This report examines the often-overlooked lived realities of communities on the frontlines of climate change. It explores the dynamics, challenges, and opportunities for strengthening local information environments in humanitarian contexts, where communities are suffering from unprecedented climate impacts. Global climate discussions tend to focus on timelines to action and statistical …
During November–December 2015, as part of the 2015 cholera outbreak response in Iraq, the Iraqi Ministry of Health targeted ≈255,000 displaced persons >1 year of age with 2 doses of oral cholera vaccine (OCV). All persons who received vaccines were living in selected refugee camps, internally displaced persons camps, and …
Air pollution caused by war may be a major factor in the numbers of birth defects and cancers being reported in Iraq and other war zones, a study has suggested. Human exposure to heavy metals and neurotoxicants from the explosion of bombs, bullets, and other ammunition affects not only those …
Baghdad: Record-shattering temperatures this summer have scorched countries from Morocco to Saudi Arabia and beyond, as climate experts warn that the severe weather could be a harbinger of worse to come. UN officials and climate scientists predict that, in coming decades, the region's mushrooming populations will face extreme water scarcity, …
More than half a million Iraqi children are estimated to be at work rather than at school as violence and displacement hurt the income of millions of families, according to the United Nations childrens' agency UNICEF. The number of children currently working, more than 575,000, has doubled since 1990, the …
Japan is seeking to extend tens of billions of yen in new loans to Iraq for building a water purification plant in Samawah, the first large-scale aid offered by Tokyo to the southern Iraqi city in about seven years. The new assistance to the city, where Japanese troops were stationed …
Iraq is carrying out a major vaccination campaign to combat a cholera outbreak that has infected more than 2,200 people, the health ministry said on Sunday. The campaign, focused on vaccinating people displaced by conflict including the war with the Islamic State group, began Saturday, health minister Adeela Hammoud Hussein …
A human body may be able to adapt to extremes of dry-bulb temperature (commonly referred to as simply temperature) through perspiration and associated evaporative cooling provided that the wet-bulb temperature (a combined measure of temperature and humidity or degree of ‘mugginess’) remains below a threshold of 35 °C. (ref. 1). …
If you're grumbling about the extended cold across southern Australia this winter, spare a thought for people in the Middle East who are sweltering through heat that's rarely been recorded before. While it might be snowing in Hobart and Melbourne might be expecting a top of just 11 degrees on …
A searing heat wave forecast to sweep through Iraq prompted the government to declare a four-day holiday starting on Thursday and order regular power cuts at state institutions. With temperatures expected to surpass 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) for at least the second time this month, the government decided to …
Scientists may have uncovered the first evidence of farming in the Mideast. While researchers believed that farming was "invented" about 12,000 years ago in Iraq, the Levant, parts of Turkey and Iran, this new study seems to indicate otherwise. The researchers actually focused on the discovery of the first weed …
About 800 million people still live in dire poverty and suffer from hunger despite the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) being the most successful anti-poverty push in history, the U.N. said on Monday. The number of people living in extreme poverty on less than $1.25 a day has more …
Much of the Middle East and North Africa is set for acute water shortages and the region must do more to conserve water while expanding a series of pilot program including solar-powered water pumps, scientists and officials said on Tuesday. "The situation is critical," Essam Khalifa, a senior official from …
In the 9th century BC, Assyrians based in northern Iraq started a relentless process of expansion that within two centuries would see them controlling most of the ancient Near East. Traditional explanations for the decline of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the 7th century BC have emphasized the role of military …
Genes From Wild Plants In Region Vital For Crops Millions of people could in future face starvation as an indirect result of the violent turmoil in the Middle East, which has the highest concentration of wild crop plants needed to produce new food varieties, scientists said. Civil wars raging in …
Unicef and the World Health Organization yesterday began a four-day campaign to try to vaccinate 4 million children for polio in Iraq, a difficult task in a region ravaged by fighting. More than 600,000 children have been displaced by conflict, as fighters from Islamic State, an insurgent al-Qaeda offshoot in …
The United Nations expressed concern about the possible spread of polio in the war-ravaged countries of Syria and Iraq and beyond on Tuesday despite the biggest vaccination campaign undertaken in the history of the Middle East. A report by the World Health Organization and Unicef said that 36 children had …
DUBAI: A Dubai initiative to provide potable water to five million people facing shortages in Asia and Africa has raised nearly $50 million (36.89 million euros), local media reported on Wednesday. The UAE Water Aid campaign, named Suqia, has exceeded its goal as the funds collected will in fact benefit …
Security analysts in London and Baghdad say control of rivers and dams has become a major tactical weapon for Isis The outcome of the Iraq and Syrian conflicts may rest on who controls the region’s dwindling water supplies, say security analysts in London and Baghdad. Rivers, canals, dams, sewage and …
The FAO Food Price Index was down for a third consecutive month in June, a decline mostly influenced by lower wheat, maize and palm oil prices that reflected ample supplies and improved global production prospects for these commodities. According to the FAO Crop Prospects and Food Situation report, the outlook …
