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MIDDLE EAST: IRIN-ME Weekly round up 134 for 7–13 July 2007

15 Jul 2007 14:16:48 GMT
Source: IRIN

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• Iraq in turmoil

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DUBAI, 15 July 2007 (IRIN) - CONTENTS

IRAQ: Ministry to insure and protect professors IRAQ: Number of IDPs tops one million, says Iraqi Red Crescent IRAQ: Nissrin Muhammad, "My mother was killed for not wearing a veil" IRAQ: Jobs fair aims to reduce unemployment, insurgency IRAQ: Aid agency appeals for help for 1,000 IDPs in desert camp IRAQ: Concern for newly arriving IDPs in south ISRAEL-SUDAN: Sudanese asylum seekers take long bus ride to find bed for night ISRAEL-OPT: Basic needs met in Gaza but economy near collapse JORDAN: Code of conduct to fight child labour launched LEBANON: Refugees get Saudi funding, demand shelters next to camp

LEBANON: People flee Nahr al-Bared camp ahead of expected final assault YEMEN: Despite ban on arms, activists warn of increasing violence YEMEN: Authorities move to combat locusts after FAO campaign delayed

IRAQ: Ministry to insure and protect professors

The Iraqi Ministry of Finance is to give life insurance to university professors following an increase in the number of lecturers leaving the country because of violence. The initiative will also include providing university teaching staff with personal bodyguards.

"Professors are being targeted on a daily basis and they are fleeing the country, leaving a gap in the educational system," said Marwan Imad, a press officer for the finance ministry. "They will be offered life insurance and bodyguards chosen by themselves."

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73129

IRAQ: Number of IDPs tops one million, says Iraqi Red Crescent

One of the dreams of tailor Ahmed Khalid al-Timimi was to make a school uniform for his oldest daughter so she could boast about it to her peers at school. However, his dream was dashed when he and his family were displaced as a result of the country's spiralling sectarian violence. He is now jobless and his daughter has not been able to go to school.

"Leave or else have your wife and daughters decapitated," al-Timimi, a 39-year-old Shia father of two girls, recalled the note stuck to his door in Baghdad's southern Sunni-dominated suburb of Dora.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73136

IRAQ: Nissrin Muhammad, "My mother was killed for not wearing a veil"

Nissrin Muhammad, 19, an economics student, says she is desperate and does not know what to do with her two-month-old brother, Abdul-Aziz, after her mother was killed a few weeks ago for not wearing a veil.

Being the oldest daughter and with a handicapped father (he lost an arm years ago in an industrial accident), Nissrin was forced to leave college to look after her youngest brother and their home. She depends on her other two younger brothers, aged 14 and 16, to work and bring food to the family. One works as a cleaner and the other sells things in the streets.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73154

IRAQ: Jobs fair aims to reduce unemployment, insurgency

Soaring unemployment is said to be indirectly fuelling the insurgency but one non-governmental organisation, the Baghdad-based Karkh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is trying to provide an alternative to the insecurity by organising a jobs' fair.

The fair - held in Baghdad's al-Zawraa Park on 7 July and attended by nearly 4,000 people - had thousands of jobs on offer. Mainly youths with college diplomas gathered in the early morning and submitted their CVs.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73157

IRAQ: Aid agency appeals for help for 1,000 IDPs in desert camp

Urgent relocation is needed for 185 displaced families stranded in the harsh conditions of a desert camp in southern Iraq, the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) says.

"Three infants aged 1-3 have died due to soaring temperatures in the al-Manathira internally displaced persons (IDP) camp, about 20km south of Najaf, where 185 displaced families, or about 1,100 individuals, are living in about 200 tents," said Dhia Zuwaini, head of the IRCS's Najaf branch.

Zuwaini said these families were part of an estimated 5,500 displaced families in the Najaf area, about 200km south of Baghdad.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73180

IRAQ: Concern for newly arriving IDPs in south

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in southern Iraq are concerned about the fate of newly arriving internally displaced persons (IDPs), after the authorities in the southern provinces said they could not cope with any more of them. The NGOs include South Peace Organisation, Keeping Children Alive and the Women's Rights Association.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73215

ISRAEL-SUDAN: Sudanese asylum seekers take long bus ride to find bed for night

A group of about 60 Sudanese asylum seekers spent 8 July being bussed between Israel's southern city of Beersheba and the lawns in front of the Knesset (parliament) in Jerusalem, as the authorities tried to decide where they could spend the night.

The Sudanese, including some from Darfur, had illegally crossed the Egypt-Israel border in the past few days. Initially, the Beersheba municipality found lodgings for them, while others went to Rahat, a Bedouin town in the southern Negev desert.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73146

ISRAEL-OPT: Basic needs met in Gaza but economy near collapse

While humanitarian aid flows into the Gaza Strip are meeting most of the basic needs of the Palestinians, industries are unable to export their goods. This has lead to mass layoffs and unemployment in the already impoverished enclave.

Businessmen in Gaza speak of over 30,000 layoffs as a result of the lockdown on the Gaza Strip initiated after fighting between the Islamist group Hamas and Fatah last month, which ended when the former seized control over the strip.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73210

JORDAN: Code of conduct to fight child labour launched

Officials from the public and private sectors have announced the launch of a code of conduct to combat child labour in Jordan, but experts believe the country needs more than "a piece of paper" to fight this phenomenon. The code of conduct will be circulated around the kingdom in areas known to have a high concentration of child labour.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73152

LEBANON: Refugees get Saudi funding, demand shelters next to camp

Nearly 10,000 Palestinian families affected by the conflict in Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in north Lebanon have received cheques for US$1,330 to help them pay rent and buy food supplies.

Saudi Arabia has donated $12m to the UN Palestinian relief organisation, UNRWA, which has been distributing the cheques at Beddawi state school, just outside Beddawi refugee camp, in cooperation with the Lebanese government and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73161

LEBANON: People flee Nahr al-Bared camp ahead of expected final assault

Up to 150 people from the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon fled on 11 July, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Witnesses said the army was preparing a final assault on the Fatah al-Islam militants holed up inside.

ICRC spokeswoman Virginia de la Guardia said between 140 and 150 people, mostly men, had left the camp during a lull in fighting early in the day. By afternoon, the army had resumed heavy bombardment of positions suspected to be held by the al-Qaeda-inspired Islamist militants.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73195

YEMEN: Despite ban on arms, activists warn of increasing violence

Following a 2 July suicide car bombing that killed seven Spanish tourists and two Yemenis in Marib, the government and activists are stepping up efforts to rid the country of weapons. But doing this, they say, is a difficult and complicated process that requires awareness efforts at all levels to prevent tribal violence and revenge killings.

Abdul-Rahman al-Marwani, chairman of local NGO Dar al-Salaam Organisation to Combat Revenge and Violence, told IRIN that the availability of small arms among civilians poses a threat to the country's stability and development.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73130

YEMEN: Authorities move to combat locusts after FAO campaign delayed

The Yemeni authorities have sent teams to combat desert locusts in southern Yemen after UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) eradication operations failed to start as scheduled on 28 June.

Officials at Yemen's Desert Locust Control Centre (DLCC) are worried the locusts are increasing in number and, if not controlled, could damage crops. The government's capabilities are limited and international support is needed to prevent the locusts spreading to other countries, they said.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73197

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Last updated:Sun Jul 15 14:19:43 2007