UNICEF hands over 35 new schools in flood-affected Punjab

Children cook their daily meal in one of the 5,900 camps that sprung up across Pakistan in 2010 when the country was hit by the worst floods in its …

Written on January 4, 2012 | Posted in 2010, Pakistan, UN, floods, unlmitie | Leave a comment

Philippine floods toll 652 dead with 808 missing

MANILA: The death toll from mammoth floods unleashed in the southern Philippines by tropical storm Washi has climb

Written on December 18, 2011 | Posted in International, UN, floods, uth | Leave a comment

Nearly 600 dead, missing in Philippines storm

ILIGAN: Tropical storm Washi raked across the southern Philippines, unleashing mammoth floods across vast areas th

Written on December 17, 2011 | Posted in News, UN, floods, uth | Leave a comment

Prince Charles in plea for Pak flood victims

LONDON: Britain s Prince Charles urged the world not to forget the victims of the Pakistan floods of more than thr

Written on December 9, 2011 | Posted in International, News, Pakistan, floods | Leave a comment

Pakistani Buddhist art defies all odds to go on show in NY

NEW YORK–remarkable trove from Pakistan's little-known Buddhist past has gone on show in New York in an art exhibition that defied floods, riots and explosive U.S.-Pakistani relations before …

Written on August 11, 2011 | Posted in Pakistan, exhibition, floods, unlmitie | Leave a comment

Pakistan unprepared as monsoon approaches

Almost a year after devastating floods hit Pakistan, experts are warning that much still needs to be done to prevent damage before this year's rainy season …

Written on March 11, 2011 | Posted in Pakistan, War, floods, unlmitie | Leave a comment

Massive quake unleashes tsunami on Japan

TOKYO: One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded hit Japan Friday, unleashing a 10-metre high tsunami that tossed ships inland and sparked fears that destructive waves could hit across the Pacific Ocean. The devastating 8.9-magnitude quake left many people injured in coastal areas of the main Honshu island and Tokyo, police said, while TV footage showed widespread flooding in the area. 26 people were reported dead. A monster 10-metre (33 feet) wall of water was reported in Sendai city in northeastern Miyagi prefecture, media said after a four-metre wave hit the coast earlier. The government said the quake had caused “tremendous damage”. Helicopter footage showed massive inundation in northern coastal towns, where floods of black water sent shipping containers, cars and debris crashing through streets. An oil refinery was ablaze near Tokyo. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued a widespread warning for territories as far away as South America, New Zealand and Hawaii, where evacuations were ordered. “An earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines near the epicentre within minutes and more distant coastlines within hours,” the centre said in a statement. Swells of up to one metre were reported hitting Russia’’s far east, with bigger waves expected later. Television footage showed a wide, muddy stream moving rapidly across a residential area near the Natori River in Sendai, levelling all in its path. The tsunami also reached Sendai airport, submerging the runway while a process known as liquefaction, caused by the intense shaking of the tremor, turned parts of the ground to liquid. Public broadcaster NHK said several dozen houses had been washed away in Miyagi Prefecture. In the capital, where millions evacuated strongly swaying buildings, multiple injuries were reported when the roof of a hall collapsed during a graduation ceremony, police said. Plumes of smoke rose from at least 10 locations in the city, where four million homes suffered power outages. The first quake struck just under 400 kilometres (250 miles) northeast of Tokyo, the US Geological Survey said. It was followed by more than a dozen aftershocks, one as strong as 7.1. The quake was the largest ever in Japan, the fifth strongest tremor worldwide since 1900 and the seventh strongest in history, according to the US Geological Survey and Japanese seismologists. “We were shaken so strongly for a while that we needed to hold on to something in order not to fall,” said an official at the local government of the hardest-hit city of Kurihara in Miyagi prefecture. “We couldn”t escape the building immediately because the tremors continued… City officials are now outside, collecting information on damage,” she said by telephone. A major blackout occurred across a wide area of northeastern Japan. Prime Minister Naoto Kan quickly assembled his cabinet after the quake hit, and the government dispatched naval vessels from near Tokyo to Miyagi. The quake affected the nation’’s key transportation systems, including Narita airport, which shut its runways for safety checks. The quake, which hit at 14:46 pm (0546 GMT) and lasted about two minutes, rattled buildings in greater Tokyo, the world’’s largest urban area and home to some 30 million people. In Tokyo, where the subway system stopped, sirens wailed and people streamed out of buildings. The government moved to reassure people that there had been no radiation leak from the country’’s network of nuclear power plants. Japan sits on the “Pacific Ring of Fire”, which is dotted with volcanoes, and Tokyo is situated in one of its most dangerous areas. The quake sent the Nikkei share index plunging at the close while the yen fell sharply against the US dollar before recovering. The mega-city of Tokyo sits on the intersection of three continental plates — the Eurasian, Pacific and Philippine Sea plates — which are slowly grinding against each other, building up enormous seismic pressure. The government’’s Earthquake Research Committee has warned of a 70 percent chance that a great, magnitude-eight quake will strike within the next 30 years in the Kanto plains, home to Tokyo’’s vast urban sprawl. The last time a “Big One” hit Tokyo was in 1923, when the Great Kanto Earthquake claimed more than 140,000 lives, many of them in fires. In 1855, the Ansei Edo quake also devastated the city. In 1995 Kobe earthquake killed more than 6,400 people. More than 220,000 people were killed when a 9.1-magnitude quake hit off Indonesia in 2004, unleashing a massive tsunami that devastated coastlines in countries around the Indian Ocean as far away as Africa. Small quakes are felt every day somewhere in Japan and people take part in regular drills at schools and workplaces to prepare for a calamity. Nuclear power plants and bullet trains are designed to automatically shut down when the earth rumbles and many buildings have been quake-proofed with steel and ferro-concrete at great cost in recent decades. (AFP)

Written on March 11, 2011 | Posted in 2011, America, IPL, ISI, International, UN, US, War, ad, africa, aid, ban, call, cars, cia, earthquake, floods, footage, india, live, media, nato, new zealand, police, uth | Leave a comment

Fundraiser visits flood projects in Pak

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani community in Luton organised a major relief effort after the 2010 floods A fundraiser who worked with people in Luton to raise £100,000 for flood relief in Pakistan has visited projects the money has paid for. Luton fundraiser Bilal Hussein has visited Ajag Bagh on the north west frontier of Pakistan, hit by the floods in August 2010. He saw how Islamic Relief spent the money that was raised. The charity is working in three villages to restore homes and install sewage networks. Islamic Relief is aiming to expand its operation to 20 villages. Mr Hussein told the BBC: “Islamic Relief agreed to rebuild these homes… Also there is a good drainage and sewage system, so they won”t have the same problem again (with the scale of last year’’s flooding).” Habib Malik, of Islamic Relief, said: “The public in the UK have responded, even in a difficult time with the recession, again and again and again.” (Online)

Written on March 11, 2011 | Posted in 2010, 2010 floods, ISI, Mali, News, Pakistan, Politics, UK, UN, US, ad, aid, floods, islam, islamabad, projects | Leave a comment

Get ready, the monsoon is coming

Many houses are not being ?built back better? ISLAMABAD, 9 March 2011 (IRIN) – Pakistan?s next monsoon season is still months away, but after the deadly floods last year aid workers and experts are …

Written on March 9, 2011 | Posted in 2011, Pakistan, US, ad, aid, floods, islam, islamabad, unlmitie | Leave a comment

Rape victims denied justice in Pakistan

MIRWALA, Pakistan (AFP) – Rehana Yasmin thought the kindly women had come to help her after floods devastated her village. Instead they passed her on to two men — who raped her at …

Written on March 8, 2011 | Posted in Pakistan, ad, floods, unlmitie, women | Leave a comment

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