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July 2006

LEBANON: An environmental disaster looms

LEBANON: An environmental disaster looms

BEIRUT, 29 Jul 2006 (IRIN) - Lebanon is facing an environmental crisis after an Israeli air strike on the Jiyeh power station, about 20km south of Beirut caused 10,000 tonnes of oil to spill into the Mediterranean sea.

The air strikes on 13 and 15 July hit the power station’s fuel tanks and the leaking oil was pushed north by winds, and a thick sludge now coats much of the Lebanese coastline. At least 80km of the 200km coastline is affected.

Pray for Gaza

Riah Abu El-Assal is the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem. As presiding bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, he oversees the Anglican Church in Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Yesterday he issued the following statement on the crisis in the Middle East:

Dear Friends,

Quotes of the week

"I made it clear to the Congress that I will not allow our nation to cross this moral line. I felt like crossing this line would be a mistake, and once crossed, we would find it almost impossible to turn back."

- George W Bush, 19.7.06, speaking out against the innocent killing of human life. Not the people of Lebanon, but embryonic stem cells.

Two years on the blog

As I've said many times before there's nothing magical about the "blog", and certainly nothing exalted about the "blogger", but yesterday (July 21) was the second birthday of now.rickeyre.com in a blog format.

It started briefly on the Mambo CMS (now Joomla) before I turned to Wordpress. (Messages dated before July 2004 on this blog have been re-posted retrospectively, having been written elsewhere.)

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