Turkey pledges peacekeepers for Lebanon
Turkey on Tuesday became the first Muslim country with diplomatic ties to Israel to pledge troops to an expanding international peacekeeping force that will monitor a fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah. Hundreds of Lebanese army troops rolled into southern villages after Israeli soldiers withdrew from five of them, slow but steady steps toward implementing a U.N.-brokered peace plan agreed last month. In two of the villages, dancing women showered the soldiers with rice and men slaughtered sheep to fete their arrival, witnesses said. Full Story