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Landslide kills 200 in Philippines
60 political activists freed
LeT founder leader under house arrest
Mental problems hit UK troops after serving in Iraq
Drought forces Somalis to drink own urine
Iran developing N-bomb: France
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Acupressure good for back pain
Eva Green named next ‘Bond girl’
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Landslide kills 200 in Philippines
Manila, February 17 Senator Richard Gordon, head of the Philippine Red Cross, said an entire village appeared to have been buried on Leyte island, leading to the casualty estimates. There appeared to be little hope for finding many survivors. While the official death toll was only 10, Southern Leyte province Governor Rosette Lerias told radio DZBB that 500 houses in Guinsahugon village in St Bernard town were feared buried after nonstop rains for two weeks. Provincial board member Eva Tomol said only three houses remained standing in the village, which had a population of about 2,500 and is 670 km southeast of Manila. Twelve survivors, including five school children, were being treated at a hospital, she said, and there were reports that two other villages may have been affected. Flash floods also were inundating the area. "Let us all pray for those who perished and were affected by this tragedy," President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said in a statement. "Help is on the way," she promised survivors. "You will soon be out of harm's way." The first aerial footage from ANC television showed a wide swath of mud with no sign of houses that had been completely covered. Rescue workers dug with shovels for signs of survivors, and put a mud-covered child on a stretcher. In other areas, corrugated steel that had once served as walls and roofs lay in crumpled piles. "It sounded like the mountain exploded, and the whole thing crumbled," survivor Dario Libatan told Manila radio DZMM. "I could not see any house standing anymore." Senator Gordon appealed for US troops, in the country for joint military exercises, to send heavy-lift helicopters to the disaster site. A C-130 Philippine military transport plane was to fly to Leyte later today, carrying search equipment and a team of sniffer dogs. US military spokesman, Captain Dennis Palmer, said American forces were ready to help as soon as they receive an official request from the Philippine government. Anthony Golez, deputy administrator of the Office of
Civil Defence, said Defence Secretary Avelino Cruz dispatched two rescue helicopters and two navy ships to the remote area, where about 200 rescue workers, including volunteers from nearby provinces, were searching for survivors. An elementary school was in session when the landslide struck between 9 and 10 am (6.30 am-7.30 am IST), and about 100 persons were visiting the village for a women's group meeting.
— AP |
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60 political activists freed
Kathmandu, February 17 Nepal Communist Party-UML (CPN-UML) Politburo member Subhash Nemwang was among those released today, party sources said. Nemwang’s release followed a Supreme Court order to the royal government to free 37 political activists detained “illegally” during a crackdown on anti-King parties. Besides these 37 activists, the government released 23 others. Twenty women activists and some junior leaders from the seven-party opposition alliance were mong those freed from various jails today, the party sources said. However, hundreds of other political activists, including Nepali Congress (NC) general secretary Ramchandra Poudyal were still in jail, the party sources said.
— PTI |
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LeT founder leader under house arrest
Islamabad, February 17 Amid reports that LeT and its affiliated groups were behind the massive violence during the February 14 protests in the country, the militant group’s founder leader Hafeez Saeed, who now heads Jamaat-ud Dawa, was put under house arrest. Saeed was also barred from addressing a conference in Faisalabad against the publication of the cartoons, his spokesman Yahya Mujahid said. In Multan, the police detained 125 persons who were protesting against the publication of the cartoons, defying a ban on rallies in eastern Pakistan. In Karachi, the police fired tear gas and used batons to disperse about 2,000 protesters, reports reaching here said, adding some 30 protesters were also detained.
— PTI |
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Mental problems hit UK troops after serving in Iraq
London, February 17 A ministry spokeswoman yesterday said the figure represented “only 1.5 per cent”of the troops who had served in the country and pointed out the cases were not all stress related. “They could potentially be mental health issues that may have occurred anyway,” she said. Of the 1,333 cases, 182 had the symptoms of “post-traumatic stress disorder”, 601 of adjustment disorder and 237 of mood disorder. The MoD did not give any details on the remaining soldiers. “MoD takes the health and welfare of our personnel extremely seriously,” the department said in a statement. “We have a comprehensive policy for the treatment of serving Regulars and Reservists with mental health problems.” The statement said they had deployed specialist psychiatric personnel to both Iraq and Afghanistan and implemented community-based mental health units across the UK. But Shaun Rusling, a veteran of the first Gulf war and vice chairman of the National Gulf Veterans and Family Association, was not surprised by the numbers. “I would imagine they are actually higher, due to soldiers not coming forward due to the fact it would possibly affect their promotion or the ability to stay within the armed forces,” he told Reuters. “As a Gulf War One veteran, I had hoped that for any future conflict there would be a better set-up but very sadly ... the same thing is happening now that happened 14 years ago,” he said. Some 6,000 troops reported suffering from an array of illnesses after serving in the first Gulf war. Veterans and their supporters suspected vaccines given to troops or other environmental factors made thousands sick.
— Reuters |
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Drought forces Somalis to drink own urine
Nairobi, February 17 With east Africa facing its worst drought for years, arid Somalia is one of the worst-affected countries, with pastoralist families forced to exist on a twentieth of the daily water supply recommended by minimum standards, Oxfam said yesterday. “Many families are surviving on just a 20-litre jerry can of water for three days. This is equivalent to 830 ml or three glasses of water, per person per day for drinking, cooking and washing,” the British-based agency said. “Oxfam’s assessment team also gathered reports of people being forced to drink their own urine because of the desperate thirst the drought has caused,” its report added. Some people were forced to trek 70 km to find water in temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius, it added. “Our assessment shows people in Somalia having to walk the equivalent of almost two marathons to collect water because nearby sources are now just cracked earth,” it said. “The burden is worst for women on whom the responsibility of weekly trips to collect water often falls.” Oxfam said it was launching emergency water operations to help up to 200,000 vulnerable Somalis and their animals, particularly in southern regions near the border with Kenya. “The situation is as bad as I can remember. Some people are dying and children are drinking their own urine because there is simply no water available for them to drink,” Somali village elder Abdullahi Maalim Hussein was quoted as saying. The Horn of Africa nation of about 10 million people has been without a functioning government since warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Roaming militia have been targeting aid consignments. Across east Africa, hundreds of people, and tens of thousands of livestock, are believed to have died from hunger and thirst since the drought began in late 2005. As well as Somalia, millions are affected in Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Tanzania and Burundi. The drought is likely to persist at least until early April, according to the World Meteorological Organisation. The increasingly desperate measures being taken across the region were illustrated by the reported death of four Kenyan women buried alive in a well. They were digging ever deeper after walking 10 km (six miles) because a local river and water-point had dried up. “Water scarcity occasioned by the hard-hitting drought had greatly affected the villagers of Lolita and its environs, causing them to risk in their search of water,” Kenya’s daily Standard said, quoting local police chief Bernard Muli. “As the water table went further down, the women would scoop more sand to harvest water. They were unaware that the walls of the well were getting weaker,” said Muli, who heads police in the arid northern Turkana district.
— Reuters |
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Iran developing N-bomb: France
Paris, February 17 Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told French radio that the nuclear activities being undertaken by Iran could not be explained away as part of a drive for civilian energy supplies. His allegations, for which he won some support from his British counterpart Jack Straw, were the first time a top European official has made such explicit claims against Tehran and highlights increasing EU exasperation. The French foreign ministry later reiterated France’s official position, which is that Tehran’s nuclear activities “raise doubts about their peaceful nature,” but did not repeat the words “clandestine” and “military.” Iran hit back, insisting it was not seeking to develop atomic weapons and regretting the comments by Douste-Blazy, whose country is part of a European Union troika that has been trying to negotiate with Tehran. The United States and Europe are pushing for a UN Security Council response on the programme and are awaiting a March 6 report by the UN nuclear watchdog which will be crucial in deciding what action, if any, is taken.
— AFP |
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Acupressure good for back pain
London, February 17 Almost 90 per cent of patients in the study found their disability was reduced by acupressure — applying pressure with thumbs and fingertips to the same points on the body stimulated in acupuncture. Low back pain is a common problem worldwide. The researchers, whose study was published online by the British Medical Journal today, recruited 129 patients with chronic lower back pain from an orthopaedic clinic. Half were given conventional physical therapy and half were treated by acupressure. Acupressure reduced disability for 89 per cent of those treated and the improvement lasted six months. It also helped those who said they were suffering from leg pain and ‘’pain interfering with normal work.’’
— Reuters |
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Eva Green named next ‘Bond girl’
Los Angeles, February 17 Green, 25, who made her 2003 film debut in “The Dreamers,” about a French brother and sister who befriend a young American during the Paris student riots of 1968, will play the enticing Vesper Lynd opposite English actor Daniel Craig in his first performance as Bond. Last year, she appeared in the big-screen crusades drama “Kingdom of Heaven.” In landing the coveted role of the next “Bond girl,” the French actress edged out a list of contenders reported in the Hollywood trade press to have included Oscar winner Charlize Theron, as well as Thandie Newton, Olivia Wilde and Kimberly Davies.
— Reuters |
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