The Israeli army dropped phosphorous bombs against Hezbollah guerrilla targets in Lebanon during the war there this summer, an Israeli Cabinet minister said today, confirming Lebanese allegations for the first time.

Israel’s Cabinet approved the UN ceasefire deal after a stormy debate today, clearing a key hurdle to ending the month-long war in Lebanon, the government said.

About 11,000 turkeys have died in what Israeli officials suspect is the country’s first outbreak of the dangerous H5N1 strain of bird flu, and officials will decide within hours whether to destroy tens of thousands of other birds, they said today.