Middle Orient

 “Any Israeli incursion will have no political results if it does not achieve its declared goals, primarily an end to the rocketing of Zionist settlements in northern occupied Palestine,” Nasrallah said in remarks published on Monday.

The fighting took place in the Bint Jubeil area, north of Maroun al-Ras, and involved aerial and ground forces.

HASBAYA, Lebanon (Reuters) – Caught between Hizbollah rocket fire and Israeli air strikes, some residents of southern Lebanon are losing patience with the guerrilla group they blame for a war that is costing them lives.

GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli shells killed five people and wounded several others in the Gaza Strip on Monday, including two members of the same family who were riding a donkey cart when they were hit, Palestinian witnesses said.

PARIS (Reuters) – France and the United States worked together to oust Syria from Lebanon and, despite tactical differences due to divergent agendas in the region, they agree who is to blame for the current crisis — Hizbollah.

LONDON (Reuters) – Oil slipped below $74 a barrel on Monday due to diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict in the Middle East, a region that pumps almost a third of the world’s oil.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon will need billions of dollars in aid to recover from Israel’s war with Hizbollah, which has ruined many civil installations, hit tourism, forced businesses to close and forced hundreds of thousands to flee.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Two suicide bombers targeted Afghan and U.S.-led coalition troops in Afghanistan on Monday, amid a wave of such attacks before NATO takes over security in the country’s violent south.

Heavy fighting erupted today as Israeli ground forces pushed further into Lebanon, entering another Hezbollah stronghold, and 10 Israeli soldiers were wounded, the military said.

The Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, meets Tony Blair in London today as violence in Iraq reaches a new crescendo and senior Iraqi officials say the break up of the country is inevitable.