DUBAI, 17 June 2007 (IRIN) - CONTENTS:

EGYPT: Ten-year-old girl becomes 15th bird flu victim

IRAQ: Iraq's displacement crisis continues to worsen, UNHCR says IRAQ: Expired food products causing sickness IRAQ: Sectarian violence and displacement follow Samarra attack IRAQ: Child labour on the rise as poverty increases IRAQ: Mahmoud Rafid, "I have to keep working despite being sexually abused" ISRAEL-OPT: Poverty driving Palestinian children onto the streets LEBANON: Aid agencies pledge continued efforts despite deaths of Red Cross workers LEBANON: One in three Lebanese wants to leave LEBANON: UNICEF estimates 20,000 children affected by conflict in camp OPT: Patients killed as gunmen storm Gaza hospitals OPT: UN agency scales back operations in Gaza after two workers killed OPT: Most humanitarian operations in Gaza at a standstill

EGYPT: Ten-year-old girl becomes 15th bird flu victim

A 10-year-old girl has become the youngest person in Egypt to die of bird flu since the first human case was recorded in the country in March 2006. Hers was the 15th death of the 35 human cases reported to date.

The girl, from Naqada village in Upper Egypt's Qena province, died on Sunday morning from the H5N1 strain of the avian influenza virus, officials reported.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72648

IRAQ: Iraq's displacement crisis continues to worsen, UNHCR says

When sectarian violence forced Muhie Nasser Jawad's family to leave their home in Baghdad in March 2006, they thought it would only be for a few days. But more than a year later, their hopes of returning are fading as violence continues to plague the streets of the capital and the displacement camp they live in continues to grow.

"We only took a few clothes and some important documents and left everything in its place [in the house] as we thought it was just a temporary situation and that we would go back after a few days," said Jawad, a 48-year-old Shia maths teacher who was threatened by Sunni extremists to leave his house in the mixed sect Gazaliyah district of Baghdad or have his head chopped off.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72650

IRAQ: Expired food products causing sickness

Hassan Fae'ek, a 43-year-old shop-owner in Baghdad's Sadr City District, told IRIN he would not stop selling food past its sell-by date because there was demand for it. The violence meant he had trouble buying new products in any case, he said. Health officials are concerned by the increasing number of expired foods and medicines.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72658

IRAQ: Sectarian violence and displacement follow Samarra attack

Civilians are defying a curfew to flee their homes in fear of an increase in sectarian violence after insurgents blew up two minarets at a revered Shia shrine in Samarra on 13 June. Partial destruction of the shrine last year sparked spiralling sectarian bloodshed.

"The curfew is preventing everyone from moving but some families insist on leaving their homes trying to save themselves. We have been informed than many people have been killed while trying to flee and others have been killed in their homes by militias," said Fatah Ahmed, an Iraq Aid Association spokesman.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72731

IRAQ: Child labour on the rise as poverty increases

Iyad Abdel-Salim, 12, left school six months ago and has been working to boost the family income. His father was killed in Iraq's political violence. As the only boy in the family, and with three smaller sisters to look after, he was forced to go onto the streets and work.

"I cannot see my family suffer without food. My mother cannot go to work because she has to stay with my sisters, and our uncles cannot help us as they are displaced and without money," Abdel-Salim said.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72683

IRAQ: Mahmoud Rafid, "I have to keep working despite being sexually abused"

Mahmoud Rafid, 13, says he is afraid to go on selling goods on the streets of Baghdad, after being sexually harassed and abused. He lost his father a year ago and his mother has cancer so Mahmoud, his two sisters, 14 and 11, and brother, 9, had to find ways of feeding themselves. After selling many of their possessions to raise money, they can now be seen at traffic lights selling chocolates, newspapers and pens.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72705

ISRAEL-OPT: Poverty driving Palestinian children onto the streets

Eight-year-old Younis spends his days dodging traffic at a busy East Jerusalem intersection, peddling soft toys to drivers as a way of making some money for his impoverished family.

"At the end of the day I give all the money to my father. Neither of my parents has work. If they did have work, they would be working, not us. The stuff I sell comes from Ramallah - my father buys it," said the youngster from the Jerusalem suburb of Al Ram, now cut off from the city by slabs of Israel's West Bank barrier.

Younis is among thousands of Palestinian children who miss school and face danger on the streets every day.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72677

LEBANON: Aid agencies pledge continued efforts despite deaths of Red Cross workers

Aid agencies pledged to continue efforts to deliver relief and evacuate the injured from the besieged Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon despite an upsurge in fighting. The deadly 24-day-old conflict between the army and Islamist militants saw two volunteer Red Cross workers killed on 11 June.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72680

LEBANON: One in three Lebanese wants to leave

Researchers warn that economic instability and persistent security threats are driving ever more young, educated Lebanese abroad, creating a brain drain that threatens the country's economic and social future.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72647

LEBANON: UNICEF estimates 20,000 children affected by conflict in camp

Seven-year-old Omar Mohammed Mallas may pretend the bombs and bullets that slammed into his home from the clashes outside did not scare him much, but spend a little time with the young resident of north Lebanon's besieged Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp, and he quietly confesses his fears.

"I saw the tanks and heard the explosions and I told my Mum: 'Let's get out of here.' On the way I found a piece of shrapnel that I liked but I've lost it now. I'm really looking forward to going home," said Omar, sitting in the shade of a playground set up by the United Nations Children's Agency (UNICEF) in Beddawi camp, 10km from Nahr al-Bared.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72667

OPT: Patients killed as gunmen storm Gaza hospitals

Patients are dying in crossfire as hospitals have been overrun by gunmen in a new wave of Gaza violence, which the UN has warned is jeopardising the delivery of essential humanitarian aid.

The violence has claimed 17 lives and ambulance teams are being prevented from evacuating the wounded from combat zones by checkpoints manned by armed fighters across the Strip, medical organisations said.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72686

OPT: UN agency scales back operations in Gaza after two workers killed

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has suspended much of its aid operation in the Gaza Strip after two of its workers were killed during gun battles between Palestinian armed factions.

Emergency food distribution to 850,000 refugees and medical services will continue, but schooling and waste collection are among the services to be cut after the deaths.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72708

OPT: Most humanitarian operations in Gaza at a standstill

Nearly all humanitarian organisations have suspended operations in the Gaza Strip, due to concerns over the unstable security situation as inter-factional fighting enters its fifth day.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72734

YEMEN: Warning of potentially worst locust infestation since 1993

Yemen's Desert Locusts Control Centre (DLCC) has asked the government to increase its budget after the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Yemen was facing its worst locust infestation in nearly 15 years. The DLCC also asked the donor community to help fight the outbreak.

"Widespread breeding is in progress within a large and remote area - estimated at 31,000sqkm - in the interior of Yemen, where locust swarms are likely to form," FAO expert Keith Cressman said.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72698

IRIN news