SYDNEY, Australia -- Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday that mankind's "insatiable consumption" has scarred the Earth and squandered its resources, telling followers that taking care of the planet is vital to humanity.

As the sun set in the mild chill of the Australian winter, Benedict struck a theme that has earned him a reputation as the "green pope."

"Some of you come from island nations whose very existence is threatened by rising water levels, others from nations suffering the effects of devastating drought," the pope said, referring to global warming.

He noted that during his more than 20-hour flight from Rome to Sydney he had a bird's eye view of a vast swath of the world that inspired awe and introspection.

"Perhaps reluctantly we come to acknowledge that there are also scars which mark the surface of our Earth: erosion, deforestation, the squandering of the world's mineral and ocean resources in order to fuel an insatiable consumption," he said.

PREAH VIHEAR, Cambodia -- Cambodia and Thailand sent more troops Thursday to their disputed border region surrounding an 11th century temple -- despite agreeing to hold talks next week to avoid military action.

The standoff -- now in its third day -- is the latest escalation in a long-standing conflict over land that surrounds Preah Vihear temple, which is similar in style to the more famous Angkor Wat in northeastern Cambodia.

The confrontation came to a head last week when UNESCO approved Cambodia's application for World Heritage Site status for Preah Vihear. Protesters in Thailand have decried their government's decision to endorse the application, saying it undermines Thai claims to the territory.

They have also accused Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej of bypassing Parliament and backing the UNESCO application in exchange for business contracts for the cronies of toppled Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The Constitutional Court has ruled in the protesters' favor.

The border standoff began after three of the protesters crossed into Cambodia on Tuesday to visit the temple and were briefly detained.

NAHARIYA, Israel -- Thousands of Israelis prayed and cried at funerals Thursday for two soldiers whose return from Lebanon in black coffins touched off a nationwide wave of anguish.

Across the border, a second day of celebrations swept Lebanon for the five militants freed by Israel in exchange for the soldiers' bodies. The five prayed at the grave of a slain Hezbollah military commander and vowed to keep fighting Israel.

The contrast in moods was tangible. In Israel, sorrowful pictures and sounds of the funerals of the two soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, dominated TV and radio broadcasts through the day, the tears of the widows and parents shown over and over.

"Saying farewell to Udi and Eldad," read Channel 2's on-screen banner under video from one of the funerals as the station played a sad song of the death of a soldier usually reserved for Memorial Day.

Soldiers carried Regev's casket, draped with the blue and white Israeli flag, into the military cemetery in the northern city of Haifa. A military rabbi chanted as Regev's father leaned on another family member, who comforted him. Thousands of other mourners trailed behind.

Regev and Goldwasser were captured two years ago in a cross-border raid by Hezbollah fighters -- an attack that led to a 34-day war between Israel and the Islamic militant group in southern Lebanon.

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Five militants freed in a prisoner swap with Israel prayed and laid wreaths at the grave of a slain Hezbollah commander Thursday, vowing to fight Israel as supporters showered them with rice.

At the same time, eight tractor-trailers loaded with coffins carrying the remains of 199 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters returned by Israel in the swap made their way from south Lebanon to the capital Beirut. Villagers showered rice and rose petals on the coffins wrapped in Lebanese and Hezbollah flags and covered with flowers. A banner on one of the red and yellow trucks read, "The Martyrs of Victory."

The vehicles were stopped often along the route by throngs of supporters, some of them women relatives in black headscarves and clothing who held up pictures of those killed in fighting with Israel over the past three decades.

In Beirut, the five freed prisoners dressed in military fatigues walked a red carpet laid out for them to the grave of Imad Mughniyeh, a shadowy figure Israel and the West accused of masterminding terrorist bombings in the 1980s and 1990s.

He was killed in a car bomb in neighboring Syria in February which Hezbollah blamed on Israel. Israel denied it.

"We swear by God ... to continue on your same path and not to retreat until we achieve the same stature that God bestowed on you," said Samir Kantar, who had been the longest-held Lebanese prisoner in Israel.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said Thursday that police arrested him for alleged sodomy because of a personal vendetta among the top brass, and insisted they have no case against him.

"I don't deserve this. No Malaysian deserves this. Why treat me as a major criminal and a public enemy?" Anwar told reporters after being freed on $47,000 bail. "Mind you they have no case against me."

Anwar was arrested Wednesday for questioning over allegations that he sodomized a 23-year-old male aide -- the second time in a decade that such an accusation has threatened his political career. He was released Thursday after more than eight hours of interrogation.

Just before his arrest, Anwar made a complaint claiming that the Inspector General of Police Musa Hassan had fabricated evidence against him in his 1998 sodomy conviction.

"I take to task the IGP for this abuse of police power against me," Anwar said. "The nature of my unwarranted arrest, my overnight incarceration ... [was] an act of personal vengeance against me in retaliation to the report I launched against him."

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- Argentina's Senate narrowly rejected a grain-export tax package early Thursday, a government-backed proposal that has led to nationwide farm strikes and regional food shortages. Lawmakers rejected the bill by 37 votes to 36 after 17 hours of debate.

The vote was tied until vice president Julio Cobos -- who is also leader of the Senate -- broke the deadlock with a deciding vote against.

"I think today is the most difficult day of my life," Cobos said. "They tell me I must go along with the government for institutional reasons, but my heart tells me otherwise. May history judge me, my vote is not for, it's against."

Cobos had previously expressed concern about the motives behind tying the tax to the value of grain on the international markets.

Cobo's vote could lead to a political crisis. The vice president belongs to the Radical Civic Union party that has traditionally opposed the Peronist party headed by Fernandez.

President Cristina Fernandez decreed a more than 10 percent sliding-scale increase in export taxes on soy and other grains in March, in a bid to trap farm products on the Argentine market and drive down prices.

The proposed measure led to a confrontation between the government and the agricultural sector, one of the most powerful economic blocs in Argentina.

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's drug wars sunk to new depths Wednesday as the Mexican Navy announced that it had seized a submarine that was transporting cocaine off the nation's southern coast.

The Navy intercepted the 33-foot vessel about 125 miles south of Puerto de Salina Cruz in Oaxaca state. Navy spokesman Jose Luis Vergara said in a radio interview that special forces waited until it surfaced before rappelling from helicopters and overpowering the four-man crew.

Vergara called the submarine bust "unprecedented" for Mexico's Navy. "There were a lot of packages," he said. "It appears to be cocaine."

The Navy provided no information as to the identities or nationalities of the suspected drug runners.

Colombian authorities have captured more than a dozen such vessels over the past couple of years. Law enforcement experts say the homemade subs are becoming ever-more sophisticated.

Meanwhile Mexico's drug wars claimed another high-ranking law enforcement official. Salomon Diaz, Sinaloa state police commander, was shot dead by suspected drug gang hit men in the troubled western state, where more than 300 people have died in drug-related violence in Sinaloa this year.