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/ 1 September 2006
Hope and despair coexist in the rubble of Bint Jbeil, the southern Lebanese town that saw some of the fiercest fighting of the war between Israel and the Hezbollah Shiite militia. ”Of course it will rebuild, sooner or later,” says Ali Hassan Bazzi (45) who stopped by the damaged shop of his friend Mohammed Bazzi (32).
In a tower high above his battle-scarred hilltop base, a United Nations peacekeeper from India keeps watch along the Lebanese border. An Israeli fortress bristling with antennas looms before him metres away across the frontier. The men of the 28-year-old United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) continue observing, patrolling and delivering humanitarian assistance in south Lebanon.
The front door of the seaside Hotel Monroe is padlocked but a uniformed soldier greets visitors who enter through the back. "Do you want to rent a room?" he asks from behind his desk. Forget it. The high-rise hotel has been closed "since the aggression" by Israel last month and there is no sign of when it will reopen, says the soldier who was not authorised to speak and did not give his name.
United Nations said hospitals were still overcrowded and lacked basic supplies to treat the mass of injured. The death toll rose to 6Â 234 while the number of those hurt in the disaster more than doubled to about 46Â 000, with more than 33Â 000 of them suffering serious injuries.
Thousands of desperate Indonesian quake survivors were still waiting for aid on Tuesday as they prepared for a fourth night under makeshift tents, despite pledges that help would come quickly. The death toll from Saturday’s powerful earthquake had risen to nearly 5Â 700.
Pakistan is doing ”more than its share” in the fight against terrorism, the country’s minister of foreign affairs said on Friday. Also, President Pervez Musharraf on Friday said all the estimated 1 400 foreign nationals studying in the country’s madrassas will have to leave the Islamic seminaries.