DUBAI, 21 October 2007 (IRIN) - Contents:

IRAQ-IRAN: Fear among refugees as cholera crosses border IRAQ-SYRIA: Fire ravages border camp for Palestinian-Iraqi refugees IRAQ: Shortage of safe water in Missan Province poses heath risk IRAQ: Rift Valley Fever diagnosed in south, say local authorities MIDDLE EAST: Jordan, Syria adopt differing approaches to cholera threat ISRAEL-JORDAN: Pollution in Jordanian port exacerbated by Israeli sewage leak JORDAN: US$600 million project to end water shortage LEBANON: Palestinians return to desolate, dangerous camp SYRIA-SUDAN: Palestinian refugees turn down Sudanese asylum offer YEMEN: Saddam al-Ashmori, "I get a panic attack whenever I walk in the street"

IRAQ-IRAN: Fear among refugees as cholera crosses border

Despite the efforts of the Iraqi government and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to contain a recent cholera outbreak, the disease has already spread to half of the country and has also crossed the border into Iran, according to WHO and Iranian authorities.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74682

IRAQ-SYRIA: Fire ravages border camp for Palestinian-Iraqi refugees

A raging fire swept through the Al-Tanf refugee camp on the Syrian side of the Syrian-Iraqi border on 6 October injuring 25 Palestinian-Iraqi refugees and burning down 53 tents in the isolated camp, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported on 7 October.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74694

IRAQ: Shortage of safe water in Missan Province poses heath risk

A shortage of chemicals for water purification is adversely affecting water quality in Missan Province, a predominantly Shia region some 380km south of Baghdad, and posing a health risk as people resort to drawing water from the polluted River Tigris, according to aid agencies.

[Read this story in Arabic: http://arabic.irinnews.org/ReportArabic.aspx?SID=363]

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74707

IRAQ: Rift Valley Fever diagnosed in south, say local authorities

Local authorities in Nassiriyah, a town about 300km south of Baghdad, have asked livestock farmers to take all necessary precautions after laboratory tests showed that some livestock had developed Rift Valley Fever (RVF).

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74740

MIDDLE EAST: Jordan, Syria adopt differing approaches to cholera threat

As cholera awareness posters have been going up in Baghdad, countries bordering Iraq have also taken measures to prevent an outbreak of the disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) has been advising countries in the region to boost their defences against cholera, after reports that cholera had crossed the Iraqi border into Iran where at least 45 people had been infected.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74714

ISRAEL-JORDAN: Pollution in Jordanian port exacerbated by Israeli sewage leak

Environmentalists and residents from the port city of Aqaba, 300km south of Amman, say they fear a recent sewage leak in the nearby city of Eilat in Israel, which spilled into the Red Sea, could kill marine life in the Gulf of Aqaba and threaten public health.

[Read this story in Arabic: http://arabic.irinnews.org/ReportArabic.aspx?SID=361]

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74688

JORDAN: US$600 million project to end water shortage

Jordan has launched a US$600 million project to pump water from its Disi aquifer in the south, signaling an end in sight to the kingdom's chronic water shortage, experts and government officials say.

[Read this story in Arabic: http://arabic.irinnews.org/ReportArabic.aspx?SID=358]

The project will be executed on a BOT (build operate and transfer) basis, whereby the Turkish firm will sell water to Jordan for 40 years before handing the project to the Jordanian government.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74679

LEBANON: Palestinians return to desolate, dangerous camp

The first Palestinian families displaced by 15 weeks of intense fighting between the army and Islamist militants that left much of north Lebanon's Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in ruins have begun returning home to start rebuilding their lives.

Security was extremely tight at the narrow, dusty checkpoint at Mahamra, on the eastern flank of Nahr al-Bared, with the army checking papers and searching vehicles one by one as they queued to re-enter the camp between rolls of razor wire.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74754

SYRIA-SUDAN: Palestinian refugees turn down Sudanese asylum offer

Most of the over 300 Palestinian-Iraqi refugees stranded for the past 18 months at the makeshift al-Tanf refugee camp on the Syrian side of the Iraq-Syria border have rejected an offer of asylum in Sudan. The Sudanese government made an offer 8 October to take in the 310 Palestinian refugees, who are living in pitiful conditions at the camp.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74728

YEMEN: Saddam al-Ashmori, "I get a panic attack whenever I walk in the street"

The intimidation and harassment of journalists in Yemen is not uncommon, according to the US State Department. Saddam al-Ashmori, a 26-year-old Yemeni freelance journalist, was attacked earlier this month and now fears for his safety. He says the people who attacked him were not common criminals.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74711

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