Following on from the official military censorship on the Israeli side, I should also mention the difficulties of reporting from the other side of the line.
Apart from the obvious hazards of driving around southern Lebanon while Israeli jets and drones are looking for targets, Hezbollah have checkpoints, not all of which are friendly according to some who have met them.
So we are short of information from the Hezbollah side of the fighting.
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We don't say, but perhaps we should, that some of our reporting of the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel is subject to reporting restrictions.
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We've been talking to a Beirut artist and musician calld Mazen Kerbaj.
He is orchestrating the sound of the bombing to make musique concrete.
He also has a .
Incursions by Israeli forces inside Lebanon are still being described as 'limted' or 'pinpoint'.
The number of Israeli casualties suggests they are meeting stiff restistance.
Historically, Israel does well in mobile wars, and does not like static engagements.
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Some proud claims at a tough time in these , including:
Lebanon is the only non-dictatorial country in the Arab world
And this from an Israeli Russian-language blog, written mainly by emigres from the former Soviet Union. translates a selection of posts about the war, written by Israeli women, in Russian.
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The blogs being written about the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and its impact on Lebanon are offering a unique insight.
Non-stop commentary on bombing raids
And especially worth reading some of the 383 (!) comments to this It's a sometimes breathless debate between Lebanese and Isaelis, including a comment from an IDF soldier...
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.... on the roots of the conflict
and more generally
The shape of the diplomatic effort to bring an end to the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel is becoming clearer - and harder for us to report on radio because this kind of talking takes place in secret and in code.
That means some speculation is needed to fill in the gaps.
We are getting some clues from the Italians, who are in touch with the Iranians, and from the French, who are in contact with the Israelis and the Lebanese government.
The elements of a deal under discussion are: a force to keep Hezbollah at a distance from Israel's border; a prisoner swap; and an end to rocket attacks on Israel.
There are though, a number of sharp differences in the way the parties are interpreting how such a deal would be implemented.
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Israel's ground incursions into Lebanon (in contrast to the massive air strikes) have been small and limited - so far.
The military logic I'm hearing, as described by intelligence analysts, suggests that the lull will only last so long.
The Lebanese government reports that Israel has offered outline ceasefire proposals through Italian mediators. The release of the two captured Israeli soldiers and a 30 km Hezbollah exclusion zone along the southern Lebanon border are the main demands.
But there are some factors which suggest Israel may take a tougher line to try to achieve what it would see as a more lasting outcome.
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You know you're getting too excited about technology when....
Well, in my case, when...you spend more time emailing tech support than your mother.
But here's some more ideas from the .
We've left my colleague Mike Lanchin, an expert on Central America (he lived there for more than a decade), to follow the anguished process by which Mexicans will finally learn who their president will be.
Once the candidate of the left, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, took the statesmanlike approach and made various comments about 'respecting the result' and 'political stability' we could tell the counting and perhaps recounting process could go on for many days.
And the likelihood of large scale street protests had diminished.
Keeping a big team on standby is expensive, and spending that money might deny us the opportunity to cover other stories on your behalf in the future.
Meanwhile, interesting comments in some of the blogs on the Mexico election.
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This blog would be poorer without you.
We especially enjoy your non-sequiturs. And pictures.
So non-sequitur pictures are really welcome.
So here's Bob Hall of New York's model space shuttle.
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One of our blog commentators accuses me of not seeing the wood for the trees in our coverage of the Mexican elections.
Which is as good an excuse as I can think of to show you this picture of a 2000-year-old tree in Oaxaca, southeast Mexico.
Two thousand! Imagine that. A reminder to all of us not to get too excited about daily news.
Because:
"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing." Macbeth Act V Sc V
Coming up to 11pm Mexico City time, and very confused reports of the presidential election result... we're expecting the electoral commission to give some kind of information.
But since they said the election had gone swimmingly while we were still interviewing frustrated voters who had waited hours only to be told there were no more ballot papers for them, we are wary of taking anything they say at face value.
In the square, the Zocalo, they're claiming victory for left-winger Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador - but that's not what the partial figures are showing.
While I'm waiting, I can upload some of the photos of the past few days....
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| 14:22 UK time, Thursday, 27 July 2006
