firing from Qana. It just wasn’t true, they said. "America is responsible for this!" The Israelis, meanwhile, claim more than 150 rockets have been fired from Qana. On Sunday night the Israel Air Force chief of staff showed reporters video footage of what he said was Hezbollah fighters driving rocket launchers into Qana after use.
By Julie Flint
Israeli cabinet approves wider ground offensive CTV.ca
Diplomacy Efforts in Middle East Take on Greater Importance Voice of America
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Israel says no cease-fire yet Chicago Tribune
Rejecting calls for a quick end to the fighting in Lebanon, Israel early Tuesday said it would expand its ground offensive against Hezbollah after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ruled out an early cease-fire. After meeting late into the night, the Israel security Cabinet voted to approve further ground incursions into southern Lebanese villages that Israel says have served as bases for Hezbollah, a government official said. The Israeli Defense Forces already have called up thousands of reserve soldiers for such an operation, and military planners have said they want to establish a 1.2-mile buffer zone north of the border that would be free of Hezbollah fighters. Earlier, as thousands of Lebanese refugees streamed north in hopes of escaping the violence, Israel sharply scaled back air strikes and Hezbollah limited its rocket fire on Israeli villages, making Monday the quietest day since the start of the 20-day-old Israeli campaign. More than 500 Lebanese and 51 Israelis have been killed since the fighting began. The scale-back came after Israel, pressed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, agreed to suspend air attacks for 48 hours, except against imminent threats, as it investigated a strike on the south Lebanese village of Qana on Sunday that killed more than 50 Lebanese civilians, most of them women and children. Olmert expressed regret for that incident Monday. "I am sorry from the depth of my heart for the civilians, adults and children who were killed in the village of Qana," he said. "We were not looking to hurt them, we did not want them to die. They were not our enemies—and were not a target of our planes." The decision to expand the ground offensive was a blow to diplomatic negotiations to end the fighting. Before leaving Israel for Washington, Rice told reporters that she would take to the United Nations "an emerging consensus on what is necessary for both an urgent cease-fire and lasting settlement. I am convinced we can achieve both this week." But Olmert, who is under domestic pressure to show results from the Israeli offensive, rejected any imminent stop to the campaign until two Israeli soldiers are freed by Hezbollah and the militant group has been pushed away from the Israeli border. "There is no cease-fire and there will be no cease-fire in the coming days," Olmert said in a speech. "We are fighting against unrestrained terrorists, and we will not stop the war against them until we remove them from our border." A participant in the late-night security Cabinet meeting told the Associated Press that the Israelis also would resume air strikes "in full force" after the 48-hour suspension expires on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. The participant added that the security cabinet rejected any idea of a cease-fire until an international force is in place in southern Lebanon. Defense Minister Amir Peretz also ruled out an immediate cease-fire and said Israel would broaden its offensive in Lebanon. "A humanitarian gesture is not supposed to harm the aims of the operation," Peretz told parliament. "The Israel Defense Forces will broaden and deepen its activities against Hezbollah. … There must be no agreement to a cease-fire that will take effect immediately." Despite the general suspension of air activity, Israeli ground incursions and artillery strikes continued Monday in southern Lebanon, and armored bulldozers destroyed Hezbollah positions near the border with Israel. Israeli aircraft struck near Taibe after three soldiers were wounded when an anti-tank rocket hit their armored vehicle, the army said. An air strike on a car carrying Lebanese soldiers near the port city of Tyre killed one serviceman and wounded others, the Israeli army and Lebanese security officials said. The army expressed regret over the incident, saying the car was believed to have been carrying a senior Hezbollah member. A third strike hit a truck carrying arms near Lebanon's border with Syria, the army said. In southern Lebanon, roads from villages into the port city of Tyre and heading north were clogged with refugees fleeing the battle zone as a 24-hour safe-passage arrangement went into effect. Tens of thousands of people trapped by the fighting took advantage of the respite to escape, emerging dazed from the buildings where they had been sheltering for days and streaming onto cratered roads in tractors, trucks, buses and cars. Some people walked from the worst hit villages, because there were no undamaged vehicles or fuel available. More than 300 people, many of them elderly, walked three hours from the heavily damaged town of Bint Jbeil, scene of the fiercest battle of the war, to a hospital in Tibnin, where they boarded buses sent by a Lebanese charity to take them to Sidon. "It was the resistance capital, now it is the capital of destruction" said Ibrahim Dagher, who walked to Tibnin with three of his children, his wife and 40 relatives. "We were shelled and rocketed day and night. Many dead people are still under the rubble." The only passable route north from Tyre to Sidon, a dusty back road winding through orchards, was clogged with packed vehicles, all flying white flags despite the promise by Israel that airstrikes would be suspended. In one yellow taxi lay a wounded, bearded young man who appeared to be a Hezbollah fighter. The Lebanese government estimated 35,000 people were on the move across the south, most of them trying to flee the area but some of them attempting to return home to check on their property. Aid convoys trying to seize the opportunity to take needed supplies to the south were held up by the traffic, and one food convoy headed for Qana was unable to reach its destination because of an 8 mile backlog of traffic jamming the narrow road south, according to the World Food Program. In the village of Shihin, just north of the Israeli border, there were scenes of chaos as people tried to cram into vehicles to escape what they said was a night of shelling, possibly by artillery, that occurred after the announced suspension of aerial attacks. "They hit us; they destroyed our home," said Nimr al Turki, who was driving a tractor piled with 26 relatives and neighbors, most of them children and elderly. All had been sheltering in his home when its top floor was hit by a shell the previous night. "We crawled out of the rubble," he said. Most of those who have not fled the fighting until now were the poorest of south Lebanon's poor, the elderly and the infirm, who had no access to their own transportation and could not afford the prices being charged by taxis. Many of the back roads were eerily deserted, winding through abandoned, devastated villages. In a reminder of the dangers of attempting to flee, the wrecks of burnt out vehicles littered many routes. Aid workers found the charred body of a man, ejected from his car by the force of an explosion, lying in a field. According to UN estimates, up to 900,000 Lebanese have been displaced by the fighting. Taking advantage of the lull in air strikes, Lebanese Red Cross teams escorted by UN observers went to the village of Srifa to dig up what are believed to be more than 50 bodies still buried under rubble since an Israeli strike wiped out an entire neighborhood on July 19, the Associated Press reported. Israeli officials say villages such as Srifa were attacked after Hezbollah guerrillas fired rockets from them at Israel and used houses for shelter and as storage sites for rockets.
By Joel Greenberg <jogreenberg@tribune.com> and Liz Sly <lsly@tribune.com>
Bombing reprieve lets innocent flee Advertiser Adelaide
Israeli PM Says No Cease-Fire Coming Now Forbes
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Israel has lost the war on every front Kazinform, Kazakhstan
At this stage in the war with Hezbollah, Israel cannot achieve anything except further international condemnation together with visceral hatred from Arabs and Muslims everywhere. There are few in the Arab world today who are in the mood for forgiveness and reconciliation after they have gazed in disbelief at tens of tiny corpses being unceremoniously thrown into mass graves, including a one-day-old baby whose parents didn’t even have time to give her a name; KAZINFORM quotes Linda Heard, sierra12th@yahoo.co.uk During an emergency summit held in Rome, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora was driven to ask delegates “Are we children of a lesser God? Is an Israeli teardrop worth more than a drop of Lebanese blood?” Israel’s Defense Minister Amir Peretz wants America’s blessing to continue hostilities for a further ten to fourteen days. He might have got it except for the Israeli bombing of Qana that took the lives of 60 civilians, including 37 children. He may still. Qana had already entered the Lebanese lexicon as a euphemism for “massacre” following a devastating Israeli strike on that southern Lebanese village in 1996. The resulting carnage was thought to have triggered a close to Israel’s Operation Grapes of Wrath. It is understandable, therefore, that incensed Lebanese demonstrators sought to trash the United Nations headquarters in Beirut, although such behavior cannot, of course, be condoned. After all, their government had been begging that body for a cease-fire for weeks to no avail. This is because the US has staunchly refused any condemnation of Israel, leaving the world body open to criticism of being ineffectual, America of extreme pro-Israel bias and Britain of being led by the nose. As messages of condolences and outrage flooded in from nations around the world on Sunday, Lebanese officials told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to cancel a scheduled visit to Beirut unless she came armed with an immediate unconditional cease-fire. The time for toothy smiles, kisses and crocodile tears is over. The strongly (or perhaps formerly) pro-American Lebanese prime minister told CBS, “The Israelis are committing state-sponsored terrorism”. In a total departure from the Bush party line, Siniora heaped praise on Hezbollah’s fighters and its leader Hassan Nasrallah “who are sacrificing their lives for the sake of Lebanon.” It is in the Bush administration’s interests to see Hezbollah pummeled and rendered impotent. Rather than perceive the conflict in the context of feuding neighbors, the US has deliberately subsumed it into its “war on terror”. To this end, Bush and his British sidekick have branded Hezbollah a terrorist organization that must be stamped out in order to birth “a new Middle East” — one in which feuding states live contentedly under the American/Israeli boot. Now that Siniora has given Hezbollah legitimacy by publicly patting on the back, Bush will increasingly find this argument a hard sell. Although I should add Fox News viewers and their ilk have already bought into it hook, line and sinker. A new “terrorist” foe was thought to be just what the doctor ordered for George W. Bush’s dwindling popularity rating. Bin Laden has disappeared into the ether. Saddam Hussein awaits the outcome of his kangaroo trial in an American jail. Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi was duly assassinated and his so-called successor spotted in an Egyptian prison where he’s been languishing for the past six years. The new foe had to be destroyed and humiliated so that the policies of the self-acclaimed leader of the free world could be seen to be working. Unfortunately for Bush, Hassan Nasrallah doesn’t exactly fit the bill. He’s too softly spoken for one, doesn’t engage in outlandish rhetoric or speak longingly of Islamic caliphates from Spain to goodness knows where. Instead, he represents over 40 percent of all Lebanese, so if he’s a terrorist they must be too. Moreover his people haven’t been producing snuff videos when corpses are divorced from their heads. Those pesky Europeans haven’t been much help either. They’ve refused to add Hezbollah to their list of terrorist groups, and so has Russia. Israel’s inability to crush what its spokesmen inevitably refer to as “Khizbollah” has further ruined Bush’s plan. The Israelis were meant to pull a quick, decisive victory out of their hat. After all, they have had years of experience fighting militant groups in occupied Palestine. And, most importantly, they are the ones with the big American bombs, the deadly American F16s and Apache helicopters and the impervious American tanks. Yet almost three weeks into the conflict, Hezbollah is still firing an average of 100 rockets into northern Israel each day and has driven a succession of elite Israeli units out of its southern strongholds. The resistance has further downed an Israeli drone and several helicopters, not to mention achieving a direct hit on an Israeli warship. The result has opened a can of worms. Israelis commentators are turning on their military, accusing it of being ill prepared and ill trained. Defense officials fret over Israel’s diminished deterrent capability. The Bush brigade is said to be disappointed at Israel’s military ineptitude and embarrassed by its attacks on civilians. The international community is up in arms over Israel’s brutality and America’s intransigent stance in the face of calls for an immediate cease-fire. Syria, once considered an irrelevance or even “a low-hanging fruit” has re-established its importance in the region with all roads once again leading to Damascus. The Palestinians have been reinvigorated by Hezbollah’s military successes and progress toward their state has adopted a renewed sense of urgency. As for Hezbollah fighters, they have achieved an almost mythical quality throughout the Muslim world due to their stealth, stoicism, self-discipline and courage under fire. Most importantly, Israel has unwittingly opened up a discussion that was verging on taboo in mainstream Western media. In yesterday’s Guardian, David Clark writes: “How can ‘terrorism’ be condemned while war crimes go without rebuke?” How indeed!However, the outcome of this conflict isn’t ready to be written in stone. With its back against the wall there is a danger that Israel will embark on a scorched earth policy in southern Lebanon. Alternatively, Syria and Iran could get dragged in when Bush’s evangelical support base will merrily prepare themselves for “end times” rapture. The most favorable outcome for Lebanon would be an unconditional cease-fire followed by a prisoner exchange, a return of Sheba Farms to Lebanon and a non-NATO international force with a UN mandate swiftly brought in to police a cordon sanitaire. For Israel, there isn’t one. It arrogantly overplayed its hand and lost the game. Unless, of course, it equates winning with how many children’s coffins it can notch up in the shortest time.
Israel must be stopped Daily News & Analysis
The Qana Massacre Blogcritics.org
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50,000 problematic Canadian smacleans.ca
The scandal isn't a tardy evacuation; it's that we've fostered so many indifferent citizens. Here's one of my favourite numbers: 50,000 -- as in "50,000 Canadians," as in "As many as 50,000 Canadians are believed to be in Lebanon" (CBC News), and "There were an estimated 50,000 Canadians in Lebanon when fighting broke out" (Canadian Press), and "There were some 50,000 Canadians in harm's way, trapped in a country that Israel was relentlessly bombing" (the Toronto Star). The question is: Why are they "in harm's way"? How did "50,000 Canadians" come to be in Lebanon? Is it one of our major trading partners? Has Bombardier opened up a Ski-Doo plant there? Is Beirut where the Quebec Nordiques wound up? 50,000 Canucks out of a total Lebanese population of 3.8 million works out to about 1.3 per cent of the population. Hezbollah claims 400,000 supporters in Lebanon after 20 years of diligent recruiting and investment by Iran, but Canada has managed to amass an eighth of that figure with nary a thought. Despite significantly smaller populations than our G7 colleagues, we have more citizens in Lebanon than the Americans, British and Germans Combined. France is the former colonial power in Lebanon and the Western country with which it maintains the closest ties, yet even the French can muster only 30,000 citizens in the country. Formerly known as "the Paris of the Middle East," these days Beirut would appear to be the Saskatoon of the Middle East. Another decade or two and Lebanon will boast more Canadians than most of the Maritimes. If Canadians were represented within the global population as generously as they are among the Lebanese, there would be over 81 million Canadian citizens living outside Canada. And yet none of the CBC reporters repeating the "50,000 Canadians" line every hour on the hour, day in, day out, apparently had sufficient curiosity to ponder what that bland statistic signified. The Calgary Herald gamely attempted an explanation: "Booming Country Drew Many Lebanese Back Home: Why So Many Canadians Are Trapped By Crisis." But that doesn't explain why it only drew them home from Canada, and not France, America, Australia or anywhere else. Broadway producers, accustomed to going to parties and hearing doctors, bond traders and orthodontists tell them what's wrong with their plays, like to say that show business is everybody's second business. Canada would seem to be everybody's second nationality. The question is whether it's still anybody's first. Not long before 9/11, I picked up a book called Citizenship and National Identity by David Miller. He's a liberal nationalist and in the long-ago summer of 2001 it all seemed very theoretical. "The historic national community is a community of obligation," he writes. "Because our forebears have toiled and spilt their blood to build and defend the nation, we who are born into it inherit an obligation to continue their work, which we discharge partly towards our contemporaries and partly towards our descendants." Well, so much for that. Mr. Miller is a British academic and, rereading his book five years on, I'm struck by how often he mentions Muslims. In doing so, he seems at least to imply that this particular identity group is not quite as others -- Welsh, Jews, Nigerians -- and yet every time he brings up the subject it's to reassure us that there's nothing to worry about. "Consider a Christian facing an Islamic group who declare that their goal is to make Britain into an Islamic state," he posits airily at one point, presenting it as a kind of abstract exercise in the limits of mutually respectful multiculturalism. "Valuing the identity espoused by the group facing you commits you to denying values you already hold: if you are a Christian, then you must believe that the Christian life is a valuable life, and therefore you cannot value the project of eradicating Christianity in the name of Islam." I'd clean forgotten I'd read anything that specific about the Islamification of the West before Sept. 11th. But, as the author notes, the Muslim group Hizb ut-Tahrir were stating plainly and openly in the early nineties their goal of an Islamic Britain. Miller's book is frustrating, in that he managed to identify all the critical questions of the day without appreciating quite how pressing they are. But where he and others go awry is in misidentifying the internal contradictions of multiculturalism. In Multiculturalism and "The Politics Of Recognition," a very early entry into the field, Charles Taylor writes: "It makes sense to demand as a matter of right that we approach the study of certain cultures with a presumption of their value . . . But it can't make sense to demand as a matter of right that we come up with a final concluding judgment that their value is great, or equal to others . . . I have stated this rather flatly," he adds, somewhat superfluously. But, given that multiculturalism is principally an exercise in Western self-abasement, the presumption of greater value is the entire point. The problem, pace Taylor, is not that Group A holds values that are incompatible with Group B, but rather that Group A holds no values at all. In the modern multicultural state, we accord all values equal value: in effect, our values are that we have no values -- and so the best way we can demonstrate our lack of values is by deferring to those values most antipathetic to us. One thinks of Nada Farooq, Mississauga-raised wife of one of the alleged terrorists and moderator of an Internet forum for Muslim teens. In David Miller terms, her "citizenship" may be Canadian but her "identity" isn't: she planned to name her son Khattab, after the Chechen mujahedeen commander killed in 2002. Growing up in a Toronto suburb, she found recent Chechen history more inspiring than Canadian history, assuming she was taught any. That's an extreme manifestation of the problem, of course. I'd wager those "50,000 Canadians" in Lebanon are more typical: the majority aren't Hezbollah terrorists, they're merely indifferent to Canada. It's a fallback position, something in the back pocket for when the powder keg goes up. A year or two or five ago, they stood before the Maple Leaf and pledged allegiance to Her Majesty The Queen and sang O Canada and listened to the citizenship judge blather about all the many races and nationalities in the room that were now joined within the bosom of the Canadian family. And it all meant . . . nothing. Which, in the long run, may be a bigger problem than Nada Farooq. In The Power of Identity, Manuel Castells writes about what he calls "resistance identities" and the challenge they pose to traditional nation-states. I would prefer the term "resistant identities," in the sense that pan-Islamism is resistant to the usual assimilationist pull of Western societies. Yet hard-core jihad is always going to be a minority interest. And, as those "50,000 Canadians" suggests, indifference could be far more contagious. In the thirties, there were chaps who found themselves in tricky situations in Italy or Romania, Poland or France, and so for a small consideration acquired a passport from some potential Latin American bolthole. But Immigration Canada is the first to practise the racket on an industrial scale -- and to give it away. The scandal is not that the government has been tardy in its evacuation plans for these "50,000 Canadians." The scandal is not even that so many Lebanese have gamed Canada's immigration system. The scandal is that there's no system to game and, with the exception of the Toronto Sun's Peter Worthington, no Canadian media bigwigs seem to mind. Indeed, the obvious fact that the bulk of these passports are flags of convenience only intensified the outrage at the sloth and incompetence of Ottawa in standing on guard for these paragons of Canada's post-nationalist national identity. The Toronto Star's lefty lovely, Linda McQuaig, morphed into a postmodern Lord Palmerston, all but demanding Harper dispatch HMCS Rustbucket to blast Tel Aviv. "The first duty of a Canadian prime minister is the safety of Canadians," she huffed. "So, faced with a choice of expressing support for Israel or doing everything he possibly could to protect tens of thousands of vulnerable Canadians, Harper should have opted for protecting the Canadians." To Miss McQuaig, the Zionist Entity's assault on Hezbollah was an unprovoked assault on an outlying Canadian province. And, if Paul Martin's Canada Steamship fleet ever gets impounded in Antwerp, no doubt she'll be demanding the Liberian Air Force bomb Belgium.
By MARK STEYN, < letters@macleans.ca > Columnist

Israel expands fight deeper into Lebanon Chicago Tribune
Racing against time before a cease-fire is arranged, Israel expanded its offensive in Lebanon on Tuesday, landing troops by helicopter deep in the country as ground forces battled Hezbollah guerrillas in border villages in the south. Lebanese security officials said a major Israeli operation against guerrillas was under way near Baalbek in the Hezbollah heartland in the eastern Bekaa Valley, some 80 miles north of the border. Troops landed by helicopter after aircraft carried out several strikes in the area, according to the officials. The Israeli army would not comment on the raid, and initial accounts were sketchy. A spokesman for Hezbollah said guerrillas were fighting Israeli commandos trapped in a hospital they had entered west of Baalbek, and witnesses said the building had been hit by an Israeli air strike. The spokesman dismissed reports that the commandos had seized some patients and taken them in helicopters. Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers in a raid across the border on July 12 triggered the ongoing Israeli offensive. Bolstering thousands of troops in southern Lebanon, Israel prepared to send thousands more into the area after calling up reserves, readying forces for an even wider ground push with the aim of clearing out Hezbollah fighters and controlling the border area until an international force can arrive and take over. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert indicated that the stepped-up military action was aimed at inflicting as much damage as possible on Hezbollah before moves to arrange a cease-fire gain momentum. "Every additional day is a day that saps the strength of this cruel enemy," he said. "Every extra day is a day in which [the army] reduces their stamina and restricts their ability to fire and hit in the future." There were suggestions that the army might drive as far as the Litani River, about 18 miles north of the border, but Meir Shetreet, a member of Israel's security cabinet, said that line had not been set in a meeting early Tuesday to approve the expanded ground offensive. Israeli paratroopers and armored forces backed by air and artillery strikes fought fierce battles with Hezbollah guerrillas in the Lebanese border village of Aita al-Shaab, one of several in which Israeli forces are operating. Television images from the area showed huge explosions and towering plumes of smoke over the village with buildings damaged and collapsed. The army said three soldiers were killed when anti-tank rockets hit two houses they were in, and that 25 more troops were injured. The military said it had inflicted dozens of casualties on Hezbollah. Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said that about 300 of Hezbollah's main force of 2,000 fighters had been killed in the Israeli offensive so far, though the group has said 46 of its fighters were killed. Israeli forces were also operating in the villages of Taibe, al-Adeisseh and Kafr Kila near the border with Israel, the army said, and the area was hit repeatedly by artillery and air strikes. Israeli officials say the ground operations are meant to destroy the forward line of Hezbollah positions, as well as bunkers and arms stocks in villages facing Israel. Olmert has said Israel wants to create a 1.2-mile wide buffer zone that would be free of Hezbollah guerrillas. In other military action, Israel carried out sporadic air strikes across Lebanon after it declared a curtailment of aerial activity for 48 hours following an attack on the village of Qana on Sunday that killed more than 50 civilians. The army said Israeli aircraft struck southern Lebanese villages in dozens of missions, attacking rocket launching sites and supporting troops on the ground. Three civilians were killed when warplanes hit a house in the southern Lebanese town of Lweizeh, Lebanese security officials said. Warplanes struck deep in Lebanon at Hermel, in the Bekaa Valley, targeting a road linking eastern Lebanon to western areas. Another strike in Hermel hit a pickup truck loaded with cooking gas canisters, setting off an explosion, Lebanese security officials said. The Israeli army said it had hit two trucks carrying arms. Another strike nearby targeted the Qaa-Homs road, linking Lebanon and Syria. Two of the four border crossings between the two countries are now closed because of damage, and repeated air strikes have cut the Beirut-Damascus highway. Even as Israel stepped up its attacks, Hezbollah drastically reduced its rocket fire at Israeli towns and villages for the second straight day in an apparent effort to draw Israel into a cease-fire, which the group has demanded. The army reported that about 10 mortar rounds and rockets landed in northern Israel on Tuesday, a sharp drop from the daily firings of more than 100 rockets before the announcement of the curtailment of Israeli air strikes. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday that the United States would seek action by the UN Security Council this week to arrange a cease-fire bolstered by the deployment of an international force. Defense Minister Amir Peretz said that Israel was aware that there could be "a short diplomatic window" of opportunity for military action. He said that ground operations had been expanded "with the intention of creating new conditions so that when an international force arrives ... it will be able to enforce the new situation" in which Hezbollah guerrillas would not be active in southern Lebanon. Olmert said that while the Israeli offensive would not remove all rocket and missile threats against Israel, it would deter the guerrillas from firing them in the future. The campaign "has created a completely new equation in the balance of power between the State of Israel and its enemies," he said. "We are at the start of a political process that I believe will ultimately lead to a cease-fire under conditions that are completely different than those that prevailed on our northern border," Olmert said. "We will cease fire when we know for sure that the conditions on the ground will be different than those that caused this war to break out."
By Joel Greenberg. JERUSALEM < jogreenberg@tribune.com >
Up to 7,000 Israeli troops push into Lebanon International Herald Tribune
Raging battles follow deep push by Israelis Online Athens (subscription)
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Cuba: New Power and New Uncertainty OhmyNews International
Raul Castro, the brother of Fidel, takes the reigns as president. Cuba, the only communist country of Latin America has been governed for more than 40 years by only one president: Fidel Castro. Today Fidel Castro, 80 years old and in delicate health, has transferred the powers to his brother Raul Castro, which has created a great questioning about the new political power in Cuba. The Cuban revolution began in the year 1959, and since 1962 the U.S. organized a commercial blockade, while the government of the island sought the support of the USSR. Since the USSR has disappeared, the government of Castro has intensified its actions against its political adversaries, and even also against some collaborators who are viewed as too moderate, such as former Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina. The government condemned the opposition and arrested 74 dissidents, which was criticized by the European Union (E.U.). The governments of Brazil and Venezuela financially support the Cuban government, as has China since the visit of the President Hu Jintao in the year of 2004. An analysis of the actions of the Cuban government turns up the following keywords: revolution, repression, prison sentence, sanctions, embargoes, and dissident. Now the key question is, with Raul Castro will these intolerant words continue appearing, or will there be changes? The future of Cuba is uncertain, because first one must evaluate the new functions of Raul Castro (the brother). Nevertheless, Fidel's illness is big news, and almost all the newspapers and TV channels are closely following this political drama.
By Alfredo Ascanio
Alabama pilot who aided Cuban invasion leery of Castro's demise WTVM
The other Castro Newsday
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Israel takes 'Hezbollah fighters' BBC News
The Israeli army says it has seized a number of Hezbollah fighters in a raid on Baalbek, a town deep inside Lebanon.After air strikes on the town, 100km into Lebanon, in which 11 people died, Israeli commandos landed by helicopter and fought a lengthy gun battle. In a statement on al-Manar television, Hezbollah said those captured in Baalbek, one of its strongholds, are "ordinary citizens" not militants. Israeli troops have also pushed further into south Lebanon overnight. The incursion into Baalbek began before midnight with several air strikes. At least 11 civilians, including five members of the same family, were killed in the bombing.After the bombardment, military helicopters then landed an Israeli commando unit near a hospital on the outskirts of the town, which led to fierce clashes with Hezbollah guerrillas lasting several hours. Local residents told AP the hospital was run by people close to Hezbollah and funded by an Iranian charity. The Israeli military says that it seized at least three Hezbollah members in the raid and a spokeswoman told Reuters news agency that the captured militants had been taken to Israel. Hezbollah say they inflicted casualties on the commando unit but a spokeswoman for the Israeli military says all their troops returned safely to base.

'Fading optimism'
Baalbek, which is a Hezbollah stronghold and home to several senior members of the group, has been repeatedly bombed by Israel since the conflict began. However, this is the first time Israel has sent ground troops so far into Lebanon since its offensive began over three weeks ago.The BBC's Michael Buchanan in Beirut says that there had been a slight mood of optimism in Lebanon that diplomatic efforts to bring about a ceasefire following the deadly air strike on the Lebanese village of Qana, in which 54 civilians died, were gathering momentum. Following this raid, that mood has disappeared, our correspondent says. Meanwhile, Israeli planes attacked a Lebanese army base south-east of Sidon early on Wednesday, killing three Lebanese soldiers. A 48-hour partial suspension of Israeli air strikes, triggered by the raid on Qana, ended overnight. In other developments

• Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel was "winning the battle" against Hezbollah, but also said a political process that will lead to a ceasefire is now under way.
• US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said an agreement on ending the fighting was possible within "days, not weeks" - in apparent contrast to Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres, who said he thought the fighting would end within "weeks, not months".
• French officials said that France would boycott a meeting on Thursday of potential contributors to an international stabilisation force - the official said France considered the meeting "premature".

'Fighting to intensify'
Tuesday saw fierce fighting across southern Lebanon, with casualties on both sides. Israel said an anti-tank missile killed three of its soldiers in the border town of Ait al-Shaab, while Hezbollah said four of its fighters died in clashes further north. More Israeli troops crossed into Lebanon, entering at four different points the border, Israeli officials told the Associated Press. The BBC's Bethany Bell in Jerusalem says many in Israel expect the fighting to intensify over the next few days. The Israeli security cabinet on Tuesday unanimously approved widening Israel's ground offensive. Some reports said troops would move into Lebanon as far as the Litani River - up to 30km (18 miles) from the border. Israel warned civilians north-east of the river to leave their homes. Israel launched the current offensive after Hezbollah militants seized two of its soldiers in a cross-border raid. After nearly three weeks of fighting, about 750 people - mainly civilians - have been killed by Israeli action in Lebanon, according to Lebanon's health minister. A total of 54 Israelis, including at least 18 civilians, are known to have been killed by Hezbollah.

Mexico election protesters dig in BBC News
Mexico City has suffered a second day of traffic chaos as supporters of the left-wing candidate in the country's disputed election block a key street. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador toured protest camps on Tuesday, after sleeping out with supporters who want votes in the 2 July poll recounted. His rival, Felipe Calderon, accused him of taking the city hostage as commuters battled through congested streets. Mr Lopez Obrador alleges vote counts in the poll were rigged. Official results gave victory to the conservative Mr Calderon by half a percentage point. EU monitors have said they found no irregularities. Protesters have been camped out for two days on the Mexican capital's main boulevard, Reforma, causing massive traffic jams and transforming some of the usually busy streets into pedestrian zones. Mr Lopez Obrador was surrounded by enthusiastic supporters as he walked among the protesters telling them to stay put and not give in to critics. His top campaign aide, Jesus Ortega, told the Associated Press news agency that there would be "more acts of civil disobedience". Mr Lopez Obrador on Sunday called on his adherents to paralyse the capital until every vote was recounted. On Monday, the presidential candidate slept alongside thousands of supporters camping out on the streets. "We are not going to turn to violence," he told the crowd. "Neither surrender, nor violence". The country's electoral court has until the end of August to rule on a recount. On Monday, Mr Lopez Obrador received a boost when the Mexican Electoral Tribunal agreed to consider his request for a recount - which is not provided for under the election rules. The blockade was set up after Mr Lopez Obrador led a mass march to Mexico City's Zocalo square. Estimates of the attendance ranged from 500,000 to two million people. As Mr Lopez Obrador rallied his supporters, ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon appeared before the electoral tribunal to argue that a full recount was unnecessary. "I had powerful, very charismatic adversaries - but I won clearly," he told the panel of seven judges.

Ukraine president faces PM choice BBC News, Kiev
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko is facing one of his most difficult challenges since he was brought to power by mass protests in 2004. By the end of Wednesday he must decide whether to endorse the nomination of his arch rival for prime minister. Talks are also due to continue about drawing together the president's party and its opponents in a coalition. If the deadlock is not resolved, the president has the power to dissolve parliament and call fresh elections. Ukraine has been in political turmoil since a parliamentary ballot in March in which no party won a majority.

Humiliation
A coalition of the pro-western parties which backed the Orange Revolution - the protests that brought Mr Yushchenko to power - collapsed before it could form a government. It was replaced by a coalition which favours closer ties with Russia. Its leader is Viktor Yanukovych, the disgraced loser of the presidential election in which claims of mass vote rigging sparked the popular uprising. Mr Yanukovych has been chosen to be prime minister by his coalition. The president has until the end of Wednesday to approve this, but to do so would be a humiliation. It is not clear whether the president has the right to reject the nomination. Over the last few days there have been intense talks about the possibility of the president's party joining the coalition. President Yushchenko has also been holding discussions with Ukraine's political leaders to try to negotiate an agreement of national unity. He wants his rivals to commit to a pro-Western agenda. If a compromise cannot be reached, then the president has threatened to order new elections, but this option is considered to be a last resort.
By Helen Fawkes

Israel resumes Beirut air strikes BBC News
Israeli aircraft have resumed attacks on the Lebanese capital, Beirut, after a lull of several days, with early morning strikes on a southern suburb. About 70 Hezbollah rockets also hit northern Israel, killing five, while two Israeli troops died fighting Hezbollah militants along the border. More than 900 Lebanese people have been killed in the three-week conflict, Lebanese PM Fouad Siniora has said. A United Nations resolution calling for a truce appears near to completion. Diplomats at the United Nations say the UK, France and the US are close to agreeing on a UN resolution calling for an immediate end to the fighting. The three countries are hoping to present the first part of a two-stage peace plan to the other 12 members of the UN Security Council later on Thursday. The BBC's James Robbins, at UN headquarters in New York, says a second resolution would be proposed at a later stage, focusing on a long-term settlement, including authorisation for an international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon. The BBC's world affairs correspondent Frank Gardner says that since such a force could take weeks, or even months to arrive, there are reports that a smaller, more rapidly deployed force of French soldiers may be sent in first. In other developments:

• An Israeli military report into the deaths of at least 41 civilians in Qana concluded the attack was a mistake
• Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at the Organisation of the Islamic Conference meeting, said the answer to the crisis was the elimination of Israel
• Aid agencies said the severity of bomb damage to roads and bridges was having a drastic effect on efforts to distribute much-needed aid, forcing them to rely on small vehicles using slow and perilous mountain routes

'Million displaced'
In a video message to Muslim leaders meeting in Malaysia, Lebanon's prime minister said more than 3,000 people had been wounded, and that one million people - a quarter of the country's population - had been displaced. The latest Israeli casualties bring its death toll to 62, including 24 civilians. The Israeli air force said it carried out 70 raids on Lebanon overnight. Four large explosions hit the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh, a Hezbollah stronghold, early in the morning as Israeli war planes attacked the area for the first time in more than a week. Dahieh was heavily bombed earlier in the Israeli campaign. Three members of the same family were killed when an Israeli missile hit their home in a southern village of Taibe, Lebanese security officials said. There were also air strikes in the southern town of Nabatiyeh, on a bridge in the northern region of Akkar and roads near the border with Syria, and in the Bekaa Valley. In southern Lebanon the fighting rages on in at least five areas along the border where Israel has launched ground incursions with more than 10,000 ground troops.

UN force plan
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said there will be no ceasefire until an international force is deployed in southern Lebanon. Mr Olmert has said that about 15,000 foreign troops would be needed for such a UN peacekeeping force and that their arrival in the area must overlap with Israel's withdrawal from Lebanese territory. In interviews with UK newspapers The Times and Financial Times, Mr Olmert said the force must have proper combat units, able to implement UN resolutions. He also said that Israel would reserve the right to respond to any aggression by Hezbollah - even after the international force was deployed. "I can tell you only one thing - if our soldiers or our cities are attacked by Hezbollah, we will respond," Mr Olmert told the Times. "Israel will never, ever allow anyone any more to attack Israel without response." The Israeli campaign began three weeks ago after Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers.

'Many killed' by Afghan car bomb BBC News
At least 21 people have been killed in a car bomb attack on a market in southern Afghanistan, officials say. At least 13 people were injured in the attack, which took place in the southern province of Kandahar. Earlier this week, UK and Canadian-led Nato forces took control of military operations in southern Afghanistan from US-led coalition troops. The area is a stronghold of the Taleban and hundreds of people have been killed there in fighting in recent months. "There was a suicide attack in Panjwayi bazaar. Twenty-one civilians, including children, were killed and 13 others were injured," interior ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanizai is quoted as saying by AFP. A Nato spokesman said a convoy of Nato troops was moving through the area when the attack took place, but was unaffected. "They were close enough to hear the blast," the spokesman, Maj Scott Lundy, told the Associated Press news agency. It is not clear if they were the target.

Nato soldiers
Earlier on Thursday, a Canadian soldier with Nato died in Kandahar when a bomb hit his vehicle. Another Nato soldier was wounded, the alliance said. And local officials said 10 Taleban fighters were killed by Afghan and Nato forces in the neighbouring Helmand province, during a raid on a Taleban hideout. Four Nato soldiers, three of them British, have been killed since the alliance assumed control of operations in the south on Monday - the first land deployment outside Europe for Nato forces. The 8,000 soldiers are under the umbrella of Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in six provinces in the south: Day Kundi, Helmand, Kandahar, Nimroz, Uruzgan and Zabul.

Somali MPs ready to go to talks BBC News
Members of Somalia's interim parliament are ready to travel to Sudan for more peace talks with Islamic courts that control the capital, Mogadishu. Parliament's speaker is discussing the trip with the president, who supports the trip. It is not clear whether the Islamists are ready for talks now. The prime minister's rejection of talks has caused a crisis in the vernment. Eritrea meanwhile denies it is waging a proxy war with Ethiopia on Somali soil. Ethiopia earlier made a similar denial. The MPs could leave for Khartoum as early as Thursday, depending on the outcome of the discussions between Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden and President Abdullahi Yusuf, the BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan reports. The trip could however be postponed if representatives of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), or the Arab League mediators, are not yet ready, our correspondent says. Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Ghedi's stance against the talks has left him increasingly isolated over the past week. Four more ministers resigned on Thursday, bringing the total number of resignations to 37. Mr Ghedi's government is already weak, controlling little more than the town of Baidoa where it is based, while militia loyal to the UIC have brought stability to Mogadishu.

'No proxy battlefield'
Eritrea on Wednesday rejected reports that it has been sending arms to Islamist militia groups in Somalia. "Eritrea firmly rejects all groundless accusations peddled against it in the past few months," a statement on the Eritrean government's Shabait website said. "As underlined before, Eritrea has never seen Somalia as a proxy battlefield to settle scores with Ethiopia." Earlier, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi - whose country supports the Somali interim government - denied Ethiopia has sent troops to Somalia. Ethiopian troops were seen around Baidoa two weeks ago, and their presence has been cited by the Islamic courts as a reason for refusing talks with the government. "I have heard of these reports but I reaffirm categorically that we do not have troops in Somalia," Mr Meles said in a BBC interview. Mr Meles also accused Eritrea of secretly arming the Islamists, but denied that Ethiopia and Eritrea were fighting a proxy war in Somalia. Diplomats have also said that Mr Meles had privately acknowledged the presence of Ethiopian troops on Somali soil.

Calls for dialogue
The leader of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Courts in Mogadishu, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweis, said his militia would welcome the resigned ministers to join what he described as the Islamic courts' common endeavour for peace and a better future for the country. "I appreciate the steps taken by the cabinet members," he said in an interview broadcast by the local Shabelle radio station. "They felt how badly the prime minister is behaving and that is what caused the ministers to resign" he added. The prime minister met ministers and loyalist MPs on Wednesday, and Information Minister Mohamed Abdi Hayir Mareye said a committee had been set up to try to resolve differences within the government and parliament through dialogue. Since late last week about 40 ministers have left a government that once had more than 100 members, and Prime Minister Ghedi narrowly survived a parliamentary vote of no confidence on Saturday. Somalia has been without an effective central government since warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Since then much of the country has been ruled by violence and clan law.

Iraq civil war warning for Blair BBC News
Civil war is a more likely outcome in Iraq than democracy, Britain's outgoing ambassador in Baghdad has warned Tony Blair in a confidential memo. William Patey, who left the Iraqi capital last week, also predicted the break-up of Iraq along ethnic lines. He did also say that "the position is not hopeless" - but said it would be "messy" for five to 10 years. Mr Blair said the violence was designed to put extremists in charge rather than leaders committed to democracy. "What should our response be? However difficult it is, stay the course, stand up for those people who want democracy, stand up for those people who are fighting sectarianism, stand up for a different vision of the Middle East based on democracy, liberty, the rule of law," he told reporters. The Foreign Office said it did not comment on leaked documents but added that Iraqi security forces were getting more capable every day. BBC correspondent Paul Wood said although the document does not contradict government denials that civil war is imminent, "it is a devastating official assessment of the prospects for a peaceful Iraq, and stands in stark contrast to the public rhetoric". The bleak assessment of the country's future was contained in Mr Patey's final e-cable, or diplomatic telegram, from Baghdad. The distribution list included the UK's prime minister, foreign secretary, defence secretary and House of Commons leader, as well as senior military commanders in both Iraq and the UK. Mr Patey wrote: "The prospect of a low intensity civil war and a de facto division of Iraq is probably more likely at this stage than a successful and substantial transition to a stable democracy. "Even the lowered expectation of President Bush for Iraq - a government that can sustain itself, defend itself and govern itself and is an ally in the war on terror - must remain in doubt." Talking about the Shia militias blamed for many killings, Mr Patey added: "If we are to avoid a descent into civil war and anarchy then preventing the Jaish al-Mahdi (the Mahdi Army) from developing into a state within a state, as Hezbollah has done in Lebanon, will be a priority." The cable says that "the next six months are crucial" - an assessment which is shared by the coalition's military commanders. Senior military sources told the BBC it was "make or break" time in Iraq. The Americans are sending thousands of extra troops to Baghdad, starting next week. The Conservative Party's head of policy, Oliver Letwin, called on ministers to be more honest about the situation. "It's very difficult to offer the constructive support which we want to offer and for the public to understand what's going on if the government doesn't give a very clear and frank account of the assessment," he said.

'Radical rethink'
Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Michael Moore said there needed to be a clear strategy for Iraq, including the engagement of neighbouring countries such as Iran, Syria and Turkey. "Unless we seriously and radically rethink our approach, as the ambassador warns, we will run the serious risk of a descent into civil war," he said. The BBC has also learned, from military sources, that British troops in Basra are planning to dramatically step up operations against Shia gunmen. Mr Patey urges the government to ensure that Iraqi troops are brought into this effort as the British forces "can't confront the militias alone". On Wednesday, President Jalal Talabani said Iraqi police and troops would be taking the security lead throughout the whole country by the end of the year.

Civilians die in Sri Lanka clash BBC News
The Sri Lankan army and Tamil Tiger rebels have blamed each other for the deaths of 10 civilians in shelling in the Muslim-majority town of Muttur. The victims were taking shelter in a school when it was hit. Muttur has become the centre of fierce clashes between the two sides in a battle over control of a canal. The Red Cross says it has been told that 22,000 people are displaced after heavy fighting in Muttur.

Cut-off
"At least 10 Muslim civilians were killed and 20 others injured as Tamil Tiger terrorists bombarded the Arabic College in Muttur town with heavy Artillery fire, " a statement from the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence said. But a statement form the Pro-rebel TamilNet website gave a starkly contrasting account. "At least 10 Muslim civilians who sought refuge in Arabic College in Muttur town were killed when a Sri Lankan army-fired artillery shell hit the college on Thursday around noon," it said. Witnesses have described the north-eastern town as being shelled by both sides as each advances and then retreats. Correspondents say that telephone communication with Muttur has been almost entirely cut-off. Earlier the rebels said they have taken control of Muttur, but the government denied this was the case. The fighting comes amid an army offensive in Trincomalee district to regain control of the Maavilaru waterway, which it says supplies water to 15,000 families. Despite the upsurge in fighting both sides still say they are acting defensively and therefore within the conditions of a 2002 ceasefire. Privately both also say they do not consider the recent violence to be the beginning of a full scale war. But the ferocity of the fighting has meant that international agencies are unable to enter Muttur, and are now trying to negotiate a temporary ceasefire to evacuate the injured. The Red Cross says it has been told by the government that displaced people have fled to schools and churches. The BBC's Dumeetha Luthra in Colombo says there is still hope that Sri Lanka can avoid all out conflict and neither side wants to be seen as instigating the final meltdown.

Camps attacked
The military is still battling to reopen the blockaded canal which sparked off the current round of clashes. The government has offered to hold talks with the rebels over the water dispute, but say they will only stop only fighting if the canal was reopened. So far the Tigers have not responded to the proposal. A Muttur resident of the town, Mrs Karunawathi, told Reuters on telephone that people were "very scared". "We cannot go out. We have no food and just one bottle of water." Both sides have given widely differing accounts of casualties from Wednesday's fighting. The government says 40 rebels had been killed in the fighting around the army camps - there is no independent verification of the claims. The fighting in Trincomalee district started nine days ago when the air force began bombing Tamil Tiger positions. At least 23 soldiers have been killed since the army launched the offensive to the south of Trincomalee port. The Tigers say they have lost 25 fighters before Wednesday's fighting. Up to 3,000 troops are involved in the efforts to gain control of the Maavilaru waterway, reports say.

Ukraine head accepts rival as PM BBC News
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has backed his arch-rival Viktor Yanukovych for prime minister, ending a four-month political stand-off. Mr Yushchenko said he acted after Mr Yanukovych had agreed to sign a pact that preserves key areas of the pro-Western president's policies. He announced the move after a deadline for the PM's nomination passed. It is a dramatic comeback for Mr Yanukovych, who was ousted in Mr Yushchenko's 2004 "Orange Revolution". The president formally submitted the candidacy of Mr Yanukovych to parliament, which is expected to vote on the issue on Friday. Some Orange Revolution supporters - including former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko - see Mr Yushchenko's move as a betrayal, and they have accused the president of weakness, correspondents say. Mr Yushchenko's aides say the president had little choice. They say the other option - of dissolving parliament and calling new elections - would merely have sharpened the stand-off. Ukraine has been in political turmoil since a parliamentary ballot in March in which no party won a majority, although Mr Yanukovych's Party of Regions polled the most votes. Mr Yanukovych draws his support from the mainly Russian-speaking industrial southeast of Ukraine, where many voters are suspicious of the pro-Western, liberal Orange Revolution agenda.

Unity message
"We have another chance to unite Ukraine today," Mr Yushchenko said in a televised address early on Thursday. It followed late-night talks as the two leaders negotiated the pact - a universal of national unity - which preserved policies championed by Mr Yushchenko. "The pact... will determine the main lines of Ukraine's domestic and foreign policy, in which the Western course is guaranteed," he said. The document was signed by the leaders of Ukraine's main parties later on Thursday, with the notable exception of Ms Tymoshenko. Earlier in the day, Mr Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party and Mr Yanukovych's Party of Regions signed another deal - to form a coalition in parliament. They also urged other parties to join in. The president had to decide by midnight Wednesday (2100 GMT Tuesday) whether to back the nomination of his rival for premier or dissolve parliament and call new elections.

Months of wrangling
"Whatever decision the president made, it would not have been accepted by part of the population," said Mr Yushchenko in his speech - several hours after the deadline passed. Mr Yushchenko was brought to power by popular street protests in late 2004, which were sparked by outrage over Mr Yanukovych's presidential election win. Mr Yanukovych - the then prime minister - was initially declared the victor, but the result was later annulled by the Supreme Court, which ruled that the vote was fraudulent. Parliamentary elections on 26 March were followed by months of political wrangling. The three parties which supported the Orange Revolution failed to form a government, and Mr Yanukovych created "an anti-crisis" coalition of parties which back closer ties with Russia. The alliance then nominated him for prime minister, and Mr Yushchenko had to decide whether to forward the nomination to parliament. The president has pushed for press freedom, tackling corruption, market reforms, Ukraine's membership in the EU and Nato. He has also been urging for an immediate approval of all legislation required to join the World Trade Organisation.

Southern China hit by new typhoon BBC News
Typhoon Prapiroon has hit southern China, bringing with it heavy winds and rain that have forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people. The storm hit the coast of Guangdong province at 1920 local time (1120 GMT), Chinese media said. Severe flooding and landslides are expected as Typhoon Prapiroon, which has already killed six people in the Philippines, passes over. The region has been hard hit by typhoons this season. More than 600 people died when Typhoon Bilis hit six southern provinces last month. Prapiroon - meaning "God of Rain" in Thai - made landfall near Yangjiang city in Guangdong province, China Central Television said. The storm is expected to pound the region overnight as it moves north-west towards Guangxi and Guizhou provinces.

Stranded passengers
Provincial authorities have warned of widespread flooding, high waves, landslides and possible house collapses as up to 7.2in (18cm) of rain could fall in coming days. Some 65,000 people have been evacuated from parts of Guangdong as well as Hainan island province, directly to the south, and Guanxi. More than 53,000 fishing vessels have been recalled to harbour, and ferry and railway links between Hainan and the mainland suspended. Typhoon Prapiroon earlier skirted Hong Kong and Macau, hitting the islands with strong winds and heavy rains. More than 3,000 airline passengers were stranded in Hong Kong as hundreds of flights were cancelled or delayed. Empty cargo containers toppled over at a Hong Kong shipping terminal, reportedly injuring one person. A Chinese official said on Wednesday that Prapiroon was "as strong, if not stronger" than Typhoon Bilis, Xinhua news agency reported. Guangdong's neighbouring province, Hunan, was worst hit by Typhoon Bilis, with hundreds killed in flash floods and landslides. Typhoon Bilis was followed by Typhoon Kaemi, which caused further destruction in the area.

Israeli border strike 'kills 23' BBC News
An Israeli air strike near Lebanon's north-eastern border with Syria has killed at least 23 people and injured 30, Lebanese officials have said. The casualties, believed to be farm workers, were taken to hospitals in Syria, Lebanese security sources said. There has also been no let-up in Hezbollah rocket attacks, with more than 40 fired in half an hour. Two Israeli civilians died in the attacks, in the village of Mughar and in Kiryat Shmona, Israeli police said. Two Israeli soldiers were killed in clashes in southern Lebanon where there is heavy fighting as Israeli forces try to push Hezbollah back from the border.

Army push
The continuing violence comes as the Israeli army has been told to prepare for a possible advance in what could be its deepest incursion into Lebanon for more than 20 years. This could see the army push up to the Litani river, 30km (19 miles) north of the border, in pursuit of Hezbollah. Israel's campaign began three weeks ago after Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers. Lebanon says more than 900 people have died since then, most of them civilians. Israel has lost 28 civilians and 40 soldiers. In other developments:

• At least five people have been killed in Israeli air raids on bridges north of the Lebanese capital
• British Prime Minister Tony Blair has delayed his holiday to continue work on a UN ceasefire resolution
• Malaysia is ready to send 1,000 soldiers to Lebanon to join an international peacekeeping force, the country's defence chief has said

Lebanese civil defence officials said those killed on the Syrian border were farm workers, who were loading a container with fruit and vegetables when it was struck. The attack happened near the village of Qaa, about 10km (six miles) from Hermel which has previously been hit by Israeli warplanes. The raid came as Israeli jets on Friday pounded targets north and south of the Lebanese capital, Beirut. Local media reported strikes on the Ouzai neighbourhood of southern Beirut, and warship shelling of the suburbs of Haret Hreik and Roweiss. The Israeli military told Reuters news agency it had targeted Hezbollah offices and the home of a top Hezbollah official, along with a building operated by Palestinian group Hamas. The Lebanese social affairs minister told the BBC parts of the capital previously untouched by bombing had been struck. Friday's action came after a threat from Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah to target the Israeli city of Tel Aviv if Israel attacked central Beirut. Security sources in Israel told a BBC correspondent that "if Tel Aviv was hit by Hezbollah rockets, Israel would target infrastructure in Lebanon". In his televised speech Sheikh Nasrallah also said that Hezbollah would end its rocket attacks if Israel stopped attacking what he called civilian areas in Lebanon. Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Dan Gillerman said that suggestion was "a sign of weakness" and that Hezbollah might be "looking for a way out".

Ceasefire?
UN delegates remained optimistic of agreement on a ceasefire resolution soon, but differences remained on the wording. "We're certainly getting close [to a resolution] within days," said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora on Thursday called for a lasting solution to the conflict. He told the BBC he wanted international leaders to pressure Israel to return detainees, provide maps of landmines and withdraw from "occupied territory". Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said there will be no ceasefire until an international force is deployed in southern Lebanon. A second UN resolution would probably be needed to authorise the international peacekeeping force. Since such a force could take weeks or months to arrive, a smaller force of French soldiers may be sent in first, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner notes.

LRA leaders declare ceasefire BBC News
The Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has announced a unilateral ceasefire, with immediate effect. The rebel movement's deputy leader Vincent Otti told the BBC he had ordered all field commanders to cease all hostilities against Uganda's army. Ugandan Interior Minister Ruhakana Rugunda said his government would wait to see what happened on the ground, in response to the announcement. The peace talks are due to resume in the Sudanese town of Juba next week. In a phone call to the BBC's Focus on Africa programme, Mr Otti announced: "I, Lt Gen Vincent Otti, second in command of the LRA, by the order of Gen Joseph Kony, chairman of the LRA High Command, do hereby declare a unilateral cessation of hostilities. "I order all our field commanders to, with immediate effect, cease all form of hostilities against the Ugandan People's Defence Forces (UDPF) positions and others. "I do hope that the government of Uganda shall reciprocate this gesture of goodwill so that the warring parties may finally find a bilateral agreement to provide a peaceful atmosphere for our people," Mr Otti said.

Refusing talks
The LRA rebel movement has refused to send its most senior leaders to peace talks with the government. Southern Sudanese vice-president and head mediator, Riek Machar had asked for the group's top leaders to take part after earlier peace talks failed. On Thursday Mr Otti told the BBC that Juba was not safe because an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant for the LRA leaders' arrest was still in force and Ugandan government forces were present in the town. On Tuesday, Mr Kony held his first formal meeting with Mr Machar and a Ugandan official in a forest clearing on the border between Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This was hailed as a significant move, since the failure of earlier talks had been attributed in part to the negotiators not being sufficiently high-ranking to strike a deal. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has offered the rebels a full and guaranteed amnesty and protection as long as they renounce violence. Thousands of civilians have died in the 20-year conflict and more than one million have been forced to flee their homes.

Yanukovych approved as Ukraine PM BBC News
Ukraine's parliament has approved Viktor Yanukovych as prime minister, ending a four-month political crisis. The vote was held a day after pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko backed the candidacy of his arch-rival. In return, Mr Yanukovych - who favours closer ties with Russia - signed a pact aimed at preserving key areas of the president's policies. It is a dramatic comeback for Mr Yanukovych, who was ousted in Mr Yushchenko's 2004 "Orange Revolution". Mr Yanukovych, 56, was backed by 271 lawmakers in the 450-member parliament, easily passing the required majority of 226 votes. Nine MPs voted against him. "I am itching to get down to work," he was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency before the vote. Political reforms mean the new prime minister will have increased powers. The president formally submitted the candidacy of Mr Yanukovych to parliament on Thursday, hours after a constitutional deadline. Some Orange Revolution supporters see Mr Yushchenko's move as a betrayal, and they have accused the president of weakness. But Mr Yushchenko's aides say the other option - of dissolving parliament and calling new elections - would merely have sharpened the stand-off. Ukraine has been in political turmoil since a parliamentary ballot in March in which no party won a majority, although Mr Yanukovych's Party of Regions polled the most votes.

Prolonged deadlock
Mr Yanukovych draws his support from the mainly Russian-speaking industrial south-east of Ukraine, where many voters are suspicious of the pro-Western, liberal Orange Revolution agenda. He was a prime minister in 2002-04, before deciding to run for presidency in late 2004. He was initially declared the victor, but the result was then annulled by the Supreme Court, which ruled that the vote was fraudulent. Mr Yushchenko was elected president in the re-run of the second round ordered by the court. Parliamentary elections on 26 March were followed by months of political wrangling. The three parties which supported the Orange Revolution failed to form a government, and Mr Yanukovych created "an anti-crisis" coalition of parties which back closer ties with Russia. The alliance then nominated him for prime minister, and Mr Yushchenko had to decide whether to forward the nomination to parliament. The president has pushed for press freedom, tackling corruption, market reforms, and Ukraine's membership in the EU and Nato.

Civilians flee Sri Lanka fighting BBC News
Thousands of people have been fleeing heavy fighting in the north-eastern town of Muttur in Sri Lanka. Fighting between the army and Tamil Tiger rebels that began in a dispute over water has been spreading. Both sides claim to be in control of Muttur, a mainly Muslim town in Trincomalee district. Muttur has been cut off for several days. The Red Cross said it had been unable to reach the civilians after failing to obtain security guarantees. Meanwhile a Norwegian envoy, Jon Hanssen-Bauer, has arrived in Sri Lanka and is expected to meet government officials and rebel leaders. Casualties are hard to verify but the army says at least 23 soldiers have been killed since the military launched its latest offensive and the Tigers say they lost 25 fighters up until Wednesday. Seventeen civilians who had taken shelter in a school died on Thursday after it was hit by shells. The army and the Tigers have blamed each other for the incident. The Red Cross said 22,000 people had been displaced by the fighting in Muttur. Most of the town's inhabitants are Muslims caught in the crossfire. The Red Cross's head in Trincomalee, Yvonne Dunton, said around 7,000 families were believed to be on the move. She told the Associated Press: "We know that they have left their homes and are trying to come out." Muttur has been cut off from humanitarian assistance for several days and thousands of people are trying to walk to safety in the nearby town of Kantale. The BBC's Dumeetha Luthra, who is in Kantale, said civilians were walking through the jungle as far as Palathoppur, where they were being picked up by lorries and ferried away from the fighting.

'Chaotic'
She said: "The scene at Palathoppur was absolutely chaotic - women and children packing into the backs of tractor trailers, their plastic bags and battered suitcases clutched closely to them. They all looked tired, desperate and uncertain. "As we stood there talking to them, suddenly the shelling got progressively closer. It was still some distance away, but it made the ground shake and the dull thud turned the chaos into panic." Our correspondent said the dispute began when the Tigers closed the Maavilaru sluice gate to highlight Tamil grievances. The government said it launched the offensive to save thousands of farmers who relied on the Maavilaru canal for vital water supplies. Mr Hanssen-Bauer, Norway's special envoy to Sri Lanka, is thought to be planning to meet government and rebels leaders over the weekend in a bid to narrow the differences between the two sides. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has expressed concern about the escalating violence. The army says Tamil Tiger rebels attacked their camps and fired mortars at army positions on Friday. "They are attacking our camps in the east. There is artillery and mortar fire. There are some civilians being injured," military spokesman Major Upali Rajapakse told Reuters news agency. Despite the upsurge in fighting both sides still say they are acting defensively and therefore within the conditions of a 2002 ceasefire. The government has offered to hold talks with the rebels over the water dispute, but say they will only stop fighting if the canal is reopened. So far the Tigers have not responded to the proposal.

Cuba dismisses US democracy call BBC News
Calls by US President George W Bush for Cubans to work for democratic change have been dismissed as "the epitome of delirium" by Cuban state-run TV. Commentators were reacting to Mr Bush's first public statements on the issue since Monday's announcement that Fidel Castro had undergone stomach surgery. President Castro, 79, has temporarily ceded power to his brother, Raul. Despite official statements that Fidel Castro is recovering, rumours about his health abound, both in Cuba and the US. While life goes on as normal on the island, correspondents say Raul Castro's failure to appear in public and a lack of information about his brother's whereabouts are fuelling speculation about the future. In Miami - where there is a large Cuban exile community - many have been celebrating what they believe to be Fidel Castro's demise. Those celebrating were described as "vampires" by Cuban TV commentators.

'US support'
On the nightly news discussion programme, commentators also dismissed any US plan for change in Cuba. "The only way to apply the Bush plan for regime change in Cuba is by force, and force will not work," Communist Youth newspaper editor Rogelio Polanco said. "Raul is firmly at the helm of the nation and leading the armed forces that have a proven combat record and international experience. Make no mistake," he said. Mr Bush has pledged Washington's support for Cubans who seek to "build a transitional government in Cuba committed to democracy". A US imposed an embargo on the Caribbean island in 1962 - three years after Mr Castro took power - which remains in place. Fidel Castro - who turns 80 this month - is one of the world's longest-ruling leaders, and has outlasted nine US presidents.

Polish exodus shrinks job queue BBC News
Polish unemployment has reached its lowest level in five years, spurred in part by the rush of people seeking work abroad, government figures show. But although July's jobless rate fell to 15.7% from 16% in June, it is still the highest in the European Union. The government has worried about Poles leaving to work in other EU countries since Poland became a member in 2004. The news comes amid plans by Polish officials to persuade UK-based Poles of job opportunities back home.

Brain drain
Earlier this week, officials from the south western city of Wroclaw said they would travel to Britain to convince Polish migrants that more job opportunities exist in Wroclaw than when Poland entered the European Union. The officials - who are worried about the brain drain seen in recent years - are planning on visiting the bars and pubs frequented by Poles in London to try and lure them back. They are concerned that a shrinking labour pool will mean Wroclaw will attracts less investment. Since reaching a high of 20.7% in 2003, Polish unemployment has fallen steadily. "Some people have found work in social jobs subsidised by the state Labour Fund. Many have also left the register of unemployed because they have left for work abroad," said the Labour Ministry on Friday. A final version of July's jobless figure will be posted later in August.

US, France agree UN Lebanon text BBC News
The US and France have agreed the wording of a UN resolution to end the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. It calls for a "full cessation of hostilities", demanding that Hezbollah halt all attacks and Israel stop all offensive military operations. A BBC correspondent at the UN says the wording would allow Israel some freedom if it argues it needs to defend itself. The US envoy to the UN said it was likely to be adopted within days. Israel has so far reacted cautiously. The UN Security Council began consultations on the draft resolution shortly after 1945 GMT on Saturday. Meanwhile the violence has continued, with Israeli commandos clashing with Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon. The Israeli army said eight soldiers were wounded and several militants were killed in the raid on an apartment in Tyre suspected of housing Hezbollah fighters in the city. Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets into northern Israel - more than 150 were fired on Saturday. Three women were killed in an attack on the northern Israeli Arab village of Arab al-Aramshe.

'Immediate cessation'
The draft resolution follows weeks of disagreement over the precise wording of a call to end the violence in Lebanon. US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, said he was keen to get the resolution adopted as quickly as possible. He said the text did not include a requirement for an immediate cessation of hostilities. But it does call for "the immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military actions". The draft text - sent to all 15 member states in the security council - also calls for the current UN force in Lebanon to monitor any cessation in fighting. The mandate for a far stronger multinational force will follow, the BBC's James Robbins at the UN in New York says. Swift passage of the resolution now seems likely, he says, and a formal vote could come as soon as Monday. Foreign ministers are expected to come to New York for that vote, to give the maximum political weight to a global call to all sides to stop fighting, and work for a long-term political settlement, our correspondent adds. Israeli cabinet minister Isaac Herzog called the text an "important development", but said Israel needed to know all the details before responding. Until the resolution came into force, the operation against Hezbollah would continue, he said. A Lebanese cabinet minister from Hezbollah, Mohammad Fneish, said the organisation would abide by the proposed resolution only if Israel withdrew all of its troops from Lebanon. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair welcomed news of the agreement, calling it "an absolutely vital first step in bringing this tragic crisis to an end".

Aid warning
Meanwhile, US envoy David Welch held talks in Beirut with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, the leader of the Shia Amal movement and a possible conduit to Hezbollah. Mr Welch said he appreciated hearing the two men's concerns as they discussed ways forward, and he reaffirmed US support for Lebanon. But the BBC's Nick Childs in Beirut said Mr Welch's statement was careful and cautious, with no hint of a breakthrough. As the violence on the ground continues, the Israeli army has warned residents in the Lebanese city of Sidon to stay away from rocket launching sites. In other developments:

• Lebanese officials say a Lebanese soldier and at least four civilians were killed in the Israeli raid on Tyre
• Hezbollah says it repelled the commando attack, and fires more missiles at the northern Israeli city of Haifa in retaliation, wounding five people
• An Israeli soldier has died after coming under Hezbollah mortar fire in the eastern village of Taibeh
• Thousands march in London, UK, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon

Aid agencies have warned of difficulties in delivering supplies to hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the fighting, after four bridges on the main coastal highway north from Beirut were destroyed on Friday. "Now the main highway is bombed we have a major, major setback... it's like a de facto blockade at the moment," Astrid van Genderen Stort, spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency told the BBC.

Mexico full poll recount rejected BBC News
Mexico's electoral body has rejected a request by left-wing candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador for a full recount of votes from July's disputed election. Instead, the electoral tribunal's seven judges ordered a partial recount. Mr Lopez Obrador has repeatedly said a ballot-by-ballot recount is the only way to restore faith in Mexico's electoral system. The 2 July vote gave victory to the conservative candidate, Felipe Calderon, by less than 1%. The electoral tribunal ordered the recount of votes at 11,839 of the country's almost 130,500 polling stations. In Mexico City's central Zocalo square, thousands of Mr Lopez Obrador's supporters chanted "Vote-by-vote!" as they watched the tribunal's session on a huge screen. Protesters blocked the entrance to the tribunal, after the decision was announced. "If there is no solution, there'll be revolution," they shouted. Representatives of Mr Lopez Obrador walked out of the tribunal's session in protest. Mr Lopez Obrador has challenged the election result, saying the vote was rigged. He has said he will not accept a partial recount, raising fears of prolonged public unrest. Hundreds of thousands of people in Mexico have been holding rallies to support Mr Obrador. Mr Calderon says his victory was irreversible, and his conservative National Action Party has described Mr Lopez Obrador's claims as "schizophrenic". The dispute has paralysed Mexican politics, correspondents say. A president-elect must be declared by 6 September to replace Vicente Fox on 1 December.

Congo poll count raises concerns BBC News
Serious concerns are being raised about the counting of votes in the Democratic Republic of Congo's first multi-party elections in 40 years. International observers, who praised Sunday's relatively peaceful vote, say they have seen votes dumped and voting tallies that do not add up. Human Rights Watch said foreign observers' work in the eastern region of Ituri was being severely restricted. More than 25 million people were eligible to vote in the election. Polling day saw a high-turnout of voters and very little violence. Both the US-based Carter Center and the UN mission in the Congo (Monuc) hailed the process as generally peaceful and orderly. But in recent days, concerns have grown over the counting of the ballots.

Dumped votes
Anneke van Woudenberg, of Human Rights Watch (HRW), said she had seen for herself the dumping of large numbers of ballots outside counting offices. There were also concerns over voting numbers that do not add up, a lack of verification of original ballot papers and an increasing number of null votes, she said. She said international observers, including HRW, in Ituri "have been asked not to partake very much in the observation, not to ask questions, not to look at ballot papers... basically severely limiting the possibility of being able to observe the count." Such concerns were echoed by observers in the capital, Kinshasa, where voting material has also been seen dumped and even burnt. Colin Stewart of the Carter Centre - an independent body set up by former US President Jimmy Carter- said some officials had to wait three days for the ballots to be collected, and in the end had little option but to throw them into the back of trucks. But he said that while things had fallen apart since polling day, there was nothing to suggest it was as a result of any widespread conspiracy. "Certainly, the mess in the collection of data appears to be just a logistical mess," he told the BBC. "The plan to collect materials appears not to have been thought through properly, and certainly wasn't implemented, and then attempts to rectify the situation actually made things worse." Because of the large size of the country, a final tally is unlikely to be available for several weeks. Thirty-two candidates, including incumbent Joseph Kabila, contested the presidency, while more than 9,000 candidates stood for parliament. The voters were protected by 17,000 UN peacekeepers, most of them stationed in the east.

Two arrested over Hermitage theft BBC News
Russian police have held two suspects over the theft of more than 200 items from the famous Hermitage art museum, Russian news agencies report.The arrests are said to have come after police pursued a lead from an antique dealer who on Friday returned one of the stolen items. The theft - with an estimated value of $5m - was discovered in July. The Hermitage in St Petersburg is home to a massive collection of sculpture, paintings and historic artefacts. The two men held are suspected of stealing pieces of jewellery, silverware and icons over the past six years. Investigators found about 100 pawn tickets for jewellery in the possession of one of the suspects, according to the Itar-Tass news agency. The men have been also linked to one of the museum's curator who died suddenly at work when the inventory was being checked in July. "We cannot comment on details of this investigation but we can say that there has been significant progress," Boris Boyarksov, head of the state heritage watchdog, told Russia's Channel One TV.

'Strange aspects'
The Hermitage, one of the world's most famous art museums, has more than two-and-a-half million works of art, housed in more than 1,000 rooms. The museum said staff had been involved after the theft was discovered earlier this week. "There are many strange aspects of this affair, but unfortunately, there is no doubt that it did not happen without the participation of museum staff," a museum statement said. It said the affair had exposed "serious moral problems" among staff, who had "neglected their duties and responsibilities". The items had not been on show in the public galleries, but had been kept in storage. Many of the rooms in the museum have poor ventilation and security, with staff often opening windows to let in fresh air, the AP news agency said. The Hermitage collection includes world-famous masterpieces of Impressionist and Flemish art, and was started by Russian empress Catherine the Great in 1764. The museum statement said the affair showed the acute need for fundamental reform of the management and culture in Russia's museums, which were struggling to survive.

Tiger rebels pull back fighters BBC News
Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka have pulled back from the north-east town of Muttur after more than a week of heavy fighting with government troops. The rebel group said it had achieved its objective. The military says the town, in Trincomalee district, is now back in government hands. At least 20 people have been killed and thousands have fled the worst violence between the two sides in four years. But the reason for the dispute is not yet resolved, a BBC correspondent says. The Maavilaru sluice gate, which the Tigers are accused of closing to highlight Tamil grievances, has not yet been opened. The government said it launched the offensive to save thousands of farmers who rely on the Maavilaru canal for vital water supplies. Muttur has been cut off for several days as both sides traded mortar and artillery fire. Aid agencies complained of being unable to reach civilians because they had failed to get security guarantees. More than 20,000 people are believed to have left the mainly Muslim town on Friday seeking safety in neighbouring towns. The military has accused the Tigers of killing 100 civilians during the exodus. There was no immediate reaction to the claim from the rebel group.

Crisis talks
A Tamil Tiger military spokesman, Irasaiah Ilanthiayan, told the pro-rebel TamilNet website that the fighters had returned to their own territory. "Our objective of the mission, with a defensive character, was accomplished and our forces returned to their positions," he said. A Tigers source told Reuters news agency: "It was a limited operation, and we are doing this on humanitarian grounds." He added that the Tigers wanted people to return home. The call for residents to return was echoed by the Sri Lankan army. "We have the town totally under our control. We tell the people to come back and resume their normal lives," Major Nalin Jayatillaka, commanding officer for Muttur, said. Norwegian envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer is expected to meet rebel leaders on Sunday to discuss the crisis. He has already met senior government officials. Casualties are hard to verify but the army says at least 23 soldiers have been killed since the military launched its latest offensive. The rebels have lost 32 fighters, according to the statement on the TamilNet website. The International Committee of the Red Cross told the AFP news agency it was unable to verify claims of civilian casualties or massacres because it had not had access to the area.

Turkey begins controversial dam BBC News
Turkey has begun building a major dam, despite criticism that the project will ruin an ancient archaeological site and displace thousands of people. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan led a ceremony to begin work on the Ilisu dam in the south-eastern Turkey. Turkey says the $1.55bn project will help irrigate vast areas of farmland and provide vital energy. Critics argue that it will destroy ruins and artefacts at the Hasankeyf site dating back thousands of years. Some 4,000 protesters held an overnight vigil near the dam site on the River Tigris, about 45km (28 miles) north of the Syrian border.

Controversial project
"The step that we are taking today demonstrates that the south-east is no longer neglected," Mr Erdogan said during the ground-breaking ceremony. "This dam will bring big gains to the local people," he said. Ankara hopes that the dam - part of a long-term plan to develop the poor, mainly Kurdish region - will create up to 10,000 jobs, irrigate farmlands and attract tourists. The government has promised to compensate local people who will lose their homes and that all the valuable artefacts will be relocated before the dam's completion in 2013. But opponents say the most important items - including a 12th century palace in the city of Hasankeyf, mosques and cave dwellings - will be destroyed. They are now taking their case to the European Court of Human Rights. In 2001, Britain's engineering company Balfour Beatty pulled out of the project, citing "environmental, commercial and social complexities". Italian building firm Impregilo and Switzerland's largest bank, UBS, have also withdrawn from the project. The area where the dam is being built has seen more than a decade of fighting between the Turkish army and Kurdish rebels that left some 37,000 people dead.

Dozens die in South China storm BBC News
The death toll from Tropical Storm Prapiroon in southern China has risen to at least 48, with 15 people still missing, state media report. The storm made landfall on Thursday in Guangdong and has also affected the provinces of Hunan, Guangxi and Hainan. It has forced the evacuation of some 530,000 people and caused an estimated 2.4bn yuan ($300m) worth of damage. Prapiroon was downgraded from a typhoon on Friday but continues to pound the region with winds and rain. It has caused transport chaos in recent days, with thousands of passengers stranded at Hong Kong airport. More than six million people were affected by the typhoon, officials said.

Rescue
The latest fatalities include six migrant farm workers whose shelter was swept away by a flash flood in the city of Laibin in Guangxi province, Xinhua news agency said. Earlier, Xinhua reported that one person was killed in a landslide in the same province, where hundreds of houses and hundreds of acres of farmland have been destroyed. Three people died in a landslide in Guangdong, while two more deaths were caused by lightning. Three more were killed when walls or billboards fell down, Xinhua said. A 25-year-old policeman trying to rescue survivors was killed by a mudslide in Sihui city, Guangdong, the Guangzhou Daily newspaper reported. State television showed pictures of police and soldiers carrying children through chest-deep, fast flowing water. At Hong Kong airport, the cancellation of more than 800 flights on Thursday left thousands of passengers stranded. More flights were delayed on Friday, as were flights from Nanning in Guangxi.

Typhoon Bilis
Ferries between Hainan island, south of Guangdong, and the mainland were suspended before the typhoon arrived, while rail services were also disrupted. More than 53,000 fishing vessels were recalled to harbour, but 68 people had to be rescued from a barge off the Guangdong coast, Xinhua said. Eleven million mobile phone text messages were sent warning the public ahead of the typhoon's arrival, Guangdong's provincial government said on its website. Prapiroon, which means "God of Rain" in Thai, also killed six people in the Philippines. Southern China has been hit hard by typhoons this season. More than 600 people died when Typhoon Bilis struck six southern provinces last month. Hunan was worst affected, with hundreds killed in flash floods and landslides. Bilis was followed by Typhoon Kaemi, which caused further destruction in the area.

9/11 film criticised by families BBC News
Families of the victims of 11 September have criticised film director Oliver Stone for failing to give their campaigns enough support.Ten per cent of the opening weekend takings for Stone's controversial World Trade Center film will go to charity. But Monica Iken, who lost her husband Michael in the attacks, says she is "very disappointed" with the figure. "I want to ask them if the movie is well-received to give more money to the memorial," she said. Mrs Iken runs the September's Mission charity, which supports the development of a memorial park on the former site of the World Trade Center. She called for screenings to include information on how to donate.

'Request refused'
Another relative, Carie Lemack, complained that Stone and film company Paramount Pictures had refused to screen brief public service announcements before the film. "The best way for Oliver Stone and anyone in Hollywood to honour those who were killed in 9/11 is to make sure that it never happens again," said Lemack, whose mother Judy Larocque was a passenger on one of the hijacked flights."We asked him to show 15 or 30 second public service announcements and he declined. Paramount declined." She wanted cinema-goers to be shown short films encouraging them to contact politicians to find out what had been done to prepare for future disasters, whether man-made or natural. "I just wish that the movies would engage the American people, not just leave them feeling sad but instead feeling empowered," she added.

Mixed reviews
The World Trade Center film, starring Nicolas Cage, tells the true story of two police officers thought to have been the last survivors pulled from the rubble of the Twin Towers. It has received mixed reviews in the US.Variety praised Stone for "presenting this challenging, fact-based story with admirable restraint". Entertainment Weekly called it a "scrupulous and honourable film", but said there was a "fundamental lack of dramatic urgency". The film, which also stars Crash actor Michael Pena, had its world premiere in New York on Thursday. It will open in the wider US on 9 August. Five percent of box-office receipts from 9 to 13 August will go to the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, which is building a $500m memorial on the site. The other 5% will be shared equally by three charities: Tuesday's Children, which helps children who lost a parent; the Tribute WTC Visitor Center, due to open this summer; and the New York Police and Fire Widows' and Children's Benefit Fund.

LRA leaders declare ceasefire BBC News
The Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has announced a unilateral ceasefire, with immediate effect. The rebel movement's deputy leader Vincent Otti told the BBC he had ordered all field commanders to cease all hostilities against Uganda's army. Ugandan Interior Minister Ruhakana Rugunda said his government would wait to see what happened on the ground, in response to the announcement. The peace talks are due to resume in the Sudanese town of Juba next week. In a phone call to the BBC's Focus on Africa programme, Mr Otti announced: "I, Lt Gen Vincent Otti, second in command of the LRA, by the order of Gen Joseph Kony, chairman of the LRA High Command, do hereby declare a unilateral cessation of hostilities. "I order all our field commanders to, with immediate effect, cease all form of hostilities against the Ugandan People's Defence Forces (UDPF) positions and others. "I do hope that the government of Uganda shall reciprocate this gesture of goodwill so that the warring parties may finally find a bilateral agreement to provide a peaceful atmosphere for our people," Mr Otti said.

Refusing talks
The LRA rebel movement has refused to send its most senior leaders to peace talks with the government. Southern Sudanese vice-president and head mediator, Riek Machar had asked for the group's top leaders to take part after earlier peace talks failed. On Thursday Mr Otti told the BBC that Juba was not safe because an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant for the LRA leaders' arrest was still in force and Ugandan government forces were present in the town. On Tuesday, Mr Kony held his first formal meeting with Mr Machar and a Ugandan official in a forest clearing on the border between Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This was hailed as a significant move, since the failure of earlier talks had been attributed in part to the negotiators not being sufficiently high-ranking to strike a deal. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has offered the rebels a full and guaranteed amnesty and protection as long as they renounce violence. Thousands of civilians have died in the 20-year conflict and more than one million have been forced to flee their homes.

Israeli strike 'kills 40 people' BBC News
An Israeli air strike has killed more than 40 people in the southern Lebanese border village of Houla, Lebanon's prime minister has said.Fouad Siniora told an Arab foreign ministers meeting in Beirut that there had been "a horrific massacre". At least 20 people died in earlier Israeli raids across Lebanon, as troops fought Hezbollah in the south. The violence comes after at least 15 people were killed in Israel on Sunday - the country's deadliest day so far. Diplomats are battling to find a workable truce amid the escalating violence, and Arab ministers are discussing a strategy on a ceasefire in Beirut. "An hour ago, there was a horrific massacre in the village of Houla in which more than 40 martyrs were victims of deliberate bombing," Mr Siniora told the meeting. He broke down during the address, in which he appealed to Arab states for support against Israel's "horrific actions". The Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz has said Israel will step-up its offensive against Hezbollah rocket launching sites if the diplomatic process does not reach a successful conclusion. More than 900 Lebanese, most of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict, the Lebanese government says. More than 90 Israelis, most of them soldiers, have also been killed. Humanitarian groups say Israeli military action is hampering efforts to help many of the hundreds of thousands who have fled the fighting - sparked by the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah on 12 July.

Tyre isolated
Details on the Houla strike are still sketchy, but local sources said the bombing destroyed several houses in the village. The attack came as Israeli jets also hit southern Beirut and parts of the east and south, cutting off the city of Tyre. The BBC's John Simpson in Tyre says a crater now blocks the farm track used to transport food and medicine to the city. The air attacks came amid further clashes on the ground, while Hezbollah fired more rockets at Israel. United Nations sources say Israeli commandos have been on the border hilltops since Sunday, trying to destroy Hezbollah positions. The Israeli army said one of its soldiers and five Hezbollah militants died in combat in the village of Bint Jbeil. The Shia militia said it killed four Israeli soldiers near Houla, but Israel said a number of its troops were slightly wounded. The clashes follow exchanges on Sunday, when Hezbollah rocket-fire killed 12 Israeli reservist soldiers in the town of Kfar Giladi and three people in the port of Haifa.

Ceasefire talks
As fighting continues, UN Security Council members are expected to renew talks on the resolution aimed at stopping the conflict.They are expected to discuss possible changes to a draft document to take account of Lebanese objections: Beirut is seeking a specific reference to a timetable for Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. Correspondents say no vote is likely until Tuesday at the earliest. The text calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities and lays the groundwork for a second that would install an international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon. Senior Israeli officials have said they are broadly happy with the text. Arab foreign ministers meeting in Beirut are widely expected to endorse Lebanon's position.

Nepal talks 'stall on monarchy' BBC News
The deputy chief of Nepal's Maoist rebels says peace talks with the government could break down if it insisted on retaining monarchy. Baburam Bhattarai said Nepalese people favoured abolishing the monarchy. The rebels have extended a ceasefire but urged the government to advance talks. Mr Bhattarai said they would continue their "fight" if talks failed. The rebels called a truce after King Gyanendra ended direct rule and restored parliament in April. The Maoists and a seven-party alliance clinched a landmark power-sharing deal in June. The government and rebels have differed recently over a government plan for the United Nations to be involved in the decommissioning of the rebels' weapons. The two sides have also differed on the future of monarchy in the country.

Peaceful movement
The number two in the Maoist communist party told a meeting of businessmen in the capital, Kathmandu, that the peace talks with the government were stalled. "The talks are very close to collapse. The dialogue process is stuck at a very sensitive stage," Mr Bhattarai was quoted as saying by the Reuters news agency. He said his party would not return to the jungle and would launch a peaceful movement in order to make the country a democratic republic. Mr Bhattarai accused the government of "dragging its feet" away from "all the agreements reached between us and also trying to protect the king". The rebel leader also accused Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala of trying to protect King Gyanendra, who gave up direct power in April following weeks of pro-democracy demonstrations. He said that if it was trying to protect the monarchy, the Maoists would launch a new struggle; but this would, he stressed, remain peaceful. The BBC's Charles Haviland in Kathmandu says that talks between the government and the rebel party are deadlocked, mainly over whether or not the Maoists should be fully disarmed before joining an interim government. Our correspondent says that some analysts believe Dr Bhattarai, known for his hardline rhetoric, may be trying to shift attention away from the weapons issue to the question of the monarchy. Mr Koirala has been advocating a ceremonial role for the monarchy since it was stripped of its powers and privileges in May. "We want to caution and warn him [Mr Koirala] that we will be compelled to leave if the government continues to protect the monarchy," Mr Bhattarai said. He said his party was not ready to lay down arms unless the outcome of the Constituent Assembly elections became public. The political landscape has been shaken-up since the king restored representative rule. Opposition parties have since joined the government. The new government has released rebels from jail, dropped terrorism charges against them and agreed to the ceasefire. But differences remain between the two sides, particularly over the future of the monarchy. The rebels hope elections will clear the way towards abolition of the monarchy. More than 13,000 people have died in violence in Nepal since the rebels began their fight for a republic 10 years ago. During the insurgency, there have been two other sets of peace talks, three years ago and five years ago.

Somalia's leaders sack government BBC News
The leaders of Somalia's crisis-ridden interim government say they have resolved their differences and agreed to dissolve the cabinet. Some 40 ministers have quit the cabinet over the prime minister's opposition to peace talks with the Islamist militias who control the capital, Mogadishu. The crisis had caused a rift between President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Ghedi. Mr Ghedi's government controls little more than Baidoa, where it is based. "The bloated cabinet of Ali Mohamed Ghedi's government did not do anything during its tenure," President Yusuf announced in parliament. "From today onwards, the government has been dissolved - only the prime minister will remain." In terms of the agreement, the prime minister is to appoint a new cabinet of 31 ministers within seven days.

Mediator
Prime Minister Ghedi said that although his government had survived a democratic vote of no confidence, "the political differences which resulted from there have been thrashed out and we're now together to serve Somali interests". The announcement reportedly follows the intervention of Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin as mediator between the two factions in the Somali government. Ethiopia is the main regional ally of the interim government. The Union of Islamic Courts, whose militia control Mogadishu, condemned Ethiopia's mediation. "The arrival of the Ethiopian delegation in Baidoa is just another proof that the government of Somalia is a puppet of Ethiopia," said Sheikh Yusuf Siad Indho Addeh, head of internal security of the UIC. Ethiopia and Eritrea have both denied accusations that they are fighting a proxy war in Somalia by backing, respectively, the interim government and the Islamists.

Resignations
The interim cabinet originally had more than 100 members, not all of whom had been approved by parliament. In the past 10 days a succession of ministers left the government, and Mr Ghedi narrowly survived a parliamentary vote of no confidence on Saturday. Mr Ghedi's opponents within the government and parliament believe he should have done more to seek a settlement with the UIC, whose militia have taken control of Mogadishu in recent months. Somalia has been without an effective central government since warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Since then much of the country has been ruled by violence and clan law. The UIC has been credited with success in bringing stability to Mogadishu for the first time in 15 years.

Hundreds lost in Ethiopia flood BBC News
Rescuers have been digging through mud and debris, looking for some 300 people still missing after floods in Ethiopia. They are reportedly digging with hands, garden tools and heavy equipment. Almost 200 people are thought to have died after a river burst its banks and floodwaters swept through the city of Dire Dawa in the east of the country. Hundreds of homes were destroyed when the Dechatu river flooded on Saturday. The local police commissioner said 39 of the dead were young children. "Family members have started burying the dead," regional police Inspector Beniam Fikru told AFP news agency from Dire Dawa, about 500 km from the capital, Addis Ababa. "In some cases, it is very difficult to identify them. "Relatives are reporting that around 300 people are missing, but the search goes on," he said.

Damage
Floodwaters damaged telephone and electricity lines and cut off the main road to Addis Ababa, further complicating the rescue efforts. The floods also swept away vehicles and livestock, and destroyed markets and shops, witnesses said. Over the past two years flooding has afflicted several areas of eastern and southern Ethiopia, killing hundreds and displacing hundreds of thousands. Thousands of Dire Dawa's estimated 250,000 residents have been displaced by the flooding. Flooding often hits low-lying parts of Ethiopia between June and September, when heavy showers fall on regions that are dry for most of the year. Last year at least 200 people were killed - some by crocodiles in the floodwaters - when heavy rains pounded the same region. The flooding also caused millions of dollars worth of damage, particularly to small farmers.

Sri Lanka deaths stun aid agency BBC News
The head of a French aid agency says they are "stunned" by the murder of 15 of their workers in north-eastern Sri Lanka over the weekend. Benoit Miribel said that members of Action Against Hunger had so far been unable to recover the bodies. The Sri Lankan government has promised an independent investigation into the killings of the 11 men and four women. In a separate development, military officials say that a senior policeman has been killed by a bomb near Kandy. A government spokesman told the Associated Press news agency that Upul Seneviratne, was killed by a "suspected rebel bomb" near the famous Buddhist holy city in the centre of the country. "By all accounts we have, he was killed by the terrorists," the spokesman said. Mr Seneviratne was in charge of the Special Task Force, a counter-terrorism commando unit.

Renewed shelling
The Paris-based Action Against Hunger group (AAH) said that the 15 employees were shot over the weekend in Muttur, where they helped survivors of the December 2004 tsunami and people affected by violence in the country. Mr Miribel, the Director-General of AAH, said that the charity had not suffered such a loss in its 25 years of existence. The organisation says that it is now reviewing its presence in the country. Mr Miribel said the group wanted to send a team to the area but was prevented from doing so by soldiers. The government has said that it will order a "clean and independent" probe into the killings of the 11 men and four women who worked for AAH. "We can't come to conclusions right now but if the story is correct, it will be a very high priority investigation," Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe told the French news agency, AFP. Fighting between the army and Tamil Tiger rebels erupted in the Muttur area more than two weeks ago, after the rebels cut the water supply to mostly Sinhalese villages. The army on Monday is reported to have resumed shelling of rebel positions in the north-eastern district of Trincomalee. The attacks came despite a Tamil Tiger agreement to allow the reservoir to be reopened and a warning by the rebels that they would regard renewed shelling as a declaration of war.

Retaliation
A pro-Tamil Tiger website blamed the government for the killings but the military rejected the claim. "We did not have people in the area at the time they were supposed to have been killed," military spokesman Upali Rajapakse told the AFP news agency. The Tigers on Monday offered unconditionally to re-open a sluice gate to let water through to farmers in government-controlled lands. The head of the rebel movement's political wing, SP Thamilselvan, said the government's decision to resume shelling on Sunday was "a declaration of war". The Muttur fighting has been some of the island's fiercest since the signing of a ceasefire agreement four years ago. The government says it is committed to the truce but the political situation with the rebels, who want a separate homeland in the north and east, remains deadlocked. About 60,000 people have died since the rebel insurgency started three decades ago.

Philippine volcano 'set to erupt' BBC News
The Philippine authorities have ordered the evacuation of about 35,000 people living near a volcano, saying an eruption could take place soon. The alert was raised to four - the second highest level - following increased activity at Mount Mayon, in the centre of the country. It has been rumbling since February and started emitting lava in mid-July. Mayon is the most active volcano in the Philippines, having erupted about 50 times in the past 400 years. People living in the region watched with alarm early on Monday as six successive volcanic blasts within 40 minutes sent ash up to 800m into the air. By mid-morning, Mayon's peak was covered in a dark cloud of volcanic material rising high above the crater. "This morning we recorded at least six small explosions and this signifies that Mayon is almost ready to burst," said Ernesto Corpus, chief of eruption prediction at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs). Officials took the decision to raise the alert level to four, which means that an eruption could happen within days. Level five represents an ongoing eruption.

Moving out
The army has sent 80 trucks to take villagers living within 8km (five miles) of the crater to 34 evacuation centres. The governor of Albay province, Fernando Gonzalez, said 29 villages around the volcano would be evacuated. But provincial officials said some residents were reluctant to leave their land, fearing looters. Defence Secretary Avelino Cruz said the evacuation was going well, but warned that police would remove those who refused to leave. "If we have to carry them out bodily into the truck and get them out of the zone, the Task Force Mayon will do that," he told a press conference. Officials said about 50,000 residents would be evacuated if a major eruption occurred, and a Phivolcs advisory urged people living in nearby areas to prepare to leave. The Philippines lies on the Pacific ring of fire, where volcanic activity and earthquakes are common. Mayon is one of 22 active volcanoes in the Philippines. Its most violent eruption, in 1814, killed more than 1,200 people. Another 75 people died during an eruption in 1993.

UN wrangle amid Lebanon fighting BBC News
Israel launched about 80 air strikes against Lebanon overnight, as diplomats at the UN consider possible changes to a draft resolution to end the fighting.More than 40 Hezbollah buildings were targeted after the militant group fired more than 140 rockets on Israel. At least 15 people were reported killed when a predominantly Shia area of Beirut was hit late on Monday. Meanwhile an Israeli soldier died in clashes with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, the Israeli military said. Lebanon has told army reservists to report for duty after the cabinet decided to send 15,000 soldiers to the southern border area once the Israelis pull out. Cabinet ministers who are members of Hezbollah or loyal to the group have given their backing to the government plan. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert described the plan as an "interesting step" and said his government would study it. He told a news conference that such a move had to be accompanied by the disarming of Hezbollah guerrillas."The faster we leave south Lebanon, the happier we will be, especially if we have achieved our goals," he said. An Arab League delegation is expected to push Lebanon's demands at the UN for an immediate Israeli withdrawal. The current text - drafted by the US and France - calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities and lays the groundwork for a second resolution that would install an international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon. Correspondents say the UN Security Council will vote, at the very earliest, on the draft resolution on Tuesday, but the US and France will be reluctant to see the vote delayed very long for fear that the whole plan could collapse. And UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said the resolution should be secured without delay. "Let's get the resolution which will call for the cessation of hostilities and ... that will give us the space in which to deal with the long term solution," he told the BBC. Senior Israeli officials have said they are broadly happy with the resolution's text.

Rocket barrage
UN officials have warned of a deteriorating humanitarian situation in Lebanon, as aid agencies face problems with access to parts of southern Lebanon.Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev told the BBC Israel was trying to co-ordinate aid efforts with the international community but could not assume every lorry was carrying aid rather than weapons. Monday was one of the deadliest days in almost a month of fighting, triggered by the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah in a cross-border raid. Rescuers in Beirut said at least 15 people had been killed in one of Israel's evening air strikes, in which a building collapsed. Israel has not yet commented on the reports. But earlier, Mr Olmert said Israel considered civilian casualties as a failure, while Hezbollah saw them as a success. Israeli air strikes on Lebanon were met by the militant group Hezbollah with a barrage of more than 140 rockets, wounding some Israeli civilians. There were more attacks on Tuesday morning. In southern Lebanon, one Israeli soldier died and five were wounded as the troops accompanied an engineering corps vehicle which was hit by an anti-tank missile, an Israeli military spokesman said. Fifteen Hezbollah fighters were also killed, he added.

Leaflet drop
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora drastically revised down the death toll of an Israeli air strike in the village of Houla, where he initially said 40 people had died when a building collapsed on them. A UN spokesman later said five people had died in the attack. More than 900 Lebanese, most of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict, the Lebanese government said. More than 90 Israelis, most of them soldiers, have also been killed. Israeli Defence Minster Amir Peretz said Israel was preparing to occupy more areas of southern Lebanon from which Hezbollah rockets are being fired. He is proposing an advance to the Litani river, up to 30 km (18 miles) north of the Israeli border. Israeli planes have been dropping leaflets in the city of Tyre - which is south of the river - warning residents to avoid travelling in any vehicle, which will be seen as a target for its forces. The Israeli cabinet will meet on Wednesday to discuss the expansion of military operations.

Baghdad blasts kill at least 19 BBC News
At least 19 people have been killed and scores hurt in a series of blasts in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.Two bombs claimed at least 10 lives and injured 69 people in a busy market in the al-Shurja district. Earlier, a bomb hit a minibus and a taxi in the centre of the city, killing at least nine people. Two other blasts targeted police, wounding three. The attacks come despite increased security in the city, as violence kills dozens every day across the country. Tuesday also saw an armed raid on a bank in the capital. Robbers killed three security guards and two bank officials and escaped with a large quantity of money. The violence came a day after at least 4,000 US troops were deployed on the streets of the capital in an attempt to reduce sectarian killings and kidnappings. Correspondents say the deployment is being seen as an admission that a two-month-old security operation involving 50,000 mostly Iraqi troops around Baghdad had failed to curb the violence.

Two more aid workers found dead BBC News
A French relief agency, Action Against Hunger, says two more of its workers have been found dead in the Sri Lankan town of Muttur.On Sunday, 15 aid workers were found dead in their compound lying face down and shot at close range. There has been widespread international outrage at the killings, which came as government and rebel forces fought over a water dispute. Both sides have accused each other of the killing of the aid workers. The two new bodies were found in a car - they had apparently been killed while trying to flee the scene of the attack on the aid group's compound. Action Against Hunger has suspended all its work in the area and says it is waiting for the results of a post mortem. The Sri Lankan government has promised an independent investigation into the killings of the workers - 13 men and four women. Separately on Tuesday, the Sri Lankan military said suspected Tamil Tiger rebels had ambushed a government patrol near an air force base in the north-east, killing one person and injuring two others.

Shock at killings
The Paris-based Action Against Hunger group (AAH) said that the 15 employees were shot over the weekend in Muttur, where they helped survivors of the December 2004 tsunami and people affected by violence in the country. AAH Director-General Benoit Miribel said the charity had not suffered such a loss in its 25 years of existence. It is now reviewing its presence in the country. Mr Miribel said the group wanted to send a team to the area but was prevented from doing so by soldiers. The killings have been strongly criticised by the international community. Amnesty International pressed the government to seek international help in its investigation. "While we welcome the government's statement that this investigation will be treated as a matter of high priority, we are concerned that other high profile cases of killings and disappearances remain unresolved months and even years after the crime," Natalie Hill, deputy Asia director of the watch group, said. Fighting between the army and Tamil Tiger rebels erupted in the Muttur area more than two weeks ago, after the rebels cut the water supply to mostly Sinhalese villages.

'Car bomb' hits Sri Lanka capital BBC News
At least two people have been killed and three injured by a powerful bomb blast in a residential area of the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, police say. The bomb is reported to have gone off near a school in a residential area of the city. Police say the target may have been a Tamil politician opposed to the Tamil Tiger rebels. The blast comes as the Tigers and military continue heavy fighting in the north-east of the island. "The blast was near St Paul's College. It was a van," a military spokesman told the Reuters news agency. A witness told the agency that one of the dead was a child. People nearby said they could see plumes of smoke rising above the scene of the blast.

Reuters drops Beirut photographer BBC News
The news agency Reuters has withdrawn from sale 920 pictures taken by a photographer after finding he had doctored two images taken in Lebanon. Bloggers first spotted that smoke on Adnan Hajj's image of the aftermath of an Israeli air strike in Beirut appeared to have been made darker. A Reuters investigation confirmed this and also found two flares had been added to an image of an Israeli jet. Mr Hajj told the BBC he denied doctoring the content of the images.He said had tried to clean dust off the first image, a shot of buildings in a suburb of Beirut, on which Reuters found smoke plumes had been darkened and expanded using computer software. "It was so badly done - an amateur could have done better," Bob Bodman, picture editor at the Daily Telegraph newspaper, told the BBC. Mr Hajj, a freelance photographer working for Reuters, denied altering the second photograph, an image of an Israeli F-16 fighter over Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon. "There's no problem with it, not at all," he said in a BBC interview.

'Lapse'
Paul Holmes, editor of political and general news at Reuters, told the BBC that senior photographers at the agency "weren't convinced" that cleaning dust off the first image would result in the manipulation the image showed. He said there had been a "lapse in our editing process", but stressed that Reuters had moved swiftly to address the issue and tighten editing procedures. Global picture editor Tom Szlukovenyi said all of Adnan Hajj's images had been removed from the company's database. He described it as a precautionary measure, but said the manipulation undermined trust in Mr Hajj's entire body of work. "There is no graver breach of Reuters standards for our photographers than the deliberate manipulation of an image," Mr Szlukovenyi said in a statement. Questions were raised about the accuracy of the image on Sunday in several weblogs - personal online diaries by writers known as "bloggers" - including ones which scrutinise media coverage of the Middle East for bias. Mr Holmes said Reuters welcomed the growth of weblogs, which had made the media "much more accountable and more transparent".

Israeli tanks push into Lebanon BBC News
Israeli armoured columns have pushed into Lebanese territory, as troops continue operations against Hezbollah.An Israeli army spokesman said the aim of the overnight raid was to quell rocket fire from the town of Khiam, about 7km (four miles) from the border. The move did not mark the start of a deeper push approved by the government earlier on Wednesday, he added. The security cabinet authorised a push towards the Litani River - which lies up to 30km (18 miles) into Lebanon. Israel says the objective of the planned wider offensive is to destroy Hezbollah positions in the region and prevent the group from firing rockets into Israel. The Israeli army also said on Wednesday that 15 of its soldiers had died in clashes in Lebanese border villages on Wednesday, the highest number in a single day since the conflict began. It added that 40 Hezbollah fighters had been killed in the fighting. Hezbollah fired more than 100 rockets into Israel during the day, but no casualties were reported. Lebanese Interior Minister Ahmed Fatfat told the BBC he did not understand why Israel was continuing its offensive when Lebanon's government - with the agreement of Hezbollah - had offered to deploy troops in the south. "We have a real proposal, two days ago, to send the Lebanese army there to make a real peace zone," he said. "So we didn't understand their reply. They really want war." But Israeli spokesman Mark Regev said that without "concrete action" from continuing UN negotiations, Israeli could not "sit by idly" as its cities were bombarded by Hezbollah rockets.

Diplomatic obstacles
At the UN, diplomats are attempting to reword a draft resolution calling for a ceasefire, to take in Lebanese and Arab League demands for an immediate Israeli withdrawal.On Wednesday differences surfaced again between France and the US - which co-sponsored the original draft - leading some diplomats to express concerns that diplomacy could collapse. But the BBC's Bridget Kendall at UN headquarters says that there is now a mood of cautious optimism. The five permanent members of the Security Council held a late-night meeting focusing on the main sticking points - how to get agreement on a ceasefire and Israeli troops out of southern Lebanon, without allowing Hezbollah to rebuild their positions. Correspondents say the members states are considering a French proposal to deploy Lebanese forces alongside the existing UN force, which would be strengthened, as the Israelis begin a phased withdrawal. The US has yet to respond - so far it has insisted that any Israeli withdrawal can only follow the deployment of a new, robust multi-national force. The new proposal is being discussed in members states' capitals before talks resume on Thursday. Hezbollah's leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, on Wednesday commented publicly for the first time on the original draft, describing it as "unfair and unjust". Correspondents say there is still a possibility that the vote - first mooted for early this week - could take place this week, although it may be delayed further. More than 1,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the month-old conflict, the Lebanese government has said. More than 100 Israelis, most of them soldiers, have also died. Israel invaded Lebanon after two of its soldiers were captured by Hezbollah in a cross-border raid on 12 July.

'Plot to blow up planes' foiled BBC News
A terrorist plot to blow up planes in mid-flight from the UK to the US has been disrupted, Scotland Yard has said. It is thought the plan was to detonate explosive devices smuggled on aircraft in hand luggage. Police have arrested about 18 people in the London area after an anti-terrorist operation lasting several months. Security at all airports in the UK has been tightened and delays are reported. MI5 has raised the UK threat level to critical - the highest possible. According to MI5's website, critical threat level means "an attack is expected imminently and indicates an extremely high level of threat to the UK". BBC home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford says he does not think the police believe an attack is imminent. "The reason for raising the threat level is in case there is some other sub-plot, back-up plot around this that the police aren't aware of," he said. Scotland Yard said in a statement that their investigation into the alleged plot was a "major operation" which would be "lengthy and complex". "We would like to reassure the public that this operation was carried out with public safety uppermost in our minds." Home Secretary John Reid confirmed that there had apparently been a plot "to bring down a number of aircraft through mid-flight explosions causing a considerable loss of life". Prime Minister Tony Blair is on holiday in the Caribbean, but Downing Street said the police operation was undertaken with his full support and he had been "in constant touch". A spokesman for Number 10 added that Mr Blair had briefed US President George Bush on the situation during the night.

Transparent bags
The Department for Transport set out the details of the security measures at UK airports. Passengers will not be allowed to take any hand luggage on to any flights in the UK, the department said. Only the barest essentials - including passports and wallets - will be allowed to be carried on board in transparent plastic bags. "We hope that these measures, which are being kept under review by the government, will need to be in place for a limited period only," the statement said.

'Jam-packed'
At Heathrow Airport, BBC presenter Fiona Bruce said there were "ranks of people" unable to get into the terminal. "Terminal One is completely at a standstill. Nobody is being checked in at all." She said it was "jam-packed", but passengers were managing to remain "good natured". BBC journalist Joe Lynam encountered the increased security measures at Gatwick airport. "I was handed a piece of paper saying that pretty much nothing could be taken on board the plane," he said. "Everything had to be checked in and that includes mobile phones, ipods, wallets - even spectacle cases had to be checked in." British Airways said that passengers who do not wish to fly on Thursday can rebook on flights leaving over the next two weeks. David Learmount from Flight International Magazine said he expected passengers to be searched much more carefully. He added: "This is the first time this measure has actually been taken. Certainly I've never seen hand luggage banned."

Israel seizes south Lebanon town BBC News
Israeli troops have seized the southern Lebanese town of Marjayoun, a day after the cabinet decided to expand ground operations, eyewitnesses say.Troops entered the town, 9km (5.5 miles) into Lebanon, as well as nearby villages overlooking the Litani river. Forces also advanced on the town of Khiam, to quell Hezbollah rocket fire. The army says the action is not the start of a broader offensive, which officials say has been delayed to give more time for diplomacy on the crisis. Wednesday saw fierce fighting in southern Lebanon, with 15 Israeli soldiers killed in action - the highest number in a single day since the conflict began almost a month ago. More than 1,000 people, most of them civilians, have now been killed in the hostilities, the Lebanese government has said. More than 100 Israelis, most of them soldiers, have also been killed.

Threats and diplomacy
On Wednesday the Israeli cabinet backed a push towards the Litani river, which lies up to 30km (18 miles) from the border. Speaking hours after the Israelis announced their expanded ground offensive, Hezbollah's leader said his guerrillas would turn southern Lebanon into a graveyard for Israeli soldiers.Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah endorsed a government plan to send 15,000 Lebanese soldiers to the south. But he repeated his opposition to the idea of sending international troops to the border region to disarm the Shia militia, as demanded by the Israelis and a draft UN resolution. At the UN, diplomats are attempting to reword the draft calling for a ceasefire, to take in Lebanese and Arab League demands for an immediate Israeli withdrawal. On Wednesday differences surfaced again between France and the US - which co-sponsored the original draft - leading some diplomats to express concerns that diplomacy could collapse. But the BBC's Bridget Kendall at UN headquarters says that there is now a mood of cautious optimism. The five permanent members of the Security Council held a late-night meeting focusing on the main sticking points - how to get agreement on a ceasefire and Israeli troops out of southern Lebanon, without allowing Hezbollah to rebuild their positions. Correspondents say the members states are considering a French proposal to deploy Lebanese forces alongside the existing UN force, which would be strengthened, as the Israelis begin a phased withdrawal. The US has yet to respond - so far it has insisted that any Israeli withdrawal can only follow the deployment of a new, robust multi-national force. The new proposal is being discussed in members states' capitals before talks resume on Thursday.