His Christian Democrat coalition cut back public spending, deregulated industry and privatised a number of publicly held companies. In an interview on Dutch television last night Mr Lubbers said he was innocent. He said: "All the reports have turned out to be hot air." But he said he was resigning because "the pressure from the press messages is continuing, the people that bring them out are continuing, and it's becoming too much."A STUBBORN FIGHTER FOR THE EUROPEAN DREAMAs the corridors at United Nations headquarters filled with speculation last Friday that Ruud Lubbers, high commissioner for refugees, may be forced to resign because of the resurfacing of sexual harassment allegations against him, some who knew him shook their heads. Overseeing a global staff of 6,000 in 115 countries, he watched over refugee programmes everywhere from Africa to Afghanistan.He served as prime minister of the Netherlands for a record 12 years, from 1982 to 1994, overseeing a free-market transformation. The army is scheduled to leave Gaza by the end of the year.The Knesset endorsed a compensation package last week worth about £500m to be shared among the 1,500 displaced families. If the ceasefire agreed with President Mahmoud Abbas's new Palestinian regime holds, Israel hopes to co-ordinate the pullout.As a further gesture, Israel cancelled restrictions yesterday on Palestinians under 35 leaving for Egypt via Gaza's Rafah crossing.
It also increased the number allowed to enter Israel from the Strip to 1,600 workers and 800 businessmen.Ariel Sharon, the right-wing Prime Minister who has fathered a left-wing agenda on his reluctant Likud Party, celebrated the pullout as "a vital step for the future of the state of Israel". Shimon Peres, his Labour deputy, said Israel had paid an enormous price in lives, resources and international reputation for its stay in Gaza.Although yesterday's 17-5 vote by the cabinet set a final seal on the evacuation, settler leaders vowed to continue fighting. "As a last resort," Emily Amrusi, their spokeswoman, said, "we'll bring more than 100,000 people to stop this expulsion with our bodies."Ministers hope, however, that more settlers will take the compensation and accept government help to move into Israel About 63 farming families have already signed up. Although he would divulge no figures, a spokesman forMr Sharon's disengagement team said "very many individuals and groups" were talking to them.The cabinet also approved by 20-1, with one abstention, a revised route for the West Bank separation barrier, part concrete wall, part razor-wire fence. After nearly 38 years of bitterly contested colonisation, the Israeli government has voted for the first time to evacuate Jewish settlements from Palestinian land.
But fish populations are still damaged because of the prevalence of a large predatory catfish, which is upsetting the ecological balance."The food pyramid is inverted. Not only are the fish small, but the largest fish are catfish which are carnivorous," Professor Curtis said. Although it is unlikely that all the marshes will be returned to their original state, the scientists believe that it is possible to restore most of them.. The scientists, from Iraq's University of Basra and Duke University in North Carolina, found partial recovery in many regions but with some still suffering from high soil salinity.Curtis Richardson, a wetlands expert at Duke University, told the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington DC that in the areas where recovery is going well, more than half of the species of birds have returned.The Iraqi marshes are an important wintering ground for species migrating between Africa and Siberia.
