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| October 26, 2005 | Wednesday | Ramazan 21, 1426 |
Donors promise 525 million dollars more for Pakistan: UN GENEVA, Oct 26 (AFP) - International donors meeting in Geneva on Wednesday promised an additional 525 million dollars in assistance following the earthquake in Pakistan, the top UN relief official Jan Egeland said.(Posted @ 21:15 PST)
Annan urges post-tsunami style generosity for Pakistan GENEVA, Oct 26 (AFP) UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Wednesday urged donors to show the same kind of generosity towards earthquake-hit Pakistan as they did in the wake of last year's Indian Ocean tsunami. Before addressing a gathering of UN and other aid agencies, donor governments and Pakistani officials in Geneva, Annan called for a renewed outpouring of support. "I know it's been a difficult year in terms of natural disasters, beginning with the tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, the disaster in Central America, and now we have the earthquake. There must be a bit of fatigue, but we need your help to save lives." He said "we need the support of governments, private citizens, the private sector and anyone who can spare a euro, a pound or a dollar.” Later, in a speech to donors, Annan urged them to do all they could to prevent a new humanitarian disaster in Pakistan with the onset of winter. "While no one today could have had the power to prevent the earthquake from happening, we do have the power to stop the next wave: the deaths and despair caused by freezing temperatures and disease, by lack of shelter, food and water," Annan told the aid meeting.(Posted @ 20:40 PST)
New aftershocks jolt quake-hit Pakistan MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan, Oct 26 (AFP) - Four aftershocks measuring up to 5.2 on the Richter scale shook northern Pakistan early Wednesday, sparking fears of more landslides after the devastating October 8 earthquake, an official said. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage from the tremors, which came hours before a major United Nations quake donors conference in Geneva. The heaviest aftershock, with a magnitude of 5.2, came at 6:43 am (0143 GMT) and there were three weaker tremors between 5:00 am and 9:00 am, Qamaruz Zaman, chief of the country's seismological department, told AFP. Witnesses said the biggest shock woke people from their sleep in Islamabad and the devastated city of Muzaffarabad. "An aftershock with a magnitude of more than five can cause landslides in the hilly terrain," Zaman said. Pakistan has suffered 978 aftershocks since the giant 7.6-magnitude quake, which killed more than 53,000 people in Pakistan. The biggest was on October 9 and measured 6.2 on Richter scale. "The fear is that landslides will further hamper our operations," World Food Programme spokesman David Orr said in Muzaffarabad. (Posted @ 11:10 PST)
42 km of road from Muzaffarabad to Chakothi reopened RAWALPINDI, Oct 26 (APP): In Muzaffarabad Sector 42 km stretch of Road Hattian Balla has been reopened for vehicular traffic while work is in progress on the remaining 15 km portion to reach Chakothi.Pakistan Army Engineers are facing extreme difficulties to repair the badly destructed Neelum Valley road. However, a stretch of 7 km from Muzaffarabad towards Neleem Valley has been cleared. While on Laswa by-pass 18 km of road from Joura to Katian has been opened. The remaining portion of the road has been cleared for mule traffic. The roads in Bagh and Rawalakot Sector are open for all types of traffic.A dowser was also airlifted on US Chinook Helicopter for work on the roads badly devastated due to quake in Neelum Valley.All measure are being taken to clear the roads by Army Engineers in order to facilitate transport in earthquake stricken areas.(Posted @ 21:30 PST)
Pakistan's quake death toll rises to 54,000 ISLAMABAD, Oct 26 (AFP) - The death toll from Pakistan's massive quake is now 54,000, Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said on Wednesday, raising the total by more than 800. Sherpao warned that the figure was likely to climb further, firstly because more buildings razed by the October 8 quake are being cleared and secondly because of cold weather in the disaster zone. Sherpao said the number of injured had also increased to 77,000. (Posted @ 11:10 PST)
China announces additional emergency aid to Pakistan's earthquake victims BEIJING, Oct. 26 (APP): China announced Wednesday that it would give Pakistan additional emergency supply of cotton tents, blankets and stoves worth US $500,000 and $61,730 to help victims of the Oct. 8 earthquake."Given the emergency of the disaster relief effort, China commits to deliver this batch of goods within one week ... to the people in need," Huang Hai, Assistant Minister of Commerce of China, said at a ministerial-level meeting organized in Geneva by the UN on assistance to communities affected by the earthquake, APP learnt from official sources in Beijing.(Posted @ 21:30 PST)
Pakistan quake toll could double without swift help MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan, Oct 26 (Reuters) More people could die of hunger, cold and injuries after Pakistan's earthquake than during it unless rich countries meeting in Geneva on Wednesday come up with more money fast, a top U.N. aid official said. "We needed the money yesterday," United Nations emergency relief chief Jan Egeland told a Geneva news conference after the U.N. announced it would ask the 65 rich nations at the meeting for $550 million. Only 12 percent of the new amount had been committed and some U.N. agencies had run out of cash, Egeland said amid a mounting chorus of complaints that the world was not helping enough. Doctors had to amputate too many limbs after people lay injured in the rubble of their villages for lack of means to get to help, he said with winter only a few, short weeks away. "This disaster may have the number of people who died after the disaster bigger than those killed by the earthquake," U.N. chief aid coordinator Rashid Khalikov said at his office tent in Muzaffarabad. "We basically have four weeks to deliver," he added. "The logistical nightmare in Pakistan is bad enough without having to worry about funding shortfalls as well," Oxfam Policy Director Phil Bloomer said. "Governments meeting in Geneva today must put their hands in their pockets and pay their fair share," he said.(Posted @ 19:20 PST)
Pakistan quake survivors scramble for tents SERAN, Pakistan, Oct 26 (Reuters) "They should just give us a tent and go to hell," said Mohammad Farooq when relief workers suggested the survivors of Pakistan's devastating earthquake come down from the mountains to where they could be looked after. "We don't want to move to any tent village," he said as he waited hopefully in the town of Seran in Azad Kashmir's Jhelum valley for a tent to take back up into the hills. "We can't leave our homes, we can't leave our land. It's our ancestors' place, our houses are there, our land and crops are there." It's an attitude adding to the frustrations of relief workers trying to help hundreds of thousands of people in the rugged Himalayan foothills of northern Pakistan. "Everyone is demanding tents, secondly food and thirdly bedding," said Muhammad Mustaq Khan, a doctor who is helping to organise relief efforts as army engineers re-open destroyed roads into the hills."Just providing tents is not the solution," he said. "Tent villages must be established and they must be brought to the villages where we will be in a position to provide food, nutrition and schooling until they can get established." The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) sent 600 tents to Saran and another small town in the Jhelum Valley, which had a population of 300,000.(Posted @ 19:15 PST)
Pray for Asian earthquake victims, Pope tells faithful VATICAN CITY, Oct 26 (AFP) Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday called for prayers for victims of the recent Asian earthquake and of all natural disasters, at the end of his weekly general audience. "Let us pray for the Church and the world, and particularly for people affected by the earthquake and by catastrophes linked to nature and the environment," the pope said. "Our spiritual and material support towards those in difficulty must never weaken," he added in front of an audience of 50,000 people, according to the Vatican.(Posted @ 19:00 PST)
Relatives find bodies for funeral in Occupied Kashmir 18 days after quake RED BRIDGE, Oct 26 (AFP) Relatives of five road workers killed when the massive quake hit Occupied Kashmir prepared for an Islamic funeral Wednesday after soldiers dug their bodies from under boulders which buried them 18 days ago.Troops clearing destroyed frontier roads said four of the bodies dug out of the rubble had identification tags and were handed over to their relatives at Red Bridge, 112 kilometres northwest of Srinagar. Army officials said falling boulders posed a threat to army vehicles carrying relief to far-flung areas. The military has also started using mule trains to cart much-needed blankets and tents to survivors.(Posted @ 19:00 PST)
India not to blame for cross-border Kashmir relief delay: Indian PM NEW DELHI, Oct 26 (AFP) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday said India was not to blame for the delay in affording relief to Pakistani earthquake victims from across the ceasefire line in Kashmir. "The delay is not on our side," Singh told reporters in New Delhi when asked to comment on bilateral plans to open the LoC at pre-selected points to help out the tens of thousands of quake victims. The two sides have agreed to meet on Friday in Islamabad to thrash out the modalities of cross-border relief to survivors facing death in the looming Himalayan winter. (Posted @ 16:05 PST)
Indian army stops work on Kashmir bridge after Pakistan objects SRINAGAR, Oct 26 (AFP) The Indian army stopped work on a footbridge that would allow earthquake victims to cross over into Occupied Kashmir for relief after Pakistani soldiers objected, an army spokesman said Wednesday. An Indian army spokesman said the bridge was being laid across the Kishan-Ganga river in the northern Teetwal sector of Occupied Kashmir to facilitate the passage of people from the Pakistani zone to one of three relief points being set up by India on the Line of Control (LoC). The work on the footbridge was in its initial stage when Pakistani soldiers approached Indian soldiers and asked them not to proceed as no official clearance had been given. As the bridge would span the LoC, its construction needs approval from both sides. (Posted @ 15:50 PST)
Pneumonia could kill Kashmiri quake victims: MSF ISLAMABAD, Oct 26 (Reuters) Homeless earthquake survivors in Pakistan are at risk of dying from hypothermia and pneumonia unless they find shelter before winter hits the mountainous region next month, a medical relief agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Wednesday. "Bronchitis will be on the rise in no time. The colder it gets, the more bronchitis you'll have," Marc Joolen, operations coordinator for MSF said, adding that people would die of hypothermia and pneumonia unless there was adequate shelter and health care available. MSF's four outpatient facilities in Bagh district report that five percent of consultations were cases of bronchitis and pneumonia. Fears of contagious diseases add to worries that the makeshift facilities could be overwhelmed, an official said, saying the MSF team in Bagh had already isolated a suspected case of deadly haemorrhagic fever. Authorities in Bagh were also killing dogs out of fear that they could carry parasites that spread potentially fatal diseases like kala-azar, which attacks the liver, MSF officials said. (Posted @ 15:45 PST)
Radio AJK resumes transmission ISLAMABAD, Oct 26 (PPI)Radio Azad Kashmir has resumed transmissions after almost two weeks following the collapse of its building in October 8 killer earthquake. It is functioning from a tented premises. A 'Help Line' has been set up for people to directly contact the radio station to air their problems . (Posted @ 12:35 PST)
Pakistan's Musharraf says quake bill to top $5 bln SINGAPORE, Oct 26 (Reuters) - The financial cost of the South Asian earthquake will be more than $5 billion and the death toll is likely to exceed 50,000, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf said in an interview published on Wednesday. Musharraf defended his handling of the country's worst natural disaster saying the government "had done a good, if not a very good, job". But he acknowledged that hardline Islamic groups had stepped into an administrative vacuum in the days after the quake, providing relief and humanitarian assistance in Kashmir, a development that analysts say would bolster their legitimacy. "I know they are doing a good job. But now we need to beat them to it. We need to provide better stuff," he told the newspaper. He added the government would act against the groups if they were found to be involved in activities other than welfare, such as drawing people towards militancy. (Posted @ 10:55 PST)
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