Syrian refugees hit million mark in Lebanon |
UNHCR says figure is "a devastating milestone for a host community stretched to breaking point" and urges more support.
Last updated: 03 Apr 2014 08:19
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The number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon has exceeded one million, in what the UN refugee agency calls a "devastating milestone" for a small country with depleted resources and brewing sectarian tension.
Refugees from Syria, half of them children, now equal a quarter of Lebanon's resident population, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement, warning that most of them live in poverty and depend on aid for survival.
UNHCR chief Antonio Guterres described the figure as "a devastating milestone worsened by rapidly depleting resources and a host community stretched to breaking point".
"Tiny Lebanon has now become the country with "the highest per capita concentration of refugees worldwide," and is "struggling to keep pace", Guterres said in a statement.
"The influx of a million refugees would be massive in any country. For Lebanon, a small nation beset by internal difficulties, the impact is staggering," Guterres said.
Bill Gates: world must step up fight against neglected tropical diseases
Microsoft founder says money must found to combat diseases that do as much damage as HIV, malaria or tuberculosis
Bill Gates believes the world can and must step up the fight against a group of little-known and long-neglected tropical diseases, that collectively do as much damage as HIV, malaria or tuberculosis.
In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, the founder and former boss of Microsoft said the money has to be found, even in the current difficult economic climate, for highly effective programmes, including the mass delivery of drugs that can prevent diseases such as schistosomiasis and trachoma.
"I think we'll be able to raise the money. It's kind of like vaccines – you'd feel awful if you didn't raise the money," he said. But, "it may take us a few years to get up to where we are doing all these mass drug administration programmes at the intensity we'd like to."
The Unrelenting Ai Weiwei: Show Evokes Danger and Urgency of Art
Mr. Chang has worked for Ai Weiwei for the past 20 years. He's in charge of implementing the designs created by the artist. For the jail cell, for example, they needed two months, after which a music video was filmed, ending with a bald-headed Ai looking into the camera wearing red lipstick. Later they dismantled the cuboidal blocks, numbered the pieces and shipped them across the ocean in containers. Now Mr. Cheng is standing inside Berlin's Martin Gropius Bau, a large old building that is used for major art exhibitions.
Ai still doesn't know today exactly where he was detained, only that it was likely on property used by the military. He had the room rebuilt from his memory. The outside of the door is labelled with the numbers "1135," making it resemble a hotel room.
Locked up in Hell
Children hacked to death by machetes, grenades thrown in suburbs and stray bullets entering a refugee camp: no one is immune from violence in the Central African Republic.
"There is a state of despair among the people," said Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) psychologist Gail Womersely, who has just returned from the war-torn country.
CAR's ex-president, François Bozizé, was overthrown just over a year ago by rebels aligned to the minority Muslim population.
Michael Djotodia took power but resigned after failing to stop the violence.
Womersely spoke yesterday in Johannesburg about her five weeks' working stint in the CAR offering psychological support to the medical staff.
Womersely said the NGO staff there were traumatised because the refugee camps and hospitals were considered dangerous. There they often had to duck bullets.
Why some hail the unraveling of Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts (+video)
Many Palestinians, as well as some Israelis, support President Mahmoud Abbas's refusal to keep talks brokered by US Secretary of State John Kerry going after months of inaction.
The unraveling of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace could be chalked up as yet another US failure in this region, but also a victory for the Palestinians.
to risk the displeasure of the PA's largest single donor to advance the Palestinian agenda internationally.
In two decades of peacemaking, Mr. Abbas and his predecessors have never drawn a firm line on issues such as an Israeli settlement freeze, the release of Palestinian prisoners, or lack of implementation of previous peace agreements, says Diana Buttu, a former member of the Palestinian negotiating team.
The unraveling of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace could be chalked up as yet another US failure in this region, but also a victory for the Palestinians.
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