 |
|
| November 14, 2005 | Monday | Shawwal 11, 1426 |
Pakistan and India open fourth LoC crossing MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan, Nov 14 (AFP) Pakistan and India opened a fourth crossing point, the Tatta Pani-Mendher crossing, on the Line of Control (LoC) Monday at 10:30 am (0530 GMT) to allow aid to flow to victims of last month's devastating earthquake, officials said. But as with the other three that opened last week, Kashmiris themselves will not be allowed to cross the LoC. Senior officers shook hands, and Pakistani and Indian troops exchanged aid supplies for quake-hit families on both sides, a senior Pakistani military official in the area said.(Posted @ 15:05 PST)
US business leaders, envoy meet Musharraf MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan, Nov 14 (Reuters) U.S. goodwill envoy Karen Hughes and three of America's top business leaders met President Pervez Musharraf, who thanked the United States for its support and praised helicopter crews. "I don't think anyone else could have managed what the U.S. helicopter teams have managed," Musharraf said.(Posted @ 22:45 PST)
Pakistan approves 83 names for crossing LoC: FO ON THE LINE OF CONTROL, Nov 14 (AFP) Pakistan's foreign ministry on Monday said it had approved the names of 83 Kashmiris India had approved for crossing the LoC, while it had sent a list of 70 other Kashmiris to India. "According to the Indian side these names were earlier cleared by the two sides for travel by the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus service," foreign ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told a briefing in Islamabad. She said India had proposed, and Pakistan agreed, that each of the five crossing points would open once a week on specific days for crossings. Aslam said India had cited "logistical difficulties and staff constraints". "Our position is that we are prepared and we would prefer that all the crossing points are open on all days of the week for the convenience of Kashmiris," she said. "But we would be prepared to accept the schedule in view of the constraints expressed by the Indian side." The fifth and final crossing is due to open Wednesday.(Posted @ 21:42 PST)
Chirac assures Pakistan of French support in quake rebuilding ISLAMABAD, Nov 14 (AFP) French President Jacques Chirac Monday spoke by telephone to his Pakistani counterpart Pervez Musharraf and assured him of his support for rebuilding efforts after last month's massive earthquake, officials said. "France is committed to extending continued cooperation to Pakistan in rebuilding the devastated areas," Chirac said in the conversation with Musharraf, an official at the President's Secretariat said. Chirac told Musharraf that a French delegation would attend the international donors' conference to be held in Islamabad on November 19 to raise funds for reconstruction of quake-hit areas. The French president said he had also spoken to European Union leaders and global financial institutions, urging them to support Pakistan in its hour of need, the official said. "Pakistan is grateful to France for providing immediate relief and medical assistance and we look forward to continued support from all friendly countries," Musharraf said.(Posted @ 21:32 PST)
Pakistan quake victims taught to build shelter from ruins MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan, Nov 14 (AFP) Thirty thousand quake-hit families in Pakistan's wintry mountains are being taught to build shelter from the rubble of their homes under a new United Nations programme launched Monday. Survivors will receive tool kits, iron sheeting for roofs and technical details on how to build makeshift homes to protect them from the coming winter, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said. "People need shelter now. It's important to promote local solutions so that temporary homes are affordable, generate jobs, and are accepted by the community," UNDP country director Haoliang Xu said in a statement. Around 150 local engineers and more than one thousand building workers who are receiving training under the initiative will help survivors build their homes. But the agency added that more money was needed to reach all the families it wants to in badly-hit, high-altitude areas in the districts of Muzaffarabad, Bagh, Mansehra, Shangla and Neelum.(Posted @ 17:58 PST)
No epidemic in NWFP quake areas ISLAMABAD, Nov 14 (APP): There is no report of any epidemic in the quake affected areas of NWFP, Chief of provincial relief operations Major General Shakeel told BBC. Necessary facilities like water and sanitation have been provided in the camps and vaccination campaign has also been launched, he said adding that about 24,000 survivors are residing in the registered camps of the NWFP. Besides, small camps established by people, NGOs are also working. Overall, around 30,000 quake victims are living in camps, he said. When snowfall begins, about 40,000 to 50,000 people are likely to come down only from Kaghan valley. About 10,000 to 12,000 affected persons have already migrated from hill-tops, he said adding that arrangements have been made to accommodate 20,000 more people in the camps. Many from Kaghan and Allai valley have been shifted to Mansehra and other areas, he added.(Posted @ 14:15 PST)
Tented village set up in Thakot ISLAMABAD, Nov 14 (APP): A tented village has been set up in Thakot, district Battagram NWFP in a bid to save survivors from severe cold. Five thousand affectees have already been shifted to Thakot camp, while twenty to fifty families are being shifting to the camp daily.(Posted @ 14:15 PST)
Australian PM to visit Pakistan for talks on quake response SYDNEY, Nov 14 (AFP) - Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Monday he would visit Pakistan within the next two weeks for talks on the international response to the October earthquake. "I will be visiting Pakistan within the next two weeks in between my visit to the APEC meeting in Korea (Nov 19-20) and the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (Nov 25-25) in Malta," he said."General Musharraf had rung me to talk about a donors' conference that is being organised in Islamabad to maintain the momentum of international support for the victims of the terrible earthquake in his country," he said (Posted @ 14:15 PST)
US business leaders, envoy visit Pakistan quake zone MUZAFFARABAD, Nov 14 (Reuters) - U.S. Goodwill envoy Karen Hughes and three of America's top business leaders flew to the heart of Pakistan's earthquake zone on Monday to see first hand the urgent need for more aid. The delegation has been constituted by U.S. President George W. Bush. It arrived in a U.S. military helicopter amid the ruins of Muzaffarabad. Its first stop was a girls' school destroyed by the Oct. 8 quake, where USAID has given two large tents for teachers to restart classes . Hughes was accompanied by Pfizer CEO Hank McKinnell; Anne Mulcahy, chairman of office equipment firm Xerox Corp.; and Jim Kelly, former chairman of United Parcel Service Inc., the world's largest package delivery company. Also with Hughes was Christina Rocca, the assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs. At the school, alphabet charts and books in English and Urdu, including copies of "Alice in Wonderland", were handed out. Teacher Nasim Akhter recounted to Hughes her experience on the morning the quake struck. "There were 40 children in my class and the walls were tumbling down. Thank God we got them out." Hundreds of children escaped, but 84 perished along with eight teachers. The U.S. party also visited a tent village where several thousand people were sheltered in close to 500 tents. The visitors handed out tarpaulins, and also saw people using water purification sachets provided. They went on to deliver medicine to a U.S. army field hospital .The delegation was due to fly over more remote areas including Balakot. The U.S. government has allocated $156 million for relief and reconstruction but the country's flow of private-sector aid is a trickle compared with tsunami aid. Americans and U.S. firms are estimated to have given $70 million in quake aid,versus $1.5 billion so far for victims of Asia's tsunami a year ago (Posted @ 13:25 PST)
U.N. ramps up air-lift for Pakistani quake survivors MUZAFFARABAD, Nov 14 (Reuters) - The United Nations will this week launch a major air operation to ferry food and other supplies to earthquake survivors high in Pakistan's mountains in frantic bid to beat the problems of winter. Britain has supplied three Chinook transport helicopters that will fly up to 200 tonnes of supplies a day into the mountains from Tuesday for five days, said senior U.N. official Pat Duggan said. "The real priority is the highlands. The aim is to get their food and shelter needs in as fast as we possibly can before winter sets in and then avoid a flow of people down the hill. "The most pressing problem area is the Neelum Valley with a population of about 150,000 people. "The idea is to have pre-positioning of food as close as possible to them and pre-position some shelter as well. The other big worry is sickness spreading in crowded tent settlements. Doctors have begun a campaign to immunise 800,000 children in NWFP and Azad Kashmir against measles, tetanus, whooping cough,diphtheria and polio before the winter bites. “We want to vaccinate them in the next two weeks, weather permitting, before people get into close quarters in camps," Dr .Tamur Mueenuddin, in charge of health issues for UNICEF in Muzaffarabad, said. One camp in Muzaffarabad has had more than 500 cases of acute diarrhoea and aid workers are struggling to improve water and sanitation facilities. "We haven't had any fatalities yet but still we have severely dehydrated patients coming in," said John Watson, WHO’s communicable disease expert(Posted @ 12:35 PST)
Quake not to hurt Pakistan growth: PM ISLAMABAD, Nov 14 (AFP) - Pakistan's economic growth will survive the massive devastation caused by last month's South Asian earthquake, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said in an interview published Monday. Growth in the fiscal year to June 2006 will slow only slightly as rebuilding work starts in the disaster zone, staying close to the pre-quake government target of 6.4 percent, Aziz told the Wall Street Journal. The quake killed 74,000 people, seriously injured more than 69,000 and left more than three million homeless.The World Bank and Asian Development Bank estimate Pakistan will neeed more than 3.5 billion dollars to rebuild quake-hit towns and villages, and 1.6 billion dollars for relief efforts. Pakistan has received pledges for less than half those sums. "We are satisfied with the response but we want more," Aziz told the Journal.The World Bank also predicted last week that the devastation will not significantly dent growth, saying the damage to the economy would not be more than 0.3 to 0.4 percent of total output.(Posted @ 12:00 PST)
Canadian team of orthopaedic surgeons reaches Lahore LAHORE Nov 13-(PPI): A seven member team of orthopaedic surgeons and other specialists from Canada reached Lahore on Sunday to set up a surgical camp at Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Hospital at Gujrat to provide specialized treatment to the Quake affected people. The camp would continue for ten days and would handle cases referred to it by the field hospitals in quake ravaged areas of NWFP and Azad Kashmir. The team is equipped with medicine, necessary instruments and latest equipment like cardiac ventilators and includes Dr. Syed Yasir Haider, Orthopedic Surgeon Aberdeen Hospital, Nova Scotia; Dr. Azer Khan ,Orthopedic Surgeon, Southend Hospital, U.K; Dr.Edison Skinner, Aberdeen Hospital; Dr Brenda White , Aberdeen Hospital; Dr Joyce Horne R.N. Aberdeen Hospital; Dr Susan MacDonald, RN, Aberdeen Hospital and Ms. Perveen Sharif, Team Coordinator and translator. The Canadian experts were guest at a reception hosted in their honour by Punjab Health Minister who said on this occasion that in order to provide protective healthcare facilities to the quake survivors, Punjab government have sent 100 healthcare workers to carry out extensive sprays so that people could be saved from epidemic diseases. Punjab Health Department has also set up camp hospitals in calamity-stricken areas of Muzaffarabad, Bagh, Khattian, Battal, Mansehra, Battagram etc. The minister said Punjab Health Department had also sent 40 teams comprising doctors and technicians, dispensers and one member of WHO for the rehabilitation of rural health centers (RHCs) and basic health units (BHUs) in Azad Kashmir. These teams would complete a comprehensive survey and submit reports for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of BHUs and RHCs , he added maintained.(Posted @ 09:55 PST)
|
|
|
|
