IDF lifts 10 checkpoints across the West Bank

     The Israel Defense Forces removed on Thursday some ten checkpoints across the West bank, a measure Defense Minister Ehud Barak last week undertook to implement at a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Barak's bureau said the checkpoints were located close to the cities of Ramallah, Nablus, Tul Karm and Qalqilyah, and were removed as part of a series of moves aimed at improving the lives of Palestinians announced by the defense minister at the meeting with Rice. Also Thursday, Barak approved the allocation of NIS 8 million for the renovation of five large crossings in the West Bank. The Hawara checkpoint near Nablus is slated to be the first to be expanded and revamped. On Wednesday, Israel told the United States and the Palestinian Authority that it has implemented most of the "concrete steps" agreed to last week, chiefly the removal of 50 roadblocks in the West Bank and the dismantling of the Rimonim checkpoint east of Ramallah.(21,46)