As a humanitarian gesture the Italians gave them permission to stay for a year.

BBC: Last Updated: Wednesday, 16 January 2008, 12:19 GMT

She noted that in the 1970s and 1980s Hong Kong accepted refugees from Indochina, a humanitarian gesture not widely practiced around Asia.

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As a humanitarian gesture they provided financial and other aid to 300 to 400 individuals affected, and lobbied Burmese authorities to discontinue the practice.

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The latest violence comes a day after the Israeli government, in what has been described as a humanitarian gesture, handed over the remains of 91 Palestinians killed in attacks against Israeli targets over the past four decades.

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He described the move as "historic" and stressed it was a "non-political and solely humanitarian" gesture.

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He also had a deft appreciation of the mischievous power of gesture politics, sending "humanitarian aid" in the form of discounted fuel to one of the most deprived areas of New York's Bronx in 2005, and signing a gas deal with London in 2007 that funded cut-price bus fares for a quarter of a million of the British capital's poorest residents.

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