A Syrian Arab Red Crescent aid convoy drives to the Rukban camp on the border with Jordan on November 4, 2018. Syrian Arab Red Crescent via AP
A Syrian Arab Red Crescent aid convoy drives to the Rukban camp on the border with Jordan on November 4, 2018. Syrian Arab Red Crescent via AP
A Syrian Arab Red Crescent aid convoy drives to the Rukban camp on the border with Jordan on November 4, 2018. Syrian Arab Red Crescent via AP
A Syrian Arab Red Crescent aid convoy drives to the Rukban camp on the border with Jordan on November 4, 2018. Syrian Arab Red Crescent via AP

First aid since January reaches displaced Syrians near Jordan border: UN


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Thousands of displaced Syrians stranded in a camp near the Jordanian border received the first delivery of aid since January on Sunday, after conditions there were described as a humanitarian catastrophe.

The United Nations said it was delivering food, sanitation and hygiene supplies, and nutrition and health assistance to 50,000 people in Rukban, an area under rebel control, in an operation expected to take three to four days.

“We are also conducting an emergency vaccination campaign to protect some 10,000 children against measles, polio and other deadly diseases,” said Ali Al Zatari, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Syria.

Civilians in Rukban were running out of food and water after President Bashar Al Assad's regime closed routes leading to the camp, preventing aid deliveries and relief workers from entering.

Residents told The National that the shipments were delivered to the camp but the situation was deteriorating.

“There are no words to describe and explain how catastrophic the conditions are inside the camp, especially as the weather is getting colder,” said Emad Ali, a resident who has been living in the camp for the past year.

“Rukban lacks everything, there needs to be a consistency of these deliveries and we worry whether the aid will reach everyone,” Mr Ali said.

The delivery of food and non-food assistance is seen as positive step for camp residents, said Sarah Abadi, but she fears this could be the last shipment.

Washington welcomed the news that the UN was finally able to begin delivering aid to the camp.

"We recognise the tireless, courageous efforts of the humanitarian workers who are undertaking these operations. We hope this delivery lays the foundation for sustained rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access to Rukban and all areas in need throughout Syria," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

A aid convoy was scheduled to arrive on October 27 but was postponed due to logistical and security issues.

More than 70 trucks are to ferry in more than 10,000 food parcels and bags of flour, as well as clothes for 18,000 children, the Red Crescent said.

The aid includes newborn kits for 1,200 children, medicines, medical supplies and nutritional supplements for children and women, it said.

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Despite the aid delivery, officials and health workers fear that hunger, disease are on the rise inside the camp.

To access a basic health services, residents have to cross into Jordan, through a border that has been largely closed since 2016.

In October, a four-month-old girl died of blood poisoning and dehydration, and a five-day-old boy lost his life to blood poisoning and severe malnutrition, according to Unicef, the UN's children agency.

"Four people have died, including a 20-year-old girl who suffered from anaemia. The doctors inside the camp gave her the authority to be treated at the Unicef medical clinic on the Jordanian side. However she was denied entry and died on her way back to the camp," Mr Al Zatari said.

The camp is in an area controlled by tribal militias, US forces and the Free Syrian Army.

It lies within a 55 kilometre so-called deconfliction zone set up by the Pentagon with the aim of blocking Iranian supply routes to the region and preventing pro-regime forces from operating there.

On Friday, the US military said Mr Al Assad's ally Russia had again refused to support the delivery of UN aid from Damascus to Rukban despite US security guarantees.

"This is the latest episode of a malicious campaign by Russia and the Assad regime to muddle ground truth and hinder humanitarian operations," said US Central Command spokesman Bill Urban.

Syrians began arriving at the camp in 2015 after fleeing areas of Syria that were under the control of ISIS, which captured large areas of the country amid the turmoil of the Syrian civil war that began in 2011.

In the past, areas near to the Rukban camp have been hit by ISIS attacks (AP)
In the past, areas near to the Rukban camp have been hit by ISIS attacks (AP)
UAE squad to face Ireland

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THE LIGHT

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Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
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The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000

Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000

Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000

Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000

Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent

Fifa Club World Cup quarter-final

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Match info

Liverpool 3
Hoedt (10' og), Matip (21'), Salah (45 3')

Southampton 0

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Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina

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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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When: Saturday November 24

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- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law 

FIXTURES

Thu Mar 15 – West Indies v Afghanistan, UAE v Scotland
Fri Mar 16 – Ireland v Zimbabwe
Sun Mar 18 – Ireland v Scotland
Mon Mar 19 – West Indies v Zimbabwe
Tue Mar 20 – UAE v Afghanistan
Wed Mar 21 – West Indies v Scotland
Thu Mar 22 – UAE v Zimbabwe
Fri Mar 23 – Ireland v Afghanistan

The top two teams qualify for the World Cup

Classification matches
The top-placed side out of Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong or Nepal will be granted one-day international status. UAE and Scotland have already won ODI status, having qualified for the Super Six.

Thu Mar 15 – Netherlands v Hong Kong, PNG v Nepal
Sat Mar 17 – 7th-8th place playoff, 9th-10th place playoff

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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Gender pay parity on track in the UAE

The UAE has a good record on gender pay parity, according to Mercer's Total Remuneration Study.

"In some of the lower levels of jobs women tend to be paid more than men, primarily because men are employed in blue collar jobs and women tend to be employed in white collar jobs which pay better," said Ted Raffoul, career products leader, Mena at Mercer. "I am yet to see a company in the UAE – particularly when you are looking at a blue chip multinationals or some of the bigger local companies – that actively discriminates when it comes to gender on pay."

Mr Raffoul said most gender issues are actually due to the cultural class, as the population is dominated by Asian and Arab cultures where men are generally expected to work and earn whereas women are meant to start a family.

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As a result, Mr Raffoul said many companies in the UAE are coming up with benefit package programmes to help working mothers and the career development of women in general.