By STEVEN LEE MYERS nytimes.com/2010/06/13/science/earth/13shatt.html?ref=middleeast SIBA, Iraq — The Shatt al Arab, the river that flows from the biblical site of the Garden of Eden to the Persian Gulf, has turned into an environmental and economic disaster that Iraq’s newly democratic government is almost powerless to fix. Withered by decades of dictatorial mismanagement and then […]

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Wednesday, June 16, 2010 www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=3&article_id=116018#axzz0r13TGIX4 BEIRUT: The US government and the Lebanese Energy and Water Ministry signed two memoranda of understanding valued at $27.5 million on Tuesday to provide in-kind assistance and capacity building support for Lebanon’s water sector. With funding made available through the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and in close coordination […]

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Droughts and mismanagement of water resources have reduced large swathes of Eastern Syria to a wasteland, forcing up to one million people to flee. www.haaretz.com/news/international/un-distributes-food-in-drought-hit-eastern-syria-1.296044 The World Food Program has begun distributing rations to 190,000 people in Eastern Syria but another 110,000 in the drought-hit region still require emergency food aid, the UN body said […]

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By Haaretz Service and Eli Ashkenazi Tags: Israel news www.haaretz.com/news/national/police-suspect-arson-behind-six-bushfires-in-north-1.295635 Six bushfires blazed throughout the Northern Galilee and the Golan Heights on Friday, as fire fighters struggled to quell the flames. Fire in northern Israel Firday. Fire in northern Israel on Friday, 11 June 2010. Photo by: Yaron Kaminski Following an initial investigation, police suspected […]

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By Hana Namrouqa www.jordantimes.com/index.php?news=27446 AMMAN – The final feasibility report of the Red Sea-Dead Sea Water Conveyance Study Programme will be ready in May next year, while the Environmental and Social Assessment is expected in October 2011, consultants said on Monday. Experts examining the feasibility of the project have proposed a location in the Gulf […]

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By MAURICE PICOW 06/11/2010 22:20 www.jpost.com/HealthAndSci-Tech/ScienceAndEnvironment/Article.aspx?id=178055 Country’s waterways have many ecological problems. Much has been done to improve the state of Israel’s rivers and streams over the past decade. But virtually all of them still have their share of ecological problems – most notably the ones in the western part of the country that empty […]

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By RON FRIEDMAN 06/16/2010 05:12 Hof Hacarmel villagers don’t want plant near their homes. http://www.jpost.com/HealthAndSci-Tech/ScienceAndEnvironment/Article.aspx?id=178576 Exploiting the fact that all the energy industry bigwigs were under the same roof, residents from Hof Hacarmel villages repeatedly disrupted the proceedings of The Marker’s Israel Energy Conference in Ramat Gan on Tuesday to protest the planned construction of […]

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By EHUD ZION WALDOKS 06/16/2010 06:13 http://www.jpost.com/HealthAndSci-Tech/ScienceAndEnvironment/Article.aspx?id=178581 Israel is gaining a reputation for clean-tech innovation. Israel is gaining a reputation for clean-tech innovation, and Yossef Heyman hopes to make that a reality in yet another field – produce packaging. “One-point-five billion packaging boxes are in use around the world, mostly those made of wood, heavy […]

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Tehran signs $21 billion in contracts with local companies to develop gas fields By Agence France Presse (AFP) http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=3&article_id=116006#axzz0r14AifJU Wednesday, June 16, 2010 Listen to the Article – Powered by Revolutionary Guards, other Iran firms bag mega gas deals – state TV Farhad Pouladi TEHRAN: Iran on Tuesday signed a series of contracts worth $21 […]

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http://www.jpost.com/Business/BusinessNews/Article.aspx?id=177467 By SHARON WROBEL 06/04/2010 06:17 Delek: “We may be able to supply Europe, E. Asia.” The Leviathan natural-gas site off the Haifa shore could be twice the size of the Tamar prospect, the largest gas discovery globally in 2009, and position Israel as a gas exporter in coming years, US oil operator Noble Energy […]

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The committee advising the state on royalties and tax from oil and gas finds is tending toward rejecting the argument by the energy barons that Israel can’t change tax rates retroactively. By Meirav Arlosoroff http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/business/israeli-panel-leans-toward-raising-state-s-bite-of-gas-oil-revenues-1.295025 The committee advising the state on royalties and tax from oil and gas finds is tending toward rejecting the argument […]

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http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=6&id=21242 09/06/2010 ABU DHABI (AFP) – French oil firm Total and Spain’s Abengoa Solar will partner with Abu Dhabi’s alternative energy company Masdar to build “the world’s largest” concentrated solar power plant, Masdar announced on Wednesday. The state-owned firm said it has selected a “consortium of Total and Abengoa Solar as a partner to own, […]

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http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=27297 Recent cases of water theft in Muwaqqar and Um Al Amad recorded by the Jordan Water Company (Miyahuna) (Photo courtesy of Miyahuna) Recent cases of water theft in Muwaqqar and Um Al Amad recorded by the Jordan Water Company (Miyahuna) (Photo courtesy of Miyahuna) By Hana Namrouqa AMMAN – Water theft is being carried […]

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By Hana Namrouqa http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=27374 AMMAN – The Aqaba Water Company will manage wastewater services in Maan Governorate in a bid to improve the weak performance in the south and reduce the high water loss, officials said on Thursday. Under an agreement signed by the Water Authority of Jordan (WAJ) and the Aqaba Water Company, the […]

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http://www.syria-today.com/index.php/society/7727-cement-factory-sparks-protest By Toby Pitts-Tucker A cement factory under construction at Jebel Kohla, opposite the popular Bagdad Café on the Damascus-Palmyra highway, is drawing fire for blighting both the environment and the region’s tourism industry. Construction at the factory, which is being built by United Arab Cement (UAC), began in March. It is located off the […]

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http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=178132 By RON FRIEDMAN 06/11/2010 02:38 Government’s vision would lead to economic and social revolutions over the next decade. Speaking at the second annual Israel Transportation Conference in Rishon Lezion on Thursday, Transportation Minister Israel Katz presented the government’s vision for a “transportation revolution” that would lead to economic and social revolutions over the next […]

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Palestinians demonstrate against bulldozers, environmental groups oppose destruction of natural landscape needed for the fence’s construction. http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/palestinians-and-settlers-join-to-fight-separation-fence-route-1.294999 By Nir Hasson An unlikely hodgepodge of Palestinians, West Bank settlers, environmentalists and developers are all opposing the construction of the separation fence in an area just south of Jerusalem. Ahmed Barghout, a Palestinian from the West Bank […]

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http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=27309 KUWAIT CITY (AFP) – Kuwaiti opposition MPs stormed out of parliament on Tuesday to protest a decision to grill the prime minister behind closed doors over alleged inaction on pollution. Four opposition MPs – including Khaled al-Tahus who had called for a public debate – walked out after 39 lawmakers voted to hold a […]

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By Dalila Mahdawi http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=115727#axzz0qO2Ke5SP Wednesday, June 09, 2010 Listen to the Article – Powered by Environmentalist uses music to educate, raise awareness Dalila Mahdawi Daily Star staff BAABDA: Some people try to change the world through violence, war or activism. Environmentalist Paul Abi Rached is trying to change the world through music, one song at […]

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By Avi Bar-Eli http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/business/state-owns-the-leviathan-gas-find-petro-czar-says-1.294400 “We have two causes for celebration,” Yaakov Mimran, Petroleum and Mining Commissioner in the National Infrastructure Ministry, said to TheMarker over the weekend. He was referring, of course, to Thursday’s announcement by the U.S. firm Noble Energy, which together with its Israeli partners has been carrying out exploratory drilling at three […]

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