Dec 22, 2014 – Our Weekly Selection
On the LGBT community in Syria, marijuana, the financial cost of coalition strikes, the 1 million injured of the Syrian war and several other articles.
LGBT community finds Damascus more open: “Since the beginning of the war in Syria we have never been subject to any security harassment. I feel that I’m no longer targeted by the moral police because it no longer exists. As long as we do not discuss political issues, we do not carry arms or postpone our military service, we are safe. But I’m afraid of the increase in Islamists.”
U.N. Security Council renews cross-border Syria aid authorization: “The unanimously adopted resolution authorizes aid deliveries across Al Yarubiyah on the Iraq border, Al-Ramtha from Jordan and Bab al-Salam and Bab al-Hawa from Turkey.”
War has cost Middle East $35bn, says World Bank: “Regionally, the war and the subsequent rise of Isis “imposed enormous human, social, and economic costs and put a halt to the regional trade integration process, thus undermining development with serious implications for the future of the Levant.””
U.S. Airstrikes in Iraq and Syria Have Cost $1 Billion: “As of Dec. 11, 2014, the total cost of operations related to ISIL since kinetic operations started on August 8, 2014 is $1.02 billion and the average daily cost is $8.1 million.”
U.N.: $8.4 Billion Needed for Syria and Neighbors Hosting Refugees: “The U.N. is seeking $8.4 billion to help the nearly 18 million victims of the Syrian conflict.”
One Million People Wounded In Syria: WHO: “More than 6,500 cases of typhoid were reported this year across Syria and 4,200 cases of measles, the deadliest disease for Syrian children, Hoff said.”
Besieged Aleppo residents turn to farming: “Suleiman, 26, turned his abandoned, isolated house with cracked walls and broken windows into a lively animal farm accommodating rabbits, ducks, chickens and pigeons.”
How the war in Syria has flooded the market with marijuana: “For years Ali Nasri Shamas and other Lebanese farmers saw their illegal crops burned by the government. But in the past two summers, as the army focused on the violent fallout of the war in neighbouring Syria, their plants have flourished unmolested.”