DUBAI, 23 December 2007 (IRIN) - Contents:

MIDDLE EAST: Rising sea levels could lead to political tensions – report EGYPT: Raising awareness about Millennium Development Goals IRAQ: Women MPs, activists call for more support for widows, divorced women ISRAEL-OPT: Palestinian economy to be dependent on aid "in medium term" - World Bank ISRAEL-OPT: Palestinian shepherds forced to move on LEBANON: Palestinian refugees still adamant they must return home YEMEN: Anti-polio campaign targets four million children

MIDDLE EAST: Rising sea levels could lead to political tensions – report

Rising sea levels predicted as a result of global warming could have severe environmental, economic and political implications for the already water-stressed Middle East, a new study published on 10 December warns.

The report entitled Climate Change: A New Threat to Middle East Security, by the non-governmental organisation Friends of the Earth Middle East (FOEME), was presented at the annual UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia.

It believes climate change could act as a "threat multiplier", exacerbating water scarcity and tensions over water between nations linked by hydrological resources, geography and shared borders, particularly in Jordan, Gaza and Egypt.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75887

EGYPT: Raising awareness about Millennium Development Goals

In a bid to spread the word for a global partnership in development among Egyptians, eight feluccas sailed down the Nile last week reaching their last port of call, in Cairo earlier this month.

Organized by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the aim of the Nile tour, which included seven governorates in Upper Egypt, was to raise the profile of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Egypt.

"We also wanted to remind the government of its promises to achieve the millennium goals as well as motivate individuals to try to reach them", Ola al-Tanani, the communications officer at UNDP Egypt, told IRIN.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75919

IRAQ: Women MPs, activists call for more support for widows, divorced women

Iraqi women parliamentarians and activists are pressing for a new law to help the increasing number of widows and divorced women in their war-torn country.

"We are in the process of presenting a new draft law which portrays the tragedy of the women who have no one to support them, like widows and the divorced," said member of parliament (MP) Nadira Habib, deputy head of Iraq's parliamentary committee for women's and children's affairs.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75899

ISRAEL-OPT: Palestinian economy to be dependent on aid "in medium term" - World Bank

The Palestinian economy will be dependent on aid in the near future, regardless of the 17 December donor conference in Paris, a World Bank report released on 13 December said.

"Even under the most optimistic scenarios significant aid will continue to be required for the medium-term," the Bank wrote.

However, if donors give the full amount the Palestinians requested - about US$5.6 billion over three years - and the Israeli closure policies end, then the Palestinian economy has the potential to reach double digit growth "and positively impact poverty levels".

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75885

ISRAEL-OPT: Palestinian shepherds forced to move on

"The best thing about Khirbet Qassa was the grazing land. We had open spaces. Now we've become dependent on other people and their land," said Abdel Halim Nattah, a shepherd in the southern West Bank.

Several weeks earlier he and all his fellow villagers, 37 families numbering 272 people, were evacuated by the Israeli military from Qassa and told to find a new home somewhere else.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75908

LEBANON: Palestinian refugees still adamant they must return home

Palestinian and Israeli leaders may have agreed at the US-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis on 27 November to work towards a full peace deal by the end of next year, but in the tinderbox refugee camp of Ain Al-Hilweh in Lebanon the lives of 75,000 Palestinians are defined by an intractable issue at the heart of the conflict: the right of Palestinian refugees to return home.

"No-one can negotiate on our right to return to Palestine. There is only one country called Palestine and we will never return there except by resistance to Israel," said Abu Yousef, a fighter with the radical Palestinian Islamist faction Ansar Allah.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75909

YEMEN: Anti-polio campaign targets four million children

A three-day national anti-polio campaign began on 15 December in Yemen to ensure the complete eradication of the disease. Spearheaded by Yemen's Ministry of Health - with support from the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and USAID - the immunisation drive is targeting just over four million children aged five and under.

Ali al-Mudhwahi, director of the family health department at the Ministry of Health, told IRIN that the campaign was planned to coincide with this year's Hajj (Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca) season. He said children are being immunised in Yemen to prevent them catching polio from returning pilgrims who may have become infected during the pilgrimage.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75886

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