http://www.irinnews.org/irin-fp.aspxUpdated everydayen-gbThu, 29 Oct 2009 11:14:03 GMTAKKAR Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - In Lebanon’s remote northeastern district of Akkar, teachers and pupils at the Rajam Issa public school are hoping this winter will be the first when the lights stay on. “Electricity is the lifeline of the school,” said head teacher Ibrahim Salame, complaining of frequent and prolonged power cuts.AKKAR Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) -  In Lebanon’s remote northeastern district of Akkar, teachers and pupils at the Rajam Issa public school are hoping this winter will be the first when the lights stay on. “Electricity is the lifeline of the school,” said head teacher Ibrahim Salame, complaining of frequent and prolonged power cuts.

Upstairs, the new computer room remains unused and unfinished, lacking both trained staff and power. “During the winter if the power goes out and it’s dark we just teach in the dark,” said Salame. “What usually takes one session to explain using a projector takes two hours on the blackboard.”

It is hoped that by the end of November their classroom lights, projectors and photocopying machines will stay on during power cuts thanks to a set of rooftop photovoltaic panels producing renewable electricity from one of Lebanon’s most abundant natural resources, the sun.

“Lebanon has an average of 300 days of sunshine per year, yet we are not making sufficient use of it,” said Jihan Seoud from the Energy and Environment Programme at the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Beirut.

“The government is looking to reform the electricity sector, but mostly on the supply side. We are working with government entities to reduce load on the demand side. Reducing demand means the government can spend less on electricity generation,” Seoud said.

Burden of oil imports

Lacking oil and gas resources, Lebanon imports some 97 percent of its energy needs as fossil fuel. Government efforts to modernize electricity infrastructure since the end of the Civil War in 1990 have been unable to keep pace with growing demand.

The solution, say many Lebanese environmentalists, is a combination of solar thermal power to heat water, and photovoltaic panels for back-up electricity. These can have a direct humanitarian impact.

“Renewable energy can have huge positive effects both directly and indirectly for humanitarian use. Solar water heaters (SWH) can substantially reduce the energy bills of healthcare and education facilities,” said Pierre Khoury, acting manager of the Lebanese Centre for Energy Conservation (LCEC) in the Ministry of Energy and Water (MEW). “It can also reduce poverty by reducing energy bills of poor people and creating ‘green jobs’.”

After the July War of 2006 further damaged Lebanon’s power infrastructure [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70043], including destroying 190 of the nearly 500 SWH units installed in south Lebanon and donated by China, UNDP and LCEC teamed up with the Spanish government to install solar water heaters in south Lebanon.

This was followed by the creation of the CEDRO project through the Lebanon Recovery Fund to promote energy efficient reconstruction of homes and public buildings.

With earlier donations from Sweden and Greece, UNDP and MEW/LCEC have successfully installed or repaired over 500 SWH units and identified 180 public sector buildings in which to demonstrate renewable energy applications.

In a study [http://www.lcecp.org.lb/Files/LCEC%20SWH%20analysis%20paper%20Lebanon.pdf] of one SWH system installed in a typical family home in Marjayoun in South Lebanon, the LCEC found that over a year the system offset some 98.6 percent of the electricity previously needed to heat water.

Total annual savings were calculated to be US$195, though the real saving to the state power company, Électricité du Liban, totalled some $415 per system, providing a payback period of two years. The report concluded that around 290,000 SWH systems are needed to offset the need for a 100 MW power plant in Lebanon.

Reduced bills

Lebanese law does not allow citizens to generate their own electricity and connect to the grid, meaning solar photovoltaic electricity remains too costly for all but the largest private businesses, or for small schools like that in Rajam Issa which was given the system.

Heating water from the sun, however, has proved cost effective, and sales of SWH units tripled between 2005 and 2008, according to a survey by LCEC.

As well as is installing an initial 25 photovoltaic systems on the roofs of small schools in North Lebanon, the Bekaa valley and South Lebanon, CEDRO has constructed large-scale solar water heaters on an initial four public hospitals.

One of these is the Abdallah Rassi Hospital, the first public hospital in Akkar, serving half a million people of whom, in the words of Ali Saada, its general manager, “400,000 are poor”.

With the hospital running at an annual deficit of around half a million dollars, said Saada, a third of which is spent on heating water via a diesel generator, the 48 SWH panels now on its roof will soon start making big savings, with a tangible benefit to patients.

“If we can save most of a third of our total running cost then the hospital could break even in three years, perhaps two if we get more patients,” said Saada. “Without the solar panels it would take us five. That means the intensive care department could open earlier and we could afford to buy a new scanner and other equipment.”

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86796DAKAR Wednesday, October 14, 2009 (IRIN) - Designed to be safe havens in times of disaster, health facilities are vulnerable to upheaval when catastrophe strikes, according to the UN, which is focusing on hospital safety for International Day for Disaster Reduction.DAKAR Wednesday, October 14, 2009 (IRIN) - Designed to be safe havens in times of disaster, health facilities are vulnerable to upheaval when catastrophe strikes, according to the UN, which is focusing on hospital safety for International Day for Disaster Reduction.

Only half of UN member countries have set aside money for health facility emergency preparedness, according to World Health Organization (WHO).

The world’s 49 least-developed countries house at least 90,000 health facilities, most of which have not been evaluated for disaster preparedness. Latin American and Caribbean countries have created a Hospital Safety Index that has been used in Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Oman, Sudan and Tajikistan.

In Burkina Faso September 2009 flooding forced the largest hospital to shut down. The facility is barely functioning six weeks later.  Health Minister Seydou Bouda told IRIN he believes disaster can effect change. “In Burkina Faso nothing will be like it was before. Each [health] sector activity should integrate crisis management into its operations because catastrophe can arrive at any moment.”

UN Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction Margaret Wahlström said much has been done to boost hospital safety worldwide, but more investment is needed to brace hospitals for potential disasters.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86581NAIROBI Thursday, October 08, 2009 (IRIN) - When an earthquake strikes a town, or a building is levelled by an explosion, news footage invariably shows search and rescue teams trawling through the rubble looking for survivors. But what does it take to rescue people trapped under tons of concrete?NAIROBI Thursday, October 08, 2009 (IRIN) - When an earthquake strikes a town, or a building is levelled by an explosion, news footage invariably shows search and rescue teams trawling through the rubble looking for survivors. But what does it take to rescue people trapped under tons of concrete?

Step one - coordination

The first thing is to activate search and rescue teams, often highly trained volunteers.

"Most of our members are doctors, ambulance operators, engineers or fire fighters," said John Holland, operations director of Rapid UK [http://www.rapidsar.org.uk/], a charitable search and rescue group.

They go through a rigorous two-year training process before they are allowed to assist in disasters.

"We try to deploy within 24 hours because the earlier we are on the ground, the better the chances of rescuing survivors," Holland said. "During the Pakistan earthquake [in 2005], we were able to deploy in 21 hours."

The International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) [http://ochaonline.un.org/Coordination/FieldCoordinationSupportSection/INSARAG/tabid/1436/language/en-US/Default.aspx] - a global network of more than 80 countries and disaster response organizations under the UN umbrella - has standardized guidelines for rescue missions.

"Once a government has made that call for international assistance, we alert our members, who begin mobilizing to travel to the area," said INSARAG's Winston Chang, a Singapore Civil Defence Force veteran who coordinated the search and rescue efforts following the recent earthquake in Padang, Indonesia. "We run a portal where once a disaster occurs, we pool information and our various teams can input data on their movements - whether they are on standby, mobilizing or have reached the ground."

INSARAG will usually set up an “on site operations coordination centre” where all search and rescue teams get instructions - depending on their area of specialty - on where to go and how to operate; the desk holds regular meetings to update itself and the teams on the progress being made on the ground.

"These operations can be quite large; just now in Padang, there were a total of 21 teams with 668 personnel and 67 search dogs," Chang said. "They need bases of operation where they will fuel their heavy equipment, coordinate their internal logistics and sleep."

"We also ensure that they follow specific standards of operation and remain culturally sensitive, especially since the teams are from such diverse backgrounds," he added.

Step two - analysis

Once in the disaster area, the first step is to analyze the task at hand, said Julie Ryan, a volunteer with the British NGO, the International Rescue Corps. [http://www.intrescue.co.uk/news/index.php/about-us/home]

In a collapsed building, "you need to analyze the building, assess its history and try to establish where in the building people are most likely to be", she told IRIN. "You also need to determine how badly a building has been damaged and whether it is likely to collapse any further, causing damage to [survivors] and rescue teams."

The assessment also involves checking for hazards such as downed power lines, gas leaks, flooding and hazardous materials. Protective gear includes special suits, gloves, masks, and oxygen and carbon monitoring systems for air quality.

Step three - search mode

At its most basic, this involves trying to spot limbs in the rubble, and calling out to survivors to identify their locations.

Rescuers look for "voids", or pockets where people may be trapped when walls collapse or where survivors may have hidden, such as under desks, in bath tubs or stairwells.

"We feed a camera on the end of a flexible pole into the collapsed building - this shows where people are and how much of the building's structure is left," Ryan said.

"Rescuers also use sound location devices connected to a microphone system; the device bangs on the rubble three times and if people tap back or call out for help, they can be tracked and assisted," she added.

Listening is a crucial part of the operation, and search teams will often stop for several minutes to try to hear any calls, scratches or taps.

Other search tools include a thermal image camera system, which shows areas of body heat, and trained sniffer dogs. "We also use a carbon dioxide analyzer, which helps us detect people who might be unconscious but still breathing," Ryan said.

Buildings that have been searched are marked with INSARAG-recognized signs to avoid duplication of searches.

As survivors are found, rescuers try to get them to keep talking to determine their exact location, and dig towards them - the least dangerous way to do this is by hand.

Step four - the rescue operation

If survivors are trapped under rubble, it may need to be stabilized first; a process called cribbing - the construction of a rectangular wooden framework, a box crib, underneath the debris - may be used.

Survivors who are not able to move usually need to be lifted, dragged or carried out of the rubble using special equipment.

"If people cannot be manually dug out, then we can cut them out - there are specialized tools that can cut through concrete, metal and wood to reach survivors," Ryan said. "There is also a process known as `slabbing’, where heavy slabs of concrete are removed in order to free survivors - this is always a very difficult judgment call, because it risks further collapse, which could injure or kill more people."

Concrete saws, jackhammers, chainsaws, bolt cutters, cranes and bulldozers are all part of the tool kit; chains, cables, anchors and rope-hauling systems are used to remove large pieces of masonry. Other equipment may include flat bags that are inserted under heavy objects and inflated with an air pump, and “shoring” equipment, which ensures passageways are stable and safe.

As survivors are removed, their medical condition is determined; patients are prioritized according to triage - based on the severity of their condition.

Search and rescue teams usually start the most urgent medical procedures on site; the most experienced teams may have defibrillators and endo-tracheal equipment to shock people back to life or perform emergency tracheotomies.

Step five - closure

Deciding when to end a rescue operation is always difficult.

"Obviously, the more time passes the less likely you are to find people alive," said Ryan. "But sometimes - especially if they have water available - people can remain alive for many days. In Pakistan, our team rescued two boys five days after the earthquake; they had survived on trickles of rainwater through the rubble."

According to Ryan, finding bodies - cadaver rescue - after the search for survivors is over is a very important part of any operation.

"Even when people haven't survived the collapse of a building, families find that having a body to bury is an important part of getting closure," she said.

According to INSARAG's Chang, the high octane operations can take their toll on rescuers, especially when they have to pull hundreds of dead people out of buildings.

"Most of them are used to dealing with blood and death in their daily professions, but from time to time it can become very difficult," he said. "Many teams are equipped to deal with trauma - the Swiss government's team, for instance, has a psychologist on hand, while doctors in the Singapore team have been trained to search for signs of trauma in team members."

Once the host government officially calls off the search, INSARAG starts the process of withdrawing the teams. A few remain and become part of the humanitarian relief effort, rebuilding hospitals and schools or shelter for families, but most will head back to their day jobs and await the next call to action

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86493DAKAR Thursday, October 08, 2009 (IRIN) - A landmine survivor in Senegal’s Casamance region on 6 October used the recent report, ‘Voices from the Ground’, based on a survey of mine victims worldwide, to remind aid agencies, Senegal’s anti-mine agency and the media of victims’ needs and governments’ responsibilities. DAKAR Thursday, October 08, 2009 (IRIN) - A landmine survivor in Senegal’s Casamance region on 6 October used the recent report, ‘Voices from the Ground’, based on a survey of mine victims worldwide, to remind aid agencies, Senegal’s anti-mine agency and the media of victims’ needs and governments’ responsibilities.

The Handicap International report, which authors say is the first such compilation of mine victims’ views on assistance, says: “[Landmine] survivors are still too often left to do just that – survive – on the margins of society, when they should be helped to rebuild their lives and thrive in the heart of their communities.”

The report includes input from 1,645 mine survivors in 25 affected countries.

Mamady Gassama of the Senegalese Mine Victims Association highlighted the Senegal portion of the report, which says the government needs to boost national funding for victim assistance rather than depend on donors.

“The government must not leave victims’ needs to – often uncertain – external aid,” said Gassama. Senegal is a signatory to the Mine Ban Treaty, which calls on the international community, and individual governments “in a position” to do so, to assist victims.

Mine survivors surveyed said among their greatest needs is assistance in skills training and employment.

np/mad/pthttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86506BANGKOK Monday, October 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Most migrants do not move from developing to developed countries, and when they do, rather than hurting host economies, they benefit them, according to a new report by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).BANGKOK Monday, October 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Most migrants do not move from developing to developed countries, and when they do, rather than hurting host economies, they benefit them, according to a new report by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

The UNDP's Human Development Report 2009, launched globally on 5 October in Bangkok, dispels several myths about migration, instead underlining the economic and social benefits for countries.

"Mobility can bring large gains in development," Jeni Klugman, director of the report, told IRIN. "It's presently very much constrained by a whole range of barriers, and reform [of] these barriers could allow much greater potential to be released."

The annual report calls for several migration reforms, including for states to ensure basic rights for migrants, and the mainstreaming of migration into national development plans.

ey/mwhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86431DAKAR Thursday, October 01, 2009 (IRIN) - According to (yet another) new climate change report, this time from development think-tank CGD, these are the 20 cities where the most people will be at the greatest risk from sea level rise and storm surges in the developing world.DAKAR Thursday, October 01, 2009 (IRIN) - According to (yet another) new climate change report, this time from development think-tank CGD, these are the 20 cities where the most people will be at the greatest risk from sea level rise and storm surges in the developing world.

The report’s basic assumptions were: one metre sea-level rise; 10 percent increase in the intensity of a 1-in-100-year storm; UN medium population projections.

Manila, Philippines

Alexandria, Egypt

Lagos, Nigeria

Monrovia, Liberia

Karachi, Pakistan

Aden, Yemen

Jakarta, Indonesia

Port Said, Egypt

Khulna, Bangladesh

Kolkata, India

Bangkok, Thailand

Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire

Cotonou, Benin

Chittagong, Bangladesh

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Yangon, Myanmar

Conakry, Guinea

Luanda, Angola

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Dakar, Senegal


bp/cbhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86388BEIRUT Wednesday, September 30, 2009 (IRIN) - Abbey was a nurse at a French hospital in Madagascar when a recruitment agency suggested to her boss that she travel to Lebanon for three years to work and learn Arabic so she could better care for the Arab sailors whose ships docked at the Indian Ocean island.BEIRUT Wednesday, September 30, 2009 (IRIN) - Abbey was a nurse at a French hospital in Madagascar when a recruitment agency suggested to her boss that she travel to Lebanon for three years to work and learn Arabic so she could better care for the Arab sailors whose ships docked at the Indian Ocean island.

Abbey, not her real name, was presented by the recruitment agent with a three-year contract, which included transport to the Lebanese hospital, and a salary of US$1,000 per month.

On arrival there, however, she was put in a house with another Madagascan domestic worker where she was forced to cook, clean and care for three children and a newborn.

“We didn’t sleep day or night; we had to be up whenever the baby cried. We didn’t even have time to shower or eat during the day because we were always rocking him so he didn’t cry. It was like that for two and a half years,” Abbey told IRIN.

From her salary of just $150 a month, Abbey said she had to give her Lebanese employer money to buy food for her: “So basically, we were working for free.”

Cases like Abbey’s are not uncommon in Lebanon, which is a country of destination for women trafficked from Africa, Sri Lanka and the Philippines for the purpose of domestic labour.

In June, Lebanon was added to the US State Department’s human trafficking tier 2 watch list [http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2009/123132.htm] for its failure to protect victims of trafficking or to prosecute those responsible.

Inclusion on the list, which includes neighbouring Syria on tier 3 (the worst category), [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=82686] for a second year could mean Lebanon faces US sanctions on non-humanitarian and trade-related aid and US opposition to loans and credits from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

Deception, exploitation

Being deceived about the job she was brought to Lebanon to perform makes Abbey’s case one of trafficking under the established UN definition [http://www.unescap.org/esid/Gad/Issues/Trafficking/index.asp] of the “recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force”.

However, the US State Department's 2009 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report [http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2009/] makes clear it considers trafficking to include the conditions a worker is kept in, including forced labour and debt bondage. That makes not only Abbey’s life after arriving in Lebanon a case of trafficking but means the situation of many of Lebanon’s estimated 200,000 migrant domestic workers [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=78865] can also be considered trafficking.

“Women from Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Ethiopia who travel to Lebanon legally to work as household servants often find themselves in conditions of forced labour through withholding of passports, [http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=83948] non-payment of wages, restrictions on movement, threats, and physical or sexual assault,” said the TIP report.

Local rights activists praised the recognition of exploitative labour conditions as trafficking.

“Working on trafficking is very difficult because of the definition set by the UN, but if you simplify it you see that there are three main components: the recruitment; deception or coercion; and then that the purpose of recruitment is exploitative. This is considered trafficking,” said Ghada Jabbour, gender and trafficking specialist at Lebanese NGO KAFA.

The TIP report said that exploitation includes the specific crimes of “involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery”.

After escaping from the home she was forced to work in, Abbey has spent the past 10 years working as a freelance domestic worker, facing jail if she is caught by police without the identification papers she was never issued with, and owing $5,000 in fines to the General Security Directorate, a Lebanese intelligence agency, for overstaying her visa.

Little protection

Domestic workers remain outside Lebanon’s Labour Law and its protection.

Last year, according to the 2009 TIP report, the Lebanese government reported no criminal prosecutions, convictions, or punishments for trafficking offences, a significant decrease from the 17 prosecutions reported in 2007.

The Lebanese Penal Code does not specifically prohibit forced labour or trafficking, but Article 569’s prohibition against the deprivation of an individual’s liberty to perform a task could be used to prosecute forced labour. Commercial sexual exploitation, deprivation of freedom and use of false documents are also criminalized in Lebanese law.

The TIP report urges authorities to investigate and prosecute claims by domestic workers who have escaped abusive employers, and implement the new unified contract for domestic workers [http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=83948] created in March this year, but which rights groups say remains largely unimplemented.

Valuable trade

Activists believe the value of the trade in domestic workers is such that the political will to comply with international regulations against trafficking remains lacking.

“The money that is collected through domestic workers coming to Lebanon is millions of dollars per year. You have the residency fees, the visa and recruitment fees on both sides for the worker and the employer,” said KAFA’s Jabbour.

“The government takes a lot of money in the process by regulating domestic workers and there are a lot of stakeholders. Politicians are also involved in this issue and it goes underground, which is why it’s difficult to get laws to protect these women.”

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86358BEIRUT Wednesday, September 23, 2009 (IRIN) - As lawmakers struggle to form a government three months after Lebanon's parliamentary elections, women's rights activists await the opening of parliament to debate a new bill on domestic violence.BEIRUT Wednesday, September 23, 2009 (IRIN) - As lawmakers struggle to form a government three months after Lebanon's parliamentary elections, women's rights activists await the opening of parliament to debate a new bill on domestic violence.

Ghida Anani, programme coordinator of KAFA, a Lebanese organization campaigning against violence and the exploitation of women, estimates that as many as three-quarters of all Lebanese women have suffered physical abuse at the hands of husbands or male relatives at some point in their lives.

In Lebanon's multi-confessional democratic system, cases of domestic violence are ruled on in one the country's 15 religious courts, or family courts, whose laws date back to the Ottoman era and which campaigners say almost always favour men over women.

The new bill proposes to take domestic violence out of the religious courts and into the civil system and will cut across confessional lines, giving both Muslim and Christian women equal rights under the law, and, say campaigners, will be a key step towards equality between men and women.

"The family courts don't treat men and women equally," said Nadya Khalife, a researcher on women's rights in the Middle East and North Africa at NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW). "The law is a step in the right direction, but we still have far to go before we have equality in Lebanon."

Domestic violence

Warda, a mother of six, said she suffered 20 years of domestic violence.

She said her husband was a drug addict who beat and sexually abused her throughout their marriage. Having had no success seeking help at a hospital and with the police, she went to see the representative of her Shia Muslim religious court.

Warda, not her real name, said the representative did little to help except to explain the difficulties of getting a divorce due to her husband's refusal to grant her one. In the end she sought help at KAFA and today, though still married, she lives with her parents with no rights to visit her children.

Every year more than 500 women seek help at women's centres in Lebanon. However, there are only four safe houses - able to accommodate just 40 women in total.

Yet the actual number of domestic violence cases, according to KAFA's Ghida Anani, is far higher: "To say violence and rape is underreported is not correct," she said: "It's not reported at all."

Anani said both hospitals and the police were failing to report domestic violence cases. "Often doctors don't ask about bruises and if a woman makes a complaint about domestic violence, the hospital reports it as a `home accident' and there is no further investigation," she said.

The police record incidents of violence against women as "beatings" but do not specify in the report who was the perpetrator: "It's almost as if as long as there are no incidences, there's no problem," Anani said.

Religious courts

With 18 different religious confessions officially recognized by the state, Lebanon has 15 religious courts to rule on matters of marriage, divorce, custody and other personal matters, including domestic violence. A separate judicial system rules on common-law criminal cases.

"Family affairs are seen as a very private issue," said Anani. "The woman is seen as the man's property."

Efforts to reform the religious courts over the past decade have met resistance from an establishment reluctant to upset the confessional balance in a country still recovering from a devastating 15-year civil war which ended in 1990. Religious courts, say supporters, respect each sect's traditions as well as protecting them from others. Many fear that one civil law for all would disrupt the communal balance.

The differences between religious and civil law and between the laws for Christian and Muslim women are clear. The minimum age at which a girl can marry is far lower in all religious courts for girls than boys, and lower for Muslims than Christians; in some cases Islamic law permits girls as young as nine to marry.

Islamic religious laws do not prosecute marital rape nor so-called honour killings while the custody of children in divorce cases is usually awarded to the father. According to Anani, this means many women choose to stay in abusive relationships for the sake of their children.

"We don't want a legal system treating women differently from men and one that treats Druze, Shia and Christian women differently from each other," said HRW's Khalife.

Details of the new bill

In 2007, KAFA set up a steering committee comprised of lawyers, judges and specialists who drafted a new bill on domestic violence, known as the Family Violence Bill.

The proposed law, now awaiting discussion in parliament, stipulates specialized family courts operating under a common-to-all civil law, with cases of domestic violence ruled on in private hearings that include judges, social workers, forensic doctors and psychotherapists.

The new law obliges anyone witnessing domestic violence to report it, opens the way to legally binding restraining orders, and ensures the perpetrator provides the plaintiff with alternative accommodation, as well as paying subsistence allowance and medical expenses.

It also calls for specialized police units within the Internal Security Forces (ISF) in each of Lebanon's six governorates, which would include female police officers trained in dealing with domestic violence.

"I wish that law had seen the light of day before I got married 20 years ago," said Warda. "It would have changed many things for me. I wouldn't have been imprisoned to a man who disrespects me. I wouldn't have been imprisoned to a confessional system. I would have lived with dignity."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86247JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, September 23, 2009 (IRIN) - Climate related natural disasters like droughts, hurricanes and floods forced 20 million people - slightly less than the population of Australia - out of their homes in 2008 alone said a new study, making a strong case for regularly monitoring displacement in the context of climate change.JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, September 23, 2009 (IRIN) - Climate related natural disasters like droughts, hurricanes and floods forced 20 million people - slightly less than the population of Australia - out of their homes in 2008 alone said a new study, making a strong case for regularly monitoring displacement in the context of climate change.

A total of 36 million people were displaced worldwide by sudden-onset natural disasters, including earthquakes and landslides. During the same period 4.6 million people were internally displaced by conflicts.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre jointly conducted the study, Monitoring Disaster Displacement in the Context of Climate Change.

"Had it not been for the Sichuan earthquake in China, which displaced 15 million people, climate related disasters would have been responsible for over 90 percent of disaster related displacement in 2008," the study commented.

Using the 2008 data as a test case, the study proposed the ongoing monitoring of disaster related displacement using existing information, such as the Emergency Events Database produced by the Belgium-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, cross-referenced with various other sources, and individually investigating events to estimate the numbers of persons displaced.

The next step is further research into displacement caused by slow-onset disasters and sea level rise. The study also called for a legal framework to protect people forced to cross a border by a natural disaster.

jk/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86262BEIRUT Thursday, September 10, 2009 (IRIN) - The politics of the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms, a rugged sliver of mountainside wedged between Lebanon, Israel and Syria, have long overshadowed what some Lebanese environmentalists call “the real issue” of the disputed area: its water resources.BEIRUT Thursday, September 10, 2009 (IRIN) - The politics of the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms, a rugged sliver of mountainside wedged between Lebanon, Israel and Syria, have long overshadowed what some Lebanese environmentalists call “the real issue” of the disputed area: its water resources.

Now activists are calling for hydro-diplomacy to take precedence over political manoeuvring as the most effective solution to one of the key stumbling blocks to Middle East peace.

Rising Temperatures Rising Tensions, [http://www.iisd.org/publications/pub.aspx?id=1130] a report published in June by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, considers water to be a major trigger for conflict in the Middle East, the world’s most water scarce region.

Lebanon and Syria say the Shebaa Farms, measuring just 22sqkm, is Lebanese territory, though the UN has ruled it part of the Syrian Golan Heights, which lie just to the east, across water-rich Mount Hermon.

Both the Golan and Shebaa were occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967 and the Israelis say disengagement from Shebaa can only come under a peace deal with Syria and withdrawal from the Golan.

However, Fadi Comair, director-general of Hydraulic and Electric Resources at the Lebanese Ministry of Energy and Water, argues there is more to Israel’s occupation of Shebaa than military-strategic concerns: “Israel’s occupation of the Shebaa Farms has to do with control of its water.”

Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group that fought Israel to a bloody stalemate in 2006, has the liberation of Shebaa as one of its strategic objectives.

Water scarcity

Meeting the water needs of their rapidly growing populations has long been an existential challenge for the governments of the arid Middle East. Climate change [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=85698] is making that challenge more urgent and acute.

Israel, Jordan and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) all fall well below the internationally accepted threshold of 1,000 cubic metres of water per person per year (cmwpy). According to the IISD, Israel has natural renewable water resources of 265 cmwpy, Jordan 169, and OPT just 90. Only Lebanon and Syria have water surpluses, with Lebanon having a potential of 1,220 cmwpy and Syria 1,541.

Yet supply is dwindling rapidly. By 2025 water use in Israel is estimated to fall to 310 cmwpy, while the country’s own Environment Ministry has warned that water supply may fall by 60 percent of 2000 levels by 2100.

River Jordan

The IISD report goes even further, warning that the River Jordan, which is the key supplier of water to Israel, Jordan and OPT, could shrink as much as 80 percent by the end of the century.

Such drastic scarcity makes securing water supplies vital. The River Jordan rises in Mount Hermon, fed by tributaries in the Golan Heights and Shebaa Farms, and flows into the Sea of Galilee, also known as Lake Tiberius, before continuing south where it forms the boundary between Jordan, to the east, and the West Bank. After 320km it empties into the Dead Sea.

Major tributaries of the river include the Hasbani, which flows into Israel from Lebanon, and the Banias, which flows from Syria. The River Dan, which also supplies the River Jordan, is the only river originating in Israel.

Water wars

The absence of hydro-diplomacy reflects conflict in the region. In 1965, Syria and Lebanon began the construction of channels to divert the Banias and Hasbani, preventing the rivers flowing into Israel. The Israelis attacked the diversion works, the first in a series of moves that led to a regional war two years later.

In 2002, when the Lebanese constructed a pipeline on the River Wazzani intended to supply households in southern Lebanon with water, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared the action a causus belli. In the July War of 2006, Israeli warplanes targeted southern Lebanon’s water network. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70642]

Bassam Jaber, a water expert at Lebanon’s Ministry of Energy and Water, argues the Shebaa is critical to Israel’s water needs, “especially because fresh water is critical when all sources within Israel are salty. The flows from the area help to regulate the saltiness of Lake Tiberius”.

And it is not just the direct overland flow that the Shebaa provides Israel. According to the Lebanese Water Ministry’s Comair, 30-40 percent of the River Dan’s water flows into it through underground supplies originating in the Shebaa. “Israel is worried that if Lebanon gains control of the Shebaa, it can then control the flow to the Dan river,” said Comair.

Hydro-diplomacy

As one of only eight states to have ratified the 1997 UN Convention on the Law of Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses, [http://untreaty.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/conventions/8_3_1997.pdf] Lebanon is calling on Israel to do the same.

“Israel is not a signatory to the relevant conventions on water, which is a big problem since they are at the centre of the issue of equitable use of water and reasonable sharing,” said Comair.

Israel has already shown that water can play a role in peacemaking. Its 1994 peace agreement with Jordan included a commitment to transfer 75 million cubic metres of water per year to Jordan in return for secure borders to the east.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Energy and Water is now calling for a regional water basin authority for the River Jordan, which would include Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel and OPT. “How can you reach any agreements on the equitable sharing of international watercourses if there is no cooperation?” asked Comair.

Water solutions for all?

Not all are convinced Israel’s occupation of Shebaa is primarily about securing water.

“Water is no doubt one aspect of the socio-political conflict, but it is not the main driver,” said Mutasem el-Fadel, director of the Water Resources Center at the American University of Beirut.

He points to several projects currently being studied that could solve Israel’s water needs, without requiring continued occupation of the Shebaa, such as the Red Sea-Dead Sea Canal Project, [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79564] the Mini-Peace pipeline from Turkey, wastewater reclamation plans and desalination projects.

“All combined they can be the water solution for all five countries in the area,” said el-Fadel.

But in the absence of hydro-diplomacy between Israel and Lebanon, the continued Israeli occupation of the Shebaa Farms will remain a key trigger to renewed conflict between the two countries.

“There will not be enough water for our generation or the next,” said Comair. “We will see social, economic, political and military conflicts - and in that order - within the next 20 years.”

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86092DUBAI Wednesday, August 26, 2009 (IRIN) - Far fewer Muslims than normal are undertaking the lesser pilgrimage known as ‘Umrah’ because of coordinated efforts by health ministers in the Gulf and beyond to counter the spread of H1N1 2009.DUBAI Wednesday, August 26, 2009 (IRIN) - Far fewer Muslims than normal are undertaking the lesser pilgrimage known as ‘Umrah’ because of coordinated efforts by health ministers in the Gulf and beyond to counter the spread of swine flu.

The numbers are some 30 percent down on normal levels and a variety of precautions are in place.

According to a 23 August World Health Organization update, there were 3,128 laboratory-confirmed cases of pandemic H1N1 (swine flu) reported in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

Saudi Arabia had the highest number of cases with 595 and four deaths, followed by Kuwait with 560 cases and no deaths, and Egypt with 509 cases and one death.

However, WHO figures are far more conservative than those of local governments. Earlier this week, the Saudi Health Ministry reported that its H1N1 cases had reached 2,000, with 14 deaths, and the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported 1,072 cases and two fatalities in Kuwait.

WHO has expressed concern that there may be a second wave of the virus because of the approaching cooler season.

Precautions

The authorities in the Middle East have urged Muslims to avoid the `Hajj’ in late November and `Umrah’, if possible, and have banned travel there for those below 12 or over 65, as well as for pregnant women and those suffering from chronic diseases such as uncontrolled diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, bronchial diseases and obesity.

Iran has banned all its citizens from making the `Umrah’ pilgrimage this year and has cancelled all flights to Saudi Arabia during Ramadan, which ends around 19 September.

Airports and border crossings in the region have installed flu surveillance equipment and quarantine procedures, and pandemic H1N1 awareness campaigns are widespread. Health ministries have advised people to avoid large gatherings, whether religious or not, and to avoid the social custom of kissing and shaking hands at gatherings.

The United Arab Emirates, which recorded its first H1N1 death on 21 August, is considering reducing the duration of Friday sermons in mosques and the daily ‘Tarawih’ prayers that occur only in Ramadan.

Mecca and Medina

`Hajj’ and `Umrah’ tour operators are worried about the impact on their businesses. Some have said governments have over-reacted to what is, so far, not a particularly lethal virus. Tour operators across the region have complained of mass cancellations of `Hajj’ and `Umrah’ trips and have said they stand to lose millions of dollars because of commitments already made to Mecca hotels.

In Mecca, business could fall by 40 percent during Ramadan, according to the Mecca Chamber of Commerce, and in neighbouring Medina, officials said they expected business to be down by 70 percent.

A panel of experts is being set up in Mecca specifically to deal with the H1N1 virus for `Hajj’ and `Umrah’ pilgrims. Saad Al-Qurashi, chairman of the National Hajj & Umrah Committee, told Arab News that the panel would be distributing surgical masks to `Umrah’ pilgrims and would hold workshops to spread awareness of the necessary precautions to be taken.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85855DAKAR Tuesday, August 18, 2009 (IRIN) - On the first-ever World Humanitarian Day, as the UN spotlights fallen aid workers and growing humanitarian needs, experts say a trend toward integrating aid goals into broader social and security agendas has contributed to an erosion of “humanitarian space”. IRIN looks at why, and at how donors, UN agencies and NGOs might ensure that it does not shrink for good. DAKAR Tuesday, August 18, 2009 (IRIN) - On the first-ever World Humanitarian Day [http://ochaonline.un.org/News/WorldHumanitarianDay/tabid/5677/language/en-US/Default.aspx] on 19 August, when the UN spotlights fallen aid workers and growing humanitarian needs, experts say a trend toward integrating aid goals into broader social and security agendas has contributed to an erosion of “humanitarian space”. IRIN looks at why, and at how donors, UN agencies and NGOs might ensure that it does not shrink for good.

Lacking any formal definition, the term “humanitarian space” has been taken to encompass any or all of the following: physical locations safe from attack in a conflict; respect for core humanitarian principles, independence, impartiality and neutrality; and the ability of aid agencies to access and help civilians affected by conflict.

By any of these definitions, observers say, humanitarian space is shrinking, with decreasing access to beneficiaries and increasing attacks on beneficiaries and aid staff. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84961].

Factors squeezing humanitarian space, according to the UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), [http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/iasc/pageloader.aspx?page=content-about-default] include a trend toward coherence between political and humanitarian agendas; [http://www.humanitarianoutcomes.org/pdf/HumanitarianFinancingReview2008.pdf] blurred distinctions between the roles of military and humanitarian organizations; political manipulation of humanitarian assistance; perceived lack of independence of humanitarian actors from donors or from host governments; a perceived social, cultural or religious agenda by humanitarian workers; and a breakdown of law and order.

Coherence and integration – riskier?

Donor governments started to move towards coherence of humanitarian and political agendas in the early 1990s based on the growing recognition that complex emergencies were in essence politically driven and aid alone could not solve them. [http://www.odihpn.org/report.asp?id=2607]

Further, counter-terrorism, counter-insurgency efforts have contributed to a shift in military policy towards integration of security, political, humanitarian, reconstruction and economic activities. There has also been an expansion in the number of UN peacekeeping missions with a focus on civilian protection.

In 2000 the UN system officially endorsed “integrated missions” to channel UN forces and agencies towards a common political, military and humanitarian goal, putting at their head a single Special Representative to the Secretary General (SRSG) and placing a humanitarian coordinator under the SRSG’s management.

And over the past decade some humanitarian agencies have expanded their assistance beyond “life-saving” activities to embrace advocacy, peace-building and human rights promotion among other goals, said Overseas Development Institute (ODI) researcher Samir Elhawary.

“More and more [aid] agencies feel they have to go beyond life-saving…Peace-building, and conflict resolution have been applied to humanitarian relief, which has made relief seem more political. It is not just about saving lives but also about social transformation and tackling the root causes of conflict.”

In this mix humanitarian objectives can be subsumed by wider political and military goals, say humanitarian experts. In Sudan the international community is running one of the world’s biggest humanitarian operations, facilitating a peace process, pushing human rights and justice through the International Criminal Court, and promoting the comprehensive peace agreement between north and south Sudan.

“Some might say these roles are complementary but the expulsion of aid agencies in Sudan is an indication that these objectives might not be so compatible,” Elhawary told IRIN. [http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=83311]

Impact

Insecurity linked to coherence policies has diminished aid agencies’ ability to access beneficiaries, experts say. In the case of Iraq many international NGOs have left; about 60 remain, many of them managed remotely and with uneven geographical distribution, according to a March 2009 ODI report, ‘Providing Aid in Insecure Environments’. [http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/download/3250.pdf]

More aid workers died in 2008 than in any other year, the report says, arguing that the increase was partly a result of this coherence push. Some 75 percent of attacks – which the ODI says were “increasingly politically motivated” – occurred in Afghanistan, Chad, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Sudan.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, where aid agencies are often funded by governments humanitarian actors are now “not only perceived to be cooperating with Western political actors, but…as wholly a part of the western agenda,” the ODI notes in its report.

However, attacks decreased for the International Red Cross Movement, which has pushed its purely humanitarian, neutral line.

Taking responsibility

But there was no “’golden age’ in which humanitarian space was always protected,” ODI’s Elhawary told IRIN. Aid agencies were manipulated by Biafran secessionists in the Nigerian civil war and the International Committee of the Red Cross was attacked in Ethiopia as early as 1935-36.

And ODI says responsibility for securing humanitarian space lies partly with aid agencies themselves.

It is not right to blame reduced access to beneficiaries solely on the coherence agenda, according to Ross Mountain, deputy SRSG and humanitarian coordinator in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Warfare trends have a more significant role in access than do coherence policies, he said, pointing out that in parts of DRC aid agencies have recently had a tougher time reaching some vulnerable populations mainly because of an upsurge in conflict with militia groups targeting civilians. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84943]

Some agencies have adjusted to those realities by reducing their visibility on the ground, working through local NGOs, or improving their risk assessment and analysis capacity and sharing information; but sector-wide progress has been slow.

Further, many agencies still do not anticipate potential consequences of decisions taken in complex environments such as Afghanistan, where “there is no humanitarian consensus and very little humanitarian space,” according to Antonio Donini in a Feinstein Center report. [http://wikis.uit.tufts.edu/confluence/display/FIC/Afghanistan+--+Humanitarianism+under+Threat]

For Howard Mollett, conflict advisor at the NGO CARE International, in settings like Afghanistan agencies must work harder to manage the tensions among competing imperatives.

“Most agencies involved in humanitarian response are multi-mandate,” he said. “And that partly reflects the messy field realities in which we work. In one country acute humanitarian needs, chronic poverty and opportunities to promote recovery typically coexist.”

Shift

Experts say the aid community appears to recognize a shift in approach is needed to ensure humanitarian space does not disappear.

The UN has adjusted the aid element of some integrated missions, Mollett said. In Afghanistan, where humanitarian expertise within the UN Assistance Mission (UNAMA) had been reduced to a few people, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) was re-established in 2009; while in Somalia the UN has called for extensive consultation with humanitarians before developing any integrated mission plan.

Mountain said in DRC different actors are tackling the complexity of working within an integrated mission with more mutual respect, helped by a clear civilian protection mandate. “It is not the military doing humanitarian action… rather military and political become strong allies in promoting humanitarian objectives by providing physical protection.”

The coherence approach appears to be here to stay; but some 35 major donors have signed up to the good humanitarian donorship principles [http://www.goodhumanitariandonorship.org/donor-governments.asp], which stress the need to promote humanitarian space.

A December 2009 UN meeting of OCHA, the Department for Peacekeeping Operations, Department of Political Affairs and IASC will provide an opportunity for the concerned actors to air their views.

This is a sign of a progress, said Mollett.

"For too long the erosion of humanitarian space was put in the 'too difficult' box, but the severity of the situation in countries like Somalia and Afghanistan has brought us to a decisive moment…Perhaps the time has come to recognize the limitations of 'integrated approaches' and set some red lines in policy and practice."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85752NAHR AL-BARED Monday, August 17, 2009 (IRIN) - Two years on from the devastating battle which destroyed their homes and livelihoods, Palestinian refugees from Nahr al-Bared are set to see reconstruction work begin inside the camp's official boundaries.NAHR AL-BARED Monday, August 17, 2009 (IRIN) - Two years on from the devastating battle which destroyed their homes and livelihoods, Palestinian refugees from Nahr al-Bared are set to see reconstruction work begin inside the camp's official boundaries.

Despite a resilient recovery under way among Palestinians living in the New Camp - the area around the edge of the official Nahr al-Bared camp - legal hurdles, political wrangling and the recent discovery of archaeological ruins under the site of the Old Camp have delayed reconstruction work there.

Nahr al-Bared Old Camp was completely destroyed and the New Camp badly damaged in a 15-week battle in 2007 between the army and Islamist militant group Fatah Islam, which killed more than 400 people and displaced up to 30,000 Palestinians.

With over 90 percent of the rubble now removed, reconstruction in the first one-eighth sector of the Old Camp was due to begin six months ago, following the laying of the foundation stone on 9 March.

However, UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, had to re-think construction plans to avoid digging deep foundations after the discovery of what Lebanon's Directorate General of Antiquities believes could be the remains of a Roman village under the destroyed camp.

After carrying out a survey, the Directorate has now agreed that reconstruction can take place, despite the misgivings of some Lebanese politicians.

The archaeological discovery followed lengthy negotiations in Lebanon's notoriously divided cabinet over granting the final green light for reconstruction, and after a complex but successful scheme to purchase land in and around Nahr al-Bared from its original Lebanese titleholders.

Donation boost

Reconstruction has been given momentum recently by two much-needed funding pledges to UNRWA, which had been struggling to raise money to meet even its basic recovery needs, let alone begin rebuilding the old camp.

In July, the US embassy in Beirut announced an additional US$25 million for the reconstruction of the Old Camp, now estimated by UNRWA to cost $328 million, and a further $5 million towards food, health care, shelter, access to basic education and improved water and sanitation services while the camp is being reconstructed.

In February, a second health care centre on the edge of the camp opened, funded by the USA, to serve families living in poorly equipped temporary shelters there, known as 'the barracks'.

The grant raised donations by the USA to Nahr al-Bared to $71.8 million, making it the single largest donor.

In early May, Saudi Arabia became the first Arab country to donate to the reconstruction of Nahr al-Bared. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have pledged to fund half the total reconstruction costs - contributing $25 million to rebuild the second section of the camp.

Overall, UNRWA has now received $92 million, plus $10.4 million from the Multi-Donor Trust Fund administered by the World Bank, which it says is enough for nearly one third of the official camp's reconstruction.

UNRWA's current early recovery appeal for $42.7 million to cover the last quarter of the year was just over half funded by the middle of July. The single largest relief cost is rent subsidies to 3,050 families, which cost around $500,000 a month.

There are now 3,100 families living in the New Camp, with 2,000 families (10,000 people) still displaced and living mainly in neighbouring Beddawi camp.

Signs of optimism

Wafika al-Hassan, a nurse at an UNRWA clinic, is one of those who have returned to their homes in the New Camp. In the immediate aftermath of the conflict in 2007, IRIN visited the mother of three as she inspected the damage and looting of her home.

Today, with fresh paint on the walls, cement bags piled high on the streets outside and her children smiling around her, al-Hassan is optimistic about the future, despite working overtime to pay back the $15,000 she spent rebuilding her home.

"Social conditions are improving. People are trying to improve themselves and depression has decreased," she said. "The children used to talk about the war a lot, but now they are concentrating on school again and trying to forget what happened."

Restrictions

Eighteen-year-old Omar Baraka was a farmer from the Old Camp, until the battle destroyed his home and killed most of his cows. He now runs a bakery amid the cleared rubble and ruined buildings of the New Camp and says business is fair, but that army restrictions on Lebanese entering the camp - just 2,000 permits for Lebanese to enter have been issued - mean little hope of a return to Nahr al-Bared's once flourishing marketplace.

"The checkpoints let through as much flour as we want, but there are no outsiders coming into the camp, so businesses can't expand," said Baraka. "Money is rotating between Palestinians only."

Charlie Higgins, UNRWA's project manager for the reconstruction of Nahr al-Bared, said there needed to be a new approach to the system of army-controlled checkpoints set up around both the New and Old camps.

"Lebanese used to do their shopping in the adjacent area and in Nahr al-Bared camp, but they don't do it anymore as the market place that was highly integrated with the surrounding Lebanese local communities has not been restored."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85742BEIRUT Thursday, August 13, 2009 (IRIN) - Lebanon faces great changes if average temperatures rise 2-4 degrees Celsius over the next 100 years, as most climate change models forecast.BEIRUT Thursday, August 13, 2009 (IRIN) - Lebanon faces great changes if average temperatures rise 2-4 degrees Celsius over the next 100 years, as most climate change models forecast.

According to Wael Hmaidan, executive director of IndyACT, The League of Independent Activists, climate change in the Middle East will affect Lebanon first. “The distribution of rain has changed; the snow density is decreasing and forest fires [http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=80561] are spreading,” he said.

Lebanon’s average annual rainfall exceeds 800 million cubic metres (mcm), helping to sustain more than 2,000 springs during the seven-month dry season, the envy of more arid regional countries such as Iraq and Jordan.

But this is changing. “Twenty years ago we used to reckon on 80-90 rainy days a year in Lebanon. Today we forecast 70 rainy days,” said Bassem Jaber, an expert on water from the Implementation of Technical Tools for Water Management (MOTGE) at the Lebanese Ministry of Energy and Water.

It is not the amount of rain that is changing, said Jaber, but the period in which it falls: “With the same amount of rain, but in a shorter period of time, it cannot seep into the soil. Instead it runs along the ground and washes into the ocean where it is lost. On its way it causes soil erosion, landslides and flash floods. This eventually leads to desertification.”

This change in Lebanon’s weather could, according to IndyACT’s Hmaidan, spell disaster for the country: “Lebanon’s only natural resources are its fair weather, forests and water. The country’s economy is based on tourism, which depends on these resources. If they go, so will Lebanon’s economy.”

Snowfall is also predicted to decrease with climate change. Lebanon receives 65 percent of its water from rainfall and 35 percent from snow. Winter rainfall is supplemented by water from melting snow from April to July, ensuring rivers keep flowing throughout summer.

Bleak outlook

Surveys by Wajdi Najem, director of the Regional Water and Environment (ESIB) in Lebanon, predict that water from snow will decrease from 1,200 mcm under current conditions to 700 mcm with a two degree rise in temperature, and reduce further to 350 mcm with a rise of four degrees.

The snowline that is today at 1500m will creep up to 1,700m with a two degree increase, and 1,900m with a four degree increase, ESIB predicts, reducing the country’s lucrative ski season from three months to just one week by the end of the century.

Snow is also vital to the survival of Lebanon’s ancient cedar trees, the national symbol, which are now listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's "Red List" as a "heavily threatened" species. h[http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hnyPpeyf8DYj-MdeNUQlCt7xyoVw]

Urban drought

With less melt water from snow, the dry season is set to begin a month earlier. While disrupting some farming, particularly in the south [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=62397] and east [http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=82682] where agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, environmentalists warn it will be urban areas which face the most serious water shortages over the next five years. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=64491]

“It is not the agricultural areas that will feel the greatest impact - they’ll start their growing season earlier - but we worry about the urban centres,” said Jaber. “The problem is that they will run out of fresh water before the dry season is over.”

Of Lebanon’s roughly four million people, including around 400,000 Palestinian refugees, over 80 percent live in urban areas, with 1.5 million living in Beirut.

Two man-made factors add to Lebanon’s water shortage problems. Half of rainfall is currently lost through run-off, evaporation or ground seepage every year, while much of the plumbing and irrigation systems are still in disarray from the civil war and the 2006 July War. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70642]

Currently, low water pressure in the late summer and autumn forces the government to ration supplies, leaving nearly half of households in some regions below the sufficiency threshold.

The average household receives less than 50 litres per day - 20 litres less than sufficiency as defined by the World Health Organization. This gap is set to widen with an earlier and longer dry season.

Plans for dams

The government has plans to build up to 28 surface and subsurface dams over the next 10 years, aiming to capture up to 900 mcm of fresh water.

At an estimated cost of US$2.5bn to $3bn, the plan has been criticized by some activists as too costly and damaging to wildlife. IndyAct is working on an alternative plan focused on better use of current resources.

But Fadi Comair, director-general of Hydraulic and Electric Resources at the Ministry of Energy and Water, insists dams may be the only answer to Lebanon’s climate change problem.

“With the situation as it is, it is not a question of money - we have no choice,” he said.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85698DUBAI Monday, August 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Saudi Arabia has the highest number of laboratory confirmed pandemic H1N1 cases in the Eastern Mediterranean Region – 595 – with four out of the eight deaths so far, according to an 8 August World Health Organization (WHO) report.DUBAI Monday, August 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Saudi Arabia has the highest number of laboratory confirmed pandemic H1N1 cases in the Eastern Mediterranean Region – 595 – with four out of the eight deaths so far, according to an 8 August World Health Organization (WHO) report.

Kuwait comes second with 560 cases, although no deaths, and Egypt third with 314 cases and one death. Lebanon, Qatar and Iraq have each had one fatality.

While Israel’s Ministry of Health reported its fifth H1N1 death on 7 August and more than 2,000 cases of the virus, the country falls under WHO’s Europe region.

With the Muslim holy month of Ramadan set to begin in about two weeks, and the annual Hajj due in late November, Arab health ministers are not allowing the elderly, children or chronically sick to make pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia.

At a press conference on 5 August, Saudi Health Minister Dr Abdullah Al-Rabeeah said only those between the ages of 12 and 65 with proof of a flu vaccination and no chronic disease would be granted Hajj visas. Pregnant women and people with diabetes, obesity and hypertension would also be barred from Mecca, he said.

"These conditions have been approved after consultations with top international experts in the field," Khaled Al-Mirghalani, the Health Ministry's spokesman, said at a press conference. "No one will be able to get a visa without fulfilling these new rules."

Iran Air is reported on 10 August to have suspended all flights to Saudi Arabia, following an earlier Iranian government ban on all citizens from visiting Saudi Arabia during 30 days of Ramadan, beginning around 22 August. Iran had 144 reported cases of H1N1 on 8 August, according to WHO, mostly pilgrims who had visited Saudi Arabia.

Going global

As of 31 July, 168 countries and overseas territories/communities had reported at least one laboratory confirmed case of H1N1.

By the same date, WHO recorded a global total of 162,380 cases and 1,154 deaths. WHO specialists say the actual number of infections and deaths is likely to be much higher as many countries do not have the appropriate facilities or medical skills to diagnose the virus properly.

WHO segments the world into six regions: Africa, the least affected region, had 0.14 percent of the global total of H1N1 cases; the Eastern Mediterranean Region 0.8 percent; Southeast Asia 6.1 percent; Europe 16.1 percent; the Western Pacific 16.4 percent and the Americas 60 percent.

ed/at/mwhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85653NAIROBI Thursday, July 30, 2009 (IRIN) - The humanitarian cavalry is the food airdrop: when you need to shift serious tonnage in a hurry to somewhere inaccessible, nothing quite does it like a large cargo plane and skilled pilot and crew. NAIROBI Thursday, July 30, 2009 (IRIN) - The humanitarian cavalry is the food airdrop: when you need to shift serious tonnage in a hurry to somewhere inaccessible, nothing quite does it like a large cargo plane and skilled pilot and crew.

According to the World Food Programme (WFP), air drops have delivered 1.5 million tons of aid in the world's worst emergencies over the past 15 years. In its busiest operation, in south Sudan, 2.5 million people in need were reached between 1990 and 2005.
It's an expensive enterprise, and these days humanitarian agencies prefer to build roads to reach the vulnerable. Road construction and repair in southern Sudan has made overland delivery roughly 50 percent cheaper than by air.

But roads can be washed away in heavy rains, or closed by conflict; in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, airdrops are the only practical way to supply 130,000 people displaced by fighting around Dungu. The last convoy of trucks to reach the town from Uganda took 35 days to drive a distance of 520kms - compared to less than two hours by plane.

So, how do you do an airdrop?

The aircraft

There are basically three types of aircraft that do the job: the Antonov-12 (hauling about 15 tons), the Hercules C-130 (18 tons), and the Iluyshin-76 (36 tons). The choice of aircraft is down to the operator hired by the humanitarian agency, but all must be specially equipped and certified. They are big and thirsty, and need a ground crew of two or three engineers, plus a project manager, to keep flying safely.

If you've got a forklift, loading can be as quick as 15 minutes; for the monster Iluyshin, it's about 45 minutes. Air missions usually last between two and four hours, covering distances of between 200kms to 600kms. At the height of the southern Sudan operation, daily sorties were being flown from Nairobi and Lokichokio in Kenya, as well as Khartoum and El Obeid in Sudan.

The food

Usually it's only food powder, pulses or grain that is dropped - 50kg per bag. There is nothing special about how the food is readied before loading except it's triple packed into three 90kg sacks, which are then stitched together. According to WFP, four electric sewing machines should be able to handle 5,000 sacks a day. The reinforced bags survive most drops; the wastage rate is a tiny 2 percent.

In the past plywood pallets also exited the plane, coming in handy as construction material or firewood for people on the ground. But it increased the cost of airdropping, and their uncertain trajectory also made them a bit dangerous. New dropping techniques means just the food falls.

The Drop Zone (DZ)

Rocks, swamps, people - or roaming livestock - make for a bad DZ. Choosing the drop zone is the responsibility of the ground controllers, typically a radio-equipped food monitor and/or logistics officer. They mark out the DZ, ensure security, communicate with the aircraft, and work with the local relief committee to gather the dropped food aid and organise distribution.

The size of the DZ depends on the type of aircraft making the drop, but generally it's 200 meters by 1,000 meters, marked out by white food bags, with a cross dead centre. The area is secured - with a 200 meter perimeter outside the DZ - at least one hour before the scheduled drop, and it's the ground controller who clears the aircraft to release its cargo.

The pilot

Airdropping is specialised, it's normally only former military pilots that have the training. They generally drop from just over 200 metres above the ground to reduce impact on the bags. Two loadmasters supervise the cargo, and release on the pilot's command. The dropping system used is down to the operator, with the cargo arranged in either a single or double row configuration; if it's single row, it exits the plane all in one go.

On final approach to the DZ, the pilot keeps the plane's speed down to around 185kph, and lifts the nose by 8 to 10 degrees; when the loadmasters releases the bands holding the food in place, gravity takes over and the bags tumble to the ground.

"Once the drop is finished, you lower the nose, give some power and close the ramp at the back," former navigator on a C-130, Philippe Martou, told IRIN. "You do a low pass to have a look at the DZ, to see if possible, whether you can drop better next time."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85479DUBAI Monday, July 20, 2009 (IRIN) - The Middle East registered its first death due to H1N1 2009 after a 25-year-old Egyptian woman returning from Umrah, the lesser Muslim pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, died in hospital on 18 July after testing positive for the virus, according to the Egyptian health ministry.DUBAI Monday, July 20, 2009 (IRIN) - The Middle East registered its first death due to H1N1 2009 after a 25-year-old Egyptian woman returning from Umrah, the lesser Muslim pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, died in hospital on 18 July after testing positive for the virus, according to the Egyptian health ministry.

The woman arrived in Egypt on 16 July and was admitted to hospital in the Nile Delta province of Gharbia "suffering from rheumatic fever, lack of oxygen in the blood and a stroke", the health ministry said in a statement published by the official MENA news agency.

As of 20 July, Egypt registered 130 cases; about 56 percent are younger than 20 and 8.5 percent over 45, according to the health ministry website. The country also suffered the worst outbreak of avian flu outside Asia, claiming the lives of 27 people.

On 16 July, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced it would stop tracking pandemic H1N1 cases and deaths around the world. However, it would provide updates describing the situation in the newly affected countries.

dvh/at/mwhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85343SHOUR Sunday, July 19, 2009 (IRIN) - Naeme Khalil, 80, is inspecting the construction of his new three-storey home in the village of Shour in south Lebanon. Three years ago, the building was destroyed by an Israeli missile during the war with Hezbollah, which killed about 1,200 Lebanese and displaced one million.SHOUR Sunday, July 19, 2009 (IRIN) - Naeme Khalil, 80, is inspecting the construction of his new three-storey home in the village of Shour in south Lebanon. Three years ago, the building was destroyed by an Israeli missile during the war with Hezbollah, which killed about 1,200 Lebanese and displaced one million .

Today, the area is peaceful, but unprepared for a potentially more devastating threat: an earthquake.

Although Lebanon is crisscrossed by fault lines, the Dead Sea System separating the giant African and Asian plates causes seismologists the greatest concern. It is the deepest and most deadly faultline in the Middle East, snaking its way from Ethiopia through the Aqaba straits, up into south Lebanon and the Bekaa valley.

South Lebanon is categorised as a zone three and four on a scale indicating the frequency and force of expected earthquakes, which equates to potential tremors measuring up to 7.5 on the Richter scale.

The last major earthquake in 1759 measured seven and killed 40,000 people in Beirut and Damascus. Experts forecast major earthquakes on the faultline will occur every 250 to 300 years.

“Which means we are due one, although we cannot accurately predict when,” said Mohamed Harajli, professor of engineering at the American University of Beirut.

Between February and July last year some 800 tremors ranging from 2.3 to 5.1 Richter shook the south, said Moueen Hamze of Lebanon's National Scientific Research Centre. Frightened residents of Srifa, a village a few kilometres from Shour, spent weeks camping out in the school playground.

“Srifa was an early warning,” General Maroun Kraish, who leads the crisis management and early warning committee established shortly after the Srifa quake, told IRIN.

“The south is a prototype for the rest of Lebanon,” Kraish said. “It is a suitable place for drills and it is the area most likely to be hit by an earthquake.” With the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, the Lebanese Army is due to hold a major earthquake drill this month.

“Missed opportunity”

The overall response to the threat of earthquakes in south Lebanon has been slow and scattered, particularly in raising awareness among residents rebuilding their homes after the war.

The Norwegian Refugee Council’s programme manager in Lebanon, Richard Evans, said the issue of rebuilding quake-resistant homes in the south first arose from a study with the University of York into housing compensation after the war.

The report found that delays in compensation payments, rising inflation, lack of building regulations and a lack of awareness of the earthquake threat meant that most rebuilt homes are not safe.

“These factors have resulted in people buying poor quality materials and as a result the houses are weak,” said Evans. “This has been a missed opportunity to upgrade houses in the south to withstand any future earthquake.”

hm/asf/at/mwhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85300JOHANNESBURG Tuesday, July 14, 2009 (IRIN) - The growing number of accidental explosions in military arms and ammunition storage facilities across Africa has highlighted the need for minimum standards in stockpile management in the continent, says a South Africa-based think-tank.JOHANNESBURG Tuesday, July 14, 2009 (IRIN) - The growing number of accidental explosions in military arms and ammunition storage facilities across Africa has highlighted the need for minimum standards in stockpile management in the continent, says a South Africa-based think-tank.

"These ammunition stockpiles pose a significant threat and have enduring consequences in vulnerable and fragile societies, and as such need to be adequately managed and/or disposed of by making use of the correct mechanisms and best practice guidelines," the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) noted in the latest of a series of reports on munitions storage.

"Arms and ammunition stockpiles are becoming increasingly unstable due to age and, in many cases, unintentional mismanagement," Ben Coetzee, Senior Researcher at the ISS Arms Management Programme, told IRIN.

"Since 2007 several explosions occurred in Mozambique and at least one in Tanzania, resulting in hundreds of injuries and many deaths. Seen in this light, there is an urgent need to re-evaluate the current principles of ammunition stockpile management."

In the past decade there have also been accidental explosions in military storage facilities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Guinea, Nigeria, Angola and Sierra Leone.

tdm/hehttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85271DUBAI Sunday, July 12, 2009 (IRIN) - With several million Muslims from all over the world expected in Mecca for the annual Hajj pilgrimage in late November, Saudi authorities are concerned that the event will facilitate the spread of the A(H1N1) virus among pilgrims.DUBAI Sunday, July 12, 2009 (IRIN) - With several million Muslims from all over the world expected in Mecca for the annual Hajj pilgrimage in late November, Saudi authorities are concerned that the event will facilitate the spread of the A(H1N1) virus among pilgrims.

Aside from the week-long Hajj, more than 2 million people go on pilgrimage to Mecca throughout the year (called ‘Umrah’), with extra numbers visiting in the holy month of Ramadan (from about 21 August to 19 September).

Saudi Arabia held a workshop at the end of June to discuss minimising the spread of the disease during Hajj season and urged all nations to postpone the pilgrimage this year for elderly people with chronic illnesses, children and pregnant women.

The workshop outlined general hygiene habits to reduce the risk of A(H1N1) infection, such as washing hands with water and soap, covering the nose and mouth while sneezing and coughing, and wearing masks when visiting crowded places.

According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 6 July update on Influenza A(H1N1), the Middle East region has had 1,111 cases of the virus and no deaths.

Regional precautionary measures

Many countries in the region have started taking precautionary measures to control the spread of A(H1N1) during and after the Hajj.

* Ali Al Baqqara, head of the Hajj medical committee at Bahrain’s Ministry of Health, called on people to postpone going to Hajj this year, particularly pregnant women, children, people above 60 and people suffering from blood disorders and genetic or chronic diseases.

* In Egypt, Health Minister Hatem Al-Gabali warned last month that Egyptian pilgrims could be quarantined upon their return from Hajj.

* Khalid Al-Sahlawi, secretary-general for Al-Hajj Mission in Kuwait, said that provided the A(H1N1) vaccination is available in the country in early October, the priority for vaccination will be given to pilgrims.

* On 6 July, Oman banned sick elderly people and children from travelling to Saudi Arabia on pilgrimage for fear of contracting A(H1N1), according to a health ministry statement. The ministry did not clarify whether the ban would be extended to cover the Hajj season as well.

* Jassim al-Kubeisi, deputy chairman of Qatar’s Hajj Committee, told Gulf Times on 11 July that the committee members would meet soon to discuss and take a decision on how to deal with Hajj and Umrah this year.

* Ziyad Maymash, assistant undersecretary for preventive medicine at the Saudi Ministry of Health, said a quarantine facility had been set up at airport arrival lounges to isolate Hajj and Umrah pilgrims with symptoms of A(H1N1) infections.

* Ali Bin Shukr, Director General of the UAE Ministry of Health, said on 8 July that the government would launch an A(H1N1) awareness campaign for people planning to perform Hajj or Umrah. Shukr said the ministry will coordinate with the General Authority for Islamic Affairs to engage imams in educating pilgrims during Friday prayers about ways to avoid contracting the virus.

Sources: Local media, health ministries, WHO

dhz/at/edhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85239DUBAI Thursday, June 25, 2009 (IRIN) - The number of cases of the A(H1N1) virus, otherwise known as swine flu, is growing in the Middle East, with many new suspected and confirmed cases in the past few days, but so far no one has died of the disease.DUBAI Thursday, June 25, 2009 (IRIN) - The number of cases of the A(H1N1) virus, otherwise known as swine flu, is growing in the Middle East, with many new suspected and confirmed cases in the past few days, but so far no one has died of the disease.

According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) latest A(H1N1) update on 24 June, the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases worldwide reached 55,867, with 570 in the Middle East. The number of deaths from the disease globally is 238.

New cases in the Middle East

· Bahraini Health Ministry said on 14 June that seven Bahraini students - five girls and two boys - had tested positive for the A(H1N1) virus. The cases were among a 13-member Bahraini student group which had returned from the USA after a 10-month exchange programme.

· Egyptian Ministry of Health (MoH) reported a new case, bringing total to 41.

· Israel has identified about 271 cases so far. On 22 June the MoH transferred the primary care for A(H1N1) to national health management organizations. On 21 June MoH lifted restrictions imposed nearly two months ago on travel to Mexico.

· Iraq's MoH has just confirmed the first cases, saying seven members of the women's national basketball team were being treated in hospital. One member of the US-led multinational force in Iraq had also been confirmed as having the disease, Health Minister Saleh Al-Hasnawi said.

· Jordanian health minister announced on 21 June the discovery of a new case (a 27-year-old Filipino woman who had arrived in Jordan from Manila on a Kuwait Airways flight), bringing the total to 13.

· Kuwait health authorities said on 20 June that a Lebanese had been diagnosed with swine flu, bringing the total number of cases to eight.

· Lebanon’s MoH said on 24 June the number of diagnosed cases had risen to 30 after the detection of five new cases.

· Oman's Health Ministry confirmed its first three cases - students studying in the USA.

· Saudi health officials announced three more cases on 24 June, bringing the total number of reported cases to 48.

· United Arab Emirates confirmed its eighth case on 25 June. The infected person, who had arrived from abroad, was being treated in hospital.

· Occupied Palestinian Territories - Five cases so far in the West Bank, none in Gaza.

· Yemen’s Health and Population Ministry announced a new case on 23 June, bringing the total to six. The first case was registered on 16 June.

· Qatar - In line with WHO recommendations, the Supreme Council of Health has warned the public against taking Tamiflu (Oseltamivir) and Relenza (Zanamivir) for the treatment of flu-like symptoms, or as a preventive measure against A(H1N1), without a prescription from a health care practitioner. There were 10 confirmed cases in Qatar as of 24 June, according to WHO.http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85007BEIRUT Sunday, June 07, 2009 (IRIN) - Sectarianism is playing a more central role in Lebanon’s highly contested parliamentary elections on 7 June, which analysts say could see the country facing increased political instability.BEIRUT Sunday, June 07, 2009 (IRIN) - Sectarianism is playing a more central role in Lebanon’s highly contested parliamentary elections on 7 June, which analysts say could see the country facing increased political instability. The vote pits the Western-backed ruling coalition, predominantly made up of Sunni Muslim, Christian and Druze parties, against the Hezbollah-led opposition, mostly composed of Shia Muslims and Christians.

“A bitter campaign has re-awakened painful civil war memories,” an International Crisis Group (ICG) report said [see: http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=6130&l=1]. “Underlying conflicts will be revived, not resolved.”

Lebanon is home to 18 official sectarian groups, or ‘confessions’, and still bears the painful scars of a 1975-1990 civil war that split the country under predominantly confessional lines.

This election is being held according to a revised electoral law adopted in September 2008 which increased the number of electoral districts from 14 to 26.

An assessment of the law published by Democracy Reporting International (DRI) and the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE) [http://www.ladeleb.org/default.aspx] concluded that the law “accentuates confessional divisions" and increases “the long-term potential for conflict in the country”.

The report found that the new division of electoral districts essentially created 13 “mono-confessional” districts, whereby all lawmakers there belong to a single confessional group and where electorates are relatively homogenous.

Political power is divided according to religion in Lebanon. Electoral districts have more than one seat and seats are also allocated according to sect.

“The most serious implication of the 2008 election law is the fact that it has increased the sectarian nature of Lebanese politics,” analyst Deen Sharp wrote on his blog following the Lebanese election [see: http://lebelections.blogspot.com/].

“Before, the assumption was that your campaign would have to be aimed at a wider base than voters from your own sect,” he told IRIN, adding that electoral lists reflected less confessional diversity.

Smaller electoral districts imply that there is less need for broad-based coalitions comprised of candidates from various sects.

“Smaller districts tend to overemphasize the sectarian sensitivities. They are also more likely to be dominated by one sect and politicians have the tendency of over-playing fears,” said Emile El-Hokayem, a Middle East expert with the Henry L. Stimson Center.

Fears of an opposition win

A win for the opposition has raised fears that Lebanon would shift from its pro-Western orientation to one more closely aligned with Iran, which has strong links with Hezbollah.

On a recent trip to Beirut, US Vice President Joe Biden said that the United States would re-evaluate the shape of its assistance programs to Lebanon depending on the policies and shape of the new government.

While the new election law was a key component of a 2008 Qatari-brokered peace deal between the feuding Lebanese factions, the country remains vulnerable to political turmoil, analysts say.

Since the last election in 2005, Lebanon has witnessed a series of assassinations of public figures, a devastating war with Israel in 2006, a deadly battle with Islamists in 2007 and civil sectarian strife that left dozens killed in May 2008.

These occurrences all resulted in short and long-term displacement, economic ramifications and increased tensions and distrust between confessional groups that keep the country on the brink of violence.

“Unlike other countries that experience periods of instability, Lebanon is fundamentally unstable,” said Hani Sabra, Lebanon analyst for Eurasia Group [see: http://www.eurasiagroup.net/] a political risk research and consulting company.

“There are so many potential triggers that can lead to violence in Lebanon and governance tends to always be a patchwork of ad hoc leadership designed to please local political leaders and foreign patrons,” he added.

The bitter election race thus far has been relatively free of violence, though fears remain that the calm may cease in the coming days and months as election results come out and the tricky business of forming a national unity cabinet begins.

The government has taken precautionary measures to ensure security through the elections. Schools will be closed on Monday 8 June, the day after the election. A curfew will be in place as of midnight on 6 and 7 June, and the interior ministry has announced that a 50,000-strong security force was deployed around the country on June 7.

ra/hm/at/edhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=84742NAIROBI Tuesday, June 02, 2009 (IRIN) - Hassan Cherry, 28, an AIDS activist from Beirut, is one of only about 3,000 HIV-positive people in Lebanon. He talked to IRIN/PlusNews about the fear and ignorance that people living with HIV still face in his country.NAIROBI Tuesday, June 02, 2009 (IRIN) - Hassan Cherry, 28, an AIDS activist from Beirut, is one of only about 3,000 HIV-positive people in Lebanon. He talked to IRIN/PlusNews about the fear and ignorance that people living with HIV still face in his country.

"I found out about my own status in 2004 when I applied for a visa to travel to Kuwait, where I was planning to work as a journalist. Because I tested HIV-positive, I could not work in Kuwait, so I continued with my job as a journalist in Lebanon.

"My friends and family were very supportive, but I did not feel I could come out and tell everyone my status – there is a kind of HIV phobia in my country.

"Most institutions do not accept people living with HIV as employees, and we do not qualify for health insurance. As you can see from my case, in the Arab world you cannot live and work as a foreigner if you are HIV-positive; it's the same in Lebanon – HIV-positive foreigners are not allowed to live and work here.

"The main problem for people with HIV is the expensive medical treatment - although ARVs are covered by the Ministry of Health with the support of the national AIDS programme, there are shortages from time to time and we sometimes have to pay for our own CD4 tests, our own ARV drugs and even for treatment of opportunistic infections.

"We need positive leadership to fight stigma and discrimination in our society. Public awareness campaigns are very few – we only hear about HIV on World AIDS Day. We came up with a declaration of rights of people living with HIV, but the government is yet to respond to it.

"We recently formed the very first association for people living with HIV in Lebanon; it's called 'Think Positive'. We have 65 HIV-positive members and are trying to recruit several public figures, such as artists and religious leaders, so that we can raise the profile of HIV in the country and reduce this phobia.

"The national AIDS programme is always responding positively, giving us information, education and communication materials, as well as providing rapid tests and pushing the government to provide free healthcare for people living with HIV.

"But we need the media to take a greater initiative against HIV so that they give bigger voice to people living with HIV, who need more understanding and more dignity."

kr/ks/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=84668DUBAI Sunday, May 31, 2009 (IRIN) - Tobacco Health Warnings is the theme for this year’s World No Tobacco Day on 31 May. The World Health Organisation (WHO) is urging governments to increase public awareness of the dangers of smoking by requiring that all tobacco packages include pictorial warnings to show the sickness and suffering caused by tobacco use. DUBAI Sunday, May 31, 2009 (IRIN) - Tobacco Health Warnings is the theme for this year’s World No Tobacco Day on 31 May [see: http://www.who.int/tobacco/wntd/2009/en/index.html]. The World Health Organisation (WHO) is urging governments to increase public awareness of the dangers of smoking by requiring that all tobacco packages include pictorial warnings to show the sickness and suffering caused by tobacco use.

“Health warnings on tobacco packages are a simple, cheap and effective strategy that can vastly reduce tobacco use and save lives," said WHO Assistant Director-General Dr Ala Alwan in a press release. "But they only work if they communicate the risk. Warnings that include images of the harm that tobacco causes are particularly effective at communicating risk and motivating behavioural changes, such as quitting or reducing tobacco consumption.”

In its report - entitled Showing the truth, saving lives: the case for pictorial health warnings [see: http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2009/9789241598040_eng.pdf] - WHO said only 10 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where warnings with pictures are required on tobacco packaging. Studies carried out in Brazil, Canada, Singapore and Thailand revealed that having graphic images on cigarette packets of the consequences of smoking motivates more users to quit and reduces the appeal of taking up smoking for non-users.

Tobacco continues to be the leading preventable cause of death in the world, killing more than 5 million people every year. “It is the only legal consumer product that kills when used exactly as intended by the manufacturer,” according to the WHO report.

Middle East statistics

The latest WHO information for tobacco uses in the Middle East is from surveys conducted around 10 years ago in 19 countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). They revealed that Yemeni men were the biggest smokers in the region, with 77 percent smoking, and Lebanese women topped the female category with 35 percent smoking [see: http://www.emro.who.int/tfi/CountryProfile-Part6.htm].

Overall, the richer Gulf States (Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman) had the lowest prevalence of smokers, with Oman faring best, and the poorer Levant countries (Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Jordan) and Yemen had the highest.

Tobacco fact box

Tobacco use is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced.
• There are more than one billion smokers in the world.
• Globally, use of tobacco products is increasing, although it is decreasing in high-income countries.
• Almost half of the world's children breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke.
• The epidemic is shifting to the developing world.
• More than 80% of the world's smokers live in low- and middle-income countries.
• Tobacco use kills 5.4 million people a year - an average of one person every six seconds - and accounts for one in 10 adult deaths worldwide.
• Tobacco kills up to half of all users.
• It is a risk factor for six of the eight leading causes of deaths in the world.
• 100 million deaths were caused by tobacco in the 20th century. If current trends continue, there will be up to one billion deaths in the 21st century.
• Unchecked, tobacco-related deaths will increase to more than eight million a year by 2030, and 80% of those deaths will occur in the developing world.

ed/athttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=84632DUBAI Monday, May 25, 2009 (IRIN) - Confirmed cases of A(H1N1) influenza, commonly known as swine flu, have been reported in new countries in the Middle East. Hitherto only Israel had reported cases of the new influenza virus. DUBAI Monday, May 25, 2009 (IRIN) - Confirmed cases of A(H1N1) influenza, commonly known as swine flu, have been reported in new countries in the Middle East. Hitherto only Israel had reported cases of the new influenza virus.

• The United Arab Emirates confirmed its first case of A(H1N1) on 24 May. Health Minister Hanif Hassan said a man who had flown in from Canada was being treated in one of the country’s hospitals. He was no longer showing symptoms, but would be kept under observation there for 10 days.

• In Kuwait, about 18 US soldiers at a military base have tested positive for A(H1N1). The Kuwaiti authorities announced on 24 May that all the soldiers had left the country, that they had normal symptoms of the disease, and that they were given the necessary medication. The head of Kuwait's public health department, Yussef Mendkar, said the soldiers had had no contact with the local population.

• Israel, the first country to register confirmed cases in the region, announced its eighth case on 24 May.

• The authorities in Egypt’s Red Sea Governorate have hospitalised a German tourist who had arrived at Hurghada airport in the area with swine flu-like symptoms, according to a local newspaper. The man said he had visited a pig farm 10 days earlier in Germany. Medical samples have been sent to laboratories in Cairo for testing.

dvh/at/cbhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=84539