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3 million quake-hit battling for survival
Wilma knocks out power in 3 lakh
Dying witness testifies against Saddam
COP of good hope
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Israeli troops kill top Jihad commander
No FM news in Nepal
Mukhtar Mai to get bravery award
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3 million quake-hit battling for survival
Neelum Valley, October 24 Using picks, shovels, bulldozers and dynamite, Brig Gen Inamul Haq’s 5,000 men have been working non-stop to open a key supply route amid warnings that many of the 3.3 million people left homeless by the massive October 8 earthquake could die of the cold and disease. The primary mission is to provide access for aid agencies to bring supplies by land and complement relief missions by the overburdened and limited number of helicopters. “We are racing against time. I wish the day (had) 48 hours,” Haq tells journalists who accompanied an army convoy on Saturday that delivered water and other supplies near what was left of Khansar, a village in the Neelum valley about 10 km north of Muzaffarabad and near the epicentre of the 7.6 magnitude quake. What was once a “paradise valley,” as Haq calls it, is now a wasteland. About six peaks of the mountain range were totally crushed, burying entire communities and changing the landscape of this part of Kashmir. The verdant greens that once covered the mountains have been replaced by loose brown earth and grey boulders that crushed vehicles like tin cans. Entire families walking along the mountain pass carrying bags of food and supplies on their backs add to the desolate scene. Others have simply died of walking due to the cold and hastily been buried in shallow roadside graves adorned with flowers. Springs and brooks that provided drinking water have dried up, village after village buried by boulders. Even Haq’s headquarters has been erased off the map. |
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Wilma knocks out power in 3 lakh Florida homes
The same storm that brought ruin over the weekend to resort towns along Mexico’s Yucatan Coast flooded large sections of Key West and other areas and knocked out power to more than three lakh homes and businesses in the Keys and places like Miami and Fort Lauderdale. In Cuba, huge waves crashed into Havana, swamping neighbourhoods up to four blocks inland with floodwaters reaching up to 3 feet in some places. Basement apartments were submerged. In Cancun, Mexico, troops and federal police worked to control looting at stores and shopping centres ripped open by the hurricane, and hunger and frustration mounted among Mexicans and stranded tourists. Wilma, Florida’s eighth hurricane in 15 months, made landfall in Florida at 4.30 pm near Cape Romano, bringing with it a potential 18-foot storm surge, the National Hurricane Centre said. Up to 10 inches (25 centimetres) of rain and tornadoes were forecast for parts of central and southern Florida. Within 2 1/2 hours after Wilma came ashore, it had weakened to a Category 2 storm with 110 mph (177 kph) winds, as it raced across the state toward heavily populated Miami-Dadd, Broward and Palm Beach counties on the Atlantic coast.
— AP |
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Dying witness testifies against Saddam
Baghdad, October 24 The Iraqi Special Tribunal which is trying Saddam feared that Waddah Khalil, a former senior intelligence officer in the fallen dictator’s regime, could die before its next session. Court officials “recorded the testimony of this individual,” a source close to the court said yesterday. “His words were recorded and written down on paper.” Meanwhile, Arab League chief Amr Mussa addressed the Kurdish regional parliament in northern Iraq as part of his efforts to organise a national reconciliation conference. Khalil occupied a key post in Saddam’s intelligence services at the time of the Dujail massacre. “He then left the service to pursue his trade as a lawyer,” the source said.
— AFP |
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COP of good hope
Nairobi, October 24 The COP is the supreme governing body of the Convention adopted 11 years ago to tackle the problem of desertification, or degradation of land resulting in loss of soil fertility and desert-like conditions in once fertile agricultural dryland regions. Delegates from most of the 191 countries that are party to the Convention have got down to reviewing progress and deliberating the constraints that have stymied the fight against desertification. At the seventh COP here, as in the six two-yearly conferences held earlier, financial resources for implementation of the UNCCD’s national and regional plans remain the key concern. Like technological support, funds too are still way short of what is required. The UN Environment Programme estimates that an effective global effort would cost anything between $10 and 20 billion per year. The figure appears less staggering when seen against the fact that desertification results in affected countries losing over $40 billion in national income. Desertification, which threatens the survival of over a billion of the world’s poorest in more than 100 countries, is particularly acute in Africa but also manifest in different forms across Asia. In terms of the number of people affected by desertification and drought, Asia is the most severely affected continent; over 1.7 billion hectares out of a land area of 4.3 billion hectares are perilously degraded. Desertification brings out with stark clarity the linkage between environmental problems and poverty. Hardly ironic then that the Convention to Combat Desertification is also a poor cousin of the conventions on biodiversity and climate change that emerged from the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. In his opening address, President Kibaki was emphatic that “the implementation of the Convention continues to suffer from serious inadequacy of financial resources”. In a pointed reminder to the world leaders of their commitment, he recalled that last month’s Millenium Summit in New York had pledged to support and strengthen implementation of the Convention, and address causes of desertification and land degradation. Mr Kibaki asked the international community to increase the level of financial resources. The importance of this call cannot be overemphasised as lack of funds has been the main impediment to combat desertification. With every COP comes the hope that the gap between declarations and deeds would be bridged. Whether the road from Nairobi would be better reinforced with the necessary finances than the journey so far is the overriding question in the minds of delegates as they get down to the week-long agenda. One plus point at COP 7 is that last year’s Nobel Prize for Peace to Kenya’s environmental activist Wangari Maathai has added force and appeal to the campaign for funds to fight desertification. |
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Israeli troops kill top Jihad commander
Jerusalem, October 24 Luai Saadi, the alleged mastermind of suicide bombings at a nightclub in Tel Aviv and a mall this year, was killed along with his aide during a preemptive early morning arrest raid in Tulkarem refugee camp, an army spokesperson said. Saadi was shot after Palestinian gunmen resisted the arrest and opened fire, injuring a soldier, he said. The accomplice was identified as Majed al-Aksar, a member of the A Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. Israel defence forces colonel Aharon Haliva claimed the Islamic Jihad was planning a large attack in the coming days.
— PTI |
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No FM news in Nepal
Kathmandu, October 24 The Information and Communication Ministry summoned representatives of about a dozen FM stations in Kathmandu yesterday and asked them to follow the media ordinance, which bans news transmission by FM channels. On Friday, the police raided the popular Kantipur FM and seized some key equipments. The Communication Corner, which supplies news to about 10 FM stations in Kathmandu, has stopped distribution to the private radio broadcasters after the government disconnected its link with the V-Sat, said news coordinator Suresh Acharya, who is also a former President of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ). “After the government disconnected the links, we are compelled to halt our service,” he said. Various professional organisations, including the FNJ and Nepal Bar Association, filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court against the media ordinance challenging its constitutionality.
— PTI |
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Mukhtar Mai to get bravery award
New York, October 24 Mai, who arrived in Chicago on Saturday will be presented the award at a function here on November 2.
— PTI |
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Naples (US), October 24