Excerpts: Flesh-eating tropical bug spreads across Mideast. Abbas says 'time
cap' be set on Palestinian-Israel negotiations May 29, 2016

+++SOURCE:AlArabiya News 29 May ’16:”Flesh-eating tropical bug in ISIS-held
Syria ‘spreads across Mideast’,by Staff Writer’
SUBJECT: Flesh-eating tropical bug spreads across Mideast

QUOTE:”Cutaneous leishmaniasis, which can lead to severe scarring on the
face, is a parasitic disease spread by bites from infected sand flies”

FULL TEXT:A disfiguring tropical disease that had been previously been
contained in Syria is now reportedly spreading across the Middle East as
millions are displaced, the Daily Mail reported on Saturday[28 May].

Cutaneous leishmaniasis, which can lead to severe scarring on the face, is a
parasitic disease spread by bites from infected sand flies.

The disease regularly goes undiagnosed and untreated.

The disease had been contained in Syria, particularly to regions under ISIS
control such as Raqqa, Deir al-Zour and Hasakah.

The ongoing Syrian civil war has devastated the country's medical facilities
and along with the chronic lack of clean water, the situation has created a
breeding ground for sand flies the carry the disease.

In September 2012, the disease’s outbreak began among Syrian refugees in
Lebanon, according to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

It had previously been claimed by the Kurdish Red Crescent that the spread
of the disease had also been caused by ISIS dumping rotting corpses on the
streets. This has been refuted by the scientists at the School of Tropical
Medicines, according to the Daily Mail report.

As more than four million Syrians have fled the region, the disease has now
moved into its neighboring countries of Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan.

“It's a very bad situation. The disease has spread dramatically in Syria,
but also into countries like Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey and even into southern
Europe with refugees coming in,” Dr. Waleed Al-Salem, one of researchers on
the disease, told the Daily Mail.

+++SOURCE:Jordan Times 29 May ’16:”Palestinian leader wants time cap for any
talks with Israel’,by Associated Press

SUBJECT: Abbas says ‘time cap’ be set on Palestinian-Israel negotiations

QUOTE:”Abbas:’the Palestinians would never accept a “Jewish state” ‘ “

FULL TEXT:CAIRO — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday[28 May]
that if an upcoming Paris conference succeeds in relaunching the
long-stalled Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, it should also set a time cap
and mechanisms to implement their resolutions.

Speaking to Arab foreign ministers in Cairo, Abbas also said that the Paris
gathering — due June 3 — should also set up a monitoring committee to follow
whatever is agreed upon. US Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to
attend the meeting.

The Palestinians have welcomed the conference, but Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the idea of an international conference,
saying direct negotiations without preconditions are the best way to reach a
final settlement with the Palestinians.

In Cairo, Abbas reiterated Palestinian demands that a future Palestinian
state have East Jerusalem as its capital and that it be established within
the borders that had existed on the eve of the 1967 Middle East when Israel
captured the then Jordanian-administered West Bank and East Jerusalem.

"When we need to demarcate these borders, we will be prepared to accept a
slight exchange of territory," he told the Arab ministers.

He also demanded that all Palestinians jailed by Israel be released and also
said the Palestinians would never recognize a "Jewish" state as Netanyahu
once demanded. The Palestinians recognised Israel in 1993, he recounted, and
is sufficient.

He rejected proposals made by Israel that under any future deal it would
maintain a military presence in the West Bank or on the border with Jordan.
The Palestinians, he said, would instead accept NATO forces to monitor
security in the area.

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Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA