GENEVA: About 166,000 people are still displaced six months after devastating floods swept away homes and drowned livestock in Pakistan, the UN refugees agency said Tuesday. “Six months after devastating floods first hit Pakistan in July 2010, some 166,000 people are still displaced and living in over 240 camps and spontaneous settlements,” said Andrej Mahecic, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. “This is substantially down from the peak levels in September and October when 3.278 million people were living in camps, but it still represents a substantial population in need of help,” he added. Most of those who are still homeless are located in the southern province of Sindh, one of the hardest hit districts by the flood. About 20 million people were affected in the natural disaster and 1.7 million houses were damaged or destroyed, said the UNHCR. The flood also wiped out more than 2.2 million hectares of arable land, depriving rural communities of food and resources, said the Red Cross.
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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: More than 100 Hindu devotees were killed after a road accident triggered a stampede among thousands of pilgrims returning from an Indian religious festival, officials said Saturday. The Friday evening tragedy unfolded in a remote, mountainous area of southern Kerala as pilgrims made their way home from an annual ceremony at the hill shrine of Sabarimala that draws three to four million people each year. Kerala Home Secretary Jaya Kumar told that 102 people had been confirmed dead and dozens more injured, some of them seriously. Police officials said a packed jeep had lost control and ploughed into a crowd of devotees packed onto a narrow road in a hilly and densely forested area 10 kilometres (six miles) from the shrine. “The accident caused a mass panic and triggered a stampede on the hillside,” said Special Police Commissioner Rajendra Nair. The search for bodies and survivors had been hampered by the remote location, heavy mist and the thick forest terrain. Indian television ran pictures of casualties being passed over the heads of tightly packed crowds of pilgrims in a rescue effort that stretched deep into the night. The stampede occurred on the final day of the pilgrimage at the Sabarimala shrine, located in Idukki district, about 200 kilometres from the state capital Thiruvananthapuram. It is the second time in recent memory that the festival has been struck by disaster. In 1999 more than 50 Hindu devotees died after a landslide on a crowded hillside at the site. Stampedes at public events in India are common as large numbers of people crowd into congested areas. Few safety regulations and absent or inadequate policing mean panic can spread quickly with deadly consequences. The spark is often an accident but occasionally simply a rumour about a bomb or attack leads to a crush. Women and children frequently make up the majority of the victims.
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BRISBANE: Massive floods shut down the centre of Australia’’s third-largest city, sent thousands fleeing from their homes and sparked panic buying of food on Wednesday as rescuers searched for 43 people missing in floodwaters. Australia’’s biggest floods in a century have so far killed 16 people since starting their onslaught across northern mining state Queensland last month, crippling the coking coal industry, destroying infrastructure, putting a brake on the economy and sending the local currency to four-week lows. The flood surge is expected to peak in Brisbane, a riverside city of two million people, before sunrise on Thursday and last for days. “We are in the grip of a very serious natural disaster,” Queensland state premier Anna Bligh said, predicting almost 20,000 homes could be flooded at the river’’s peak. “Brisbane will go to sleep tonight and wake up to scenes many will never have seen before in their lives,” she warned. The flood peak hit Ipswich, a satellite town to the west, late on Wednesday. More than 1,500 Ipswich residents sheltered in evacuation centres, but others fled homes with little more than what they are wearing, as floodwater rose around the city. Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale said the flood peaked at 19.4 metres, about a metre below expectations, saving some 6,000 homes from flooding. “It’’s the difference between bad news and devastation,” he said. Brisbane residents on Wednesday pushed food-laden shopping carts through submerged streets, others waded in shoulder-high water to rescue possessions, while boats and pontoons were ripped from moorings in the Brisbane River and smashed into bridges as the muddy brown tide gathered strength. At flooded intersections people paddled surfboards through floodwaters, balancing their possessions on the deck of the boards, while boats ferried evacuees to dry ground. “I am feeling a sense of horror and awe at the power of the river. Sadly in coming hours we will see bits of people’’s homes float down the river,” Brisbane Mayor Campbell Newman said, warning the torrent could take three to four days to subside. Four thousands people sheltered in evacuation centres. FLOODS HIT AUSTRALIA ECONOMY Economists have raised their estimates of the economic impact of the flooding, with one central bank board member saying on Wednesday the disaster could cut 1 percent off growth — equal to almost $13 billion, double the previous highest estimate. The Australian dollar sank to a fresh four-week low of $0.9803 on the comments from Warwick McKibbin, an academic and a member of the central bank’’s policymaking board. Treasurer Wayne Swan in November forecast GDP growth of 3.25 percent in the 2010-11 fiscal year, up from a 3.0 percent projection, but said spending would be cut to ensure a surplus of A$3.1 billion or 0.2 percent of GDP in 2012/13. Australia exports more than half the world’’s coking coal, which is used in steel manufacturing, and it is also the second-biggest exporter of thermal coal used for power generation. “The coal industry will take several weeks and in some cases months to get back to full production,” Bligh said. Food prices are surging around the country as the floods ruin Queensland crops and distribution networks. Prices for tomatoes have leapt about 200 percent in two weeks, while beef is up 11 percent and wheat has risen 4 percent in four months. BRISBANE A DESERTED CITY Rescue crews took advantage of some rare sunshine to look for 43 people still missing from tsunami-like flash floods that tore through townships west of the city this week. “Some of the houses have exploded with the force of the water. People have been washed away. It will take days to complete this search and recovery,” said Deputy Police Commissioner Ian Stewart. In Brisbane, thousands of homes and businesses were deserted as swirling floodwaters rose in and around the city, forcing residents to flee with a few possessions to higher ground and to evacuation centres crowded with more than 3,500 people. “If you start to see water in your yard, get out. Take your family and get to safety. This water could rise very, very quickly,” said state premier Bligh. Some Brisbane residents tried to carry on as normal, with early morning joggers running even though parts of their routes were underwater. Others were distraught. “This is my whole life, everything is gone. I never thought it would get this bad,” said Kim Hung, manager of the Salt ”n” Pepper catering business, as two friends floated a coffee machine toward higher ground. As the waters rose strangers formed human chains, sometimes in chest high water, to pass family possessions from flooded homes to dry land and into cars and trucks and safety. Raw sewage began spilling into the river and creeks, prompting authorities to warn of heightened disease risk as spillage from damaged treatment works polluted the floodwaters. Dams built to protect Brisbane and outlying towns were spilling floodwaters into swollen rivers. The Port of Brisbane was closed, shutting down Australia’’s third-busiest container port and a 5 million tonnes per year coal-loading facility. Power company Energex shut power to some low-lying areas of Brisbane, including parts of the financial district, for fear that live power lines could electrify floodwaters. Some 78,000 homes in the southeast of Queensland were without electricity. ”TERRIFYING, CHAOS” Prime Minister Julia Gillard arrived in Brisbane to inspect the devastation and said she was deeply concerned about the impact on jobs and livelihoods. “I have been shocked. I think we”ve all been shocked by the images of that wall of water just wreaking such devastation. The dimensions of it are truly mind-boggling,” Gillard said. The floods have been blamed on a La Nina weather pattern in the Pacific, with Australia recording its third-wettest year on record in 2010, with two wet-season months to go. Weather officials are forecasting an above-average cyclone season, while scientists said climate change is likely to have intensified the monsoon rains behind the floods. As the Queensland floods and rains move south, major rivers in New South Wales state have begun flooding or threatening to break their banks, forcing 3,000 people to leave some rural areas. In Victoria state in the southeast, heavy rain caused flash flooding and landslides, prompting fears a lake near Horsham could break its banks.
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NEW DELHI: India has refused to share details of investigation into Samjhota Express bombings with Pakistan on the grounds that the investigation was at the initial stages, Geo News reported on Tuesday. The statement issued by the Indian Home Department here, asserted that the investigation into the bombing was at initial stages, therefore, it could not be shared with Pakistan. It may be mentioned here that Pakistani Foreign office had summoned the acting Indian High Commissioner to seek details of investigations into the Samjhota Express bombings on Monday. Attention of the Indian High commissioner was drawn to the recent reports in the media on the probe into the blasts. Indian official was told the government of Pakistan is awaiting a response from the Indian government at the earliest. The matter was revived when a Hindu extremist leader, Swami Aseemanand, confessed that he was involved in the India-Pakistan Samjhota Express train bombing in 2007 in which 68 Pakistani nationals were killed.
Written on January 11, 2011 | Posted in
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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has asked India to convey the results of its investigation into the Samjhauta Express blasts. To this effect, Acting Deputy High Commissioner of India GV Srinivas was called to the
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ADEN: As many as 80 African migrants, mostly Ethiopians, were feared drowned after two boats capsized off the coast of south Yemen, the interior ministry said on Monday. “The accident was caused by high winds and a tsunami which capsized the two boats taking them towards the coast,” it said in a statement, quoting the coast guard in the southern port city of Aden. One boat with 46 migrants, most of them Ethiopians, “capsized in a coastal region … of Taez province, with all those on board drowning except for three Somalis who survived,” it said. Another boat carrying “between 35 to 40 people, all of the Ethiopians and among them women and children” went down off the coast of another southern province, Lahij, the ministry said. “Their fate is not yet known,” it said, adding that a search was underway but without specifying what day the incidents took place. Each year tens of thousands of Ethiopians and Somalis make the perilous crossing to Yemen in the hope of escaping the economic deprivation, persecution and conflicts of their home countries. Many die on board often overcrowded and rotten small boats, while others, already weakened by long journeys from the hinterland to the coast, die at the hands of ruthless smugglers. The migrants generally slip by boat into the south of Yemen, itself one of the world’’s poorest countries, before heading towards the border with oil-rich Saudi Arabia. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said last April that the exodus of Somalis across the Gulf of Aden had slowed dramatically since the start of 2010, despite recurring violence in Somalia.
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KARACHI: Interior Minister Abdul Rehman Malik has said that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has not made any demand for removal of Sindh Home Minister Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza, Geo News reported Friday night. Talking to journalists outside Bilawal House here on Friday, Malik reiterated that the MQM’s reservations would be addressed, saying that the government had been moving in a positive direction, which would produce positive results. The minister said the MQM and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) would work together for betterment and peace in the country, especially in Karachi. “Our friendship, our unity, the mode of actions, action plans for the security have to go together,” he added. He remarked that chiefs of the MQM and the Awami National Party (ANP) had played their role for the maintenance of peace, saying, “We would have to move forward with unity”. Replying to a question, he said that over 67 accused who had been arrested on charges of targeted killings belonged to various groups and not from a single party. He was of the view that terrorists always tried to take refuge behind some parties but when there was an investigation a ‘different game’ came to fore. He said that a number of attempts had been made to destabilise the country. “I discussed issue of Commissioner System (CS) in a meeting with Governor Sindh, Dr. Ishrat-ul-Ibad Khan,” Malik said adding that government would not table the bill of CS in Sindh Assembly.
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KARACHI: The presentation of bill for restoration of Commissioner System in Sindh Assembly has been deferred, Geo News reported Friday. Sindh Government made the above decision after negotiations with Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM).
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Cricket's 'spot-fixing' crisis took a new twist today when the Pakistan High Commissioner cast doubt on the authenticity of evidence presented by the News of the World. Wajid Shamsul Hasan was speaki…
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SKARDU: At least 47 people were killed and various others went missing in flooding in District Skardu and Ghanchhe, Geo News reported Saturday. Various areas were inundated in the flood, as lashing rains are underway in Skardu and Ghanchhe, triggering the flood of high degree in Indus River. The flood torrent entered in Skardu’s suburban village of Qamran, where thus far, at least 35 have lost their lives and scores of other people went missing. Over 3000 people are marooned at the rooftops of their houses in the area. At least 12 others lost their lives in District Ghanchhe’s suburban village Talees. According to Commissioner Baltistan Division Dr Sajid Chauhan, the relief activities are in progress in the flood-hit areas. River Gilgit is surging at Gilgit, exposing to erosion the low-lying areas including Jageer Basen and Basen and inundating various houses. Lightning struck overnight in Jaglot Goro adjacent to Gilgit-Huza section of Karakoram Highway, affecting 30 houses here. The rehabilitation work could not started thus far. Hyderabad nullah ran in high torrents, when lightning fell at a glacier in Hunza, causing the destruction of central water channel and the water supply to the area came to a halt. The power supply to Hunza is suspended for 11 days now, that could not be restored as yet. Meantime, the water level at Attabad Lake following showers here, posed houses here to threat of inundation. Heavy landsliding narrowed the Spillway. Also, the ground links of Sost with other parts of the country were cut off, as a bridge at Khyber on Karakoram Highway was washed away by the River Khunjrab flooding, leaving 9,000 people marooned in Upper Gojal. Following heavy landslide unleashed by thunderbolt in Damas Village, announcements were made from the mosques directing the residents to evacuate to the safer places.
Written on August 7, 2010 | Posted in
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