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UNITED NATIONS-The cash-strapped Palestinian government on Monday received pledges of nearly $300 million in new aid on top of more than $7 billion promised last year, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said."We are grateful for the expressions of additional support over and beyond the Paris pledges,"Fayyad told a news conference following a meeting that discussed aid to the Palestinians on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.The new aid includes $150 million from the United States, $115 from the European Union and $15 million from Norway, chair of the committee that organized the meeting, the premier said.At a Paris conference last December, donors pledged $7.7 billion in aid over the next three years, but the Palestinians say only a fraction of that money has been paid.U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who attended the meeting, urged donor nations to follow through on their aid pledges to the Palestinian Authority."We need to make certain that everyone is paying attention to their Paris commitments to the Palestinians," Rice told reporters before the meeting.EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana also urged countries to deliver on their aid pledges.Arab nations, in particular, have been reticent to hand over aid money to the Palestinians but Rice said they had been "very attentive" of late.To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah....
