Friday, August 17, 2012

Syrians fleeing across borders 2 escape civil war in thr homeland-diarrhoeal disease broken out rural areas nr Damascus


Syrians fleeing across borders 2 escape civil war in thr homeland-diarrhoeal disease broken out rural areas nr Damascus
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3:30 PM - 17 Aug 12 via web · Details

Violence in Syria has escalated into what the Red Cross calls a civil war. Activists say at least 17,000 people have died since the uprising began in March last year. The government of Bashar al-Assad, increasingly losing territory to rebel fighters, blames "terrorists" and "armed gangs" for the unrest, while the opposition and other nations have accused Assad's forces of crimes against humanity.

Syria

Lakhdar Brahimi, the new United Nations-Arab League Joint Special Representative, has a difficult task ahead - but he certainly has plenty of experience.

A former envoy to Iraq and Afghanistan, he's been highly regarded as a diplomatic troubleshooter for years.

Al Jazeera's Kristen Saloomey takes a look at the man who hopes to steer Syria to peace.

Syria

Reuters reports:
Syrians are fleeing across the borders to escape fighting in their homeland and a diarrhoeal disease that has broken out in rural areas near Damascus, UN aid agencies said on Friday.
More than 170,000 Syrians have been registered in the neighbouring countries of Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, the UN refugee agency said.
Some 3,500 Syrians fleeing the northern areas of Aleppo, Azaz, Idlib and Latakia reached Turkey's Hatay and Kilis provinces between Tuesday and Wednesday, spokesman Adrian Edwards of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.
"There has been a further sharp rise in the number of Syrians fleeing to Turkey," Edwards told a news briefing.
"There are now almost 65,000 Syrians in nine camps in Turkey, though not all yet formally registered. To put this in perspective, about 40 percent arrived in August."
...The humanitarian situation in Syria has deteriorated as fighting escalates, cutting off civilians from food supplies, health care and other assistance, aid agencies say.
...There has also been an outbreak of diarrhoea among residents in part of the province of Rural Damascus because the water supply has been contaminated by sewage, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.
"In one pocket of Rural Damascus there are 103 suspected cases of e.coli. Laboratory testing is still going on," said Richard Brennan, director of WHO's emergency risk management and humanitarian response department.
"It is due to contamination of the water supply."
"We have heard of other pockets (of diarrhoeal disease) in other areas of Rural Damascus, but have no details," he said.
Sixty-one children under the age of 10 are among the 103 cases discovered by health workers, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said.

Syria

The Free Syrian Army says it has a plan to break a two-month long siege in the city of Homs.

Al Jazeera's Imran Khan has this report:

Syria

The AFP reports:
Lakhdar Brahimi, a veteran Algerian diplomat, will take over from Kofi Annan as the international envoy on the Syria conflict, the United Nations said Friday.
UN leader Ban Ki-moon appealed for "strong, clear and unified" international support behind Brahimi as he announced the appointment in a statement.

Syria

The AFP reports:
Russia called off a meeting planned for Friday of an international action group on the Syria conflict after western nations told them they would not attend, diplomats said.
Russia said the meeting at the UN headquarters, called by its UN envoy Vitaly Churkin, had been "postponed".
Diplomats said, however, that the United States, France and Britain had told the Russians they would not attend. Only China and a UN representative had  confirmed they would go to the talks said one diplomat.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera's Scott Heidler, reporting from New York, said the announcement of the meeting itself was "a bit of a surprise".
"It was really a stunt, is how it's been called here in the United Nations, by the Russians to call this meeting, " said Heidler.
"It was not billed to  be that big of a meeting," said Heidler, adding that the cancellation of the meeting is not unexpected.

Syria

Reuters reports:
Former Syrian prime minister Riyad Hijab, who defected earlier this month, is in Qatar for talks about how to unify opposition efforts to topple President Bashar al-Assad, his spokesman said on Friday.
Hijab, who announced his defection on Aug. 6 becoming the most senior serving official to quit Assad's administration, arrived on Thursday for a three-day visit, spokesman Mohamed Atari said.
Hijab would discuss "unifying the efforts of the opposition to accelerate the pace of the downfall of the regime," Atari said.

Syria

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Friday called for the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to be "smashed fast" as he visited Turkey's largest refugee camp near the Syrian
border.
"The Syrian regime should be smashed fast," Fabius told reporters. "After hearing the refugees and their account of the massacres of the regime, Mr. Bashar al-Assad doesn't deserve to be on this earth," he said.
Fabius made the remarks at the refugee camp near the Oncupinar border crossing in the Kilis province, on the last stop of a regional tour.

 Bashar al Assad, France, Paris,Laurent Fabius

Syria

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Friday called for the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to be "smashed fast" as he visited Turkey's largest refugee camp near the Syrian
border.
"The Syrian regime should be smashed fast," Fabius told reporters. "After hearing the refugees and their account of the massacres of the regime, Mr. Bashar al-Assad doesn't deserve to be on this earth," he said.

 Bashar al Assad, France, Paris,Laurent Fabius

Syria

Russia's embassy in London accused British police on Friday of taking no action to prevent an attack on its building by a group of activists protesting Moscow's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
It made the accusation as about 40 protesters clad in balaclavas demonstrated outside the embassy, located in an upscale part of London, against the verdict in a trial of the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot in Moscow.
An embassy spokesman said a group of protesters chanting anti-Assad slogans attacked the building overnight, throwing stones and smashing windows.
"The police who arrived at the scene regretfully did not take any measures to stop the unsanctioned protest and detain the attackers," said the spokesman. No one was hurt.
"We view the incident as a new case of violation of the principle of inviolability of diplomatic missions in London."
It said the attack caused significant damage to the building and posted a picture of broken windows and large rocks scattered on the floor on its Facebook social media page.
British police had no immediate comment on the attack.
Russia's support for Syria's government has drawn widespread criticism from various protest groups since the uprising began in March 2011. Russia and China have vetoed three Western-backed resolutions criticising Damascus and threatening sanctions.
Britain's relations with Russia have been sour since the 2006 murder in London of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy who died from poisoning by radioactive
polonium-210.

 Russia, London,United Kingdom

Syria

Over 2,000 Syrians, including one defecting  general, fled to Turkey on Thursday after a Syrian air strike on the northern rebel bastion of Aazaz in northern Syria, a Turkish diplomat aid Friday.
The latest group of 2,204 people brought the number of Syrian refugees in Turkey to more than 62,000, the diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The last two weeks have seen a dramatic increase in refugee flow to Turkey triggered by fierce clashes between regime forces and rebel fighters for Syria's second biggest city of Aleppo.
The latest exodus of refugees including many injured came after a Syrian airstrike on a heavily populated area of Aazaz, just north of the main battleground city of Aleppo and a few kilometres from the Turkish frontier.
Turkey has been one of the main regional powers denouncing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime and is being used as a rear base by several rebel groups.
Turkish officials decline to give an exact number of defecting generals in camps, saying that some have been going back across the border to join in the fight against the Assad regime.

Syria

Syria is bracing for anti-regime demonstrations after weekly prayers, events that have often triggered violence during an increasingly bloody conflict that is now in its 18th month and shows no signs of abating.
Protesters will call on the rebel Free Syrian Army to show greater unity. 
Posted by Robby Ball at 1:04 PM