U.S. President Barack Obama is addressing the nation on the end of the combat mission in Iraq, the security challenges there and the need to rebuild the United States.
In a national address from the White House, the president says the “historic moment” comes at a time of great uncertainty for many Americans, after nearly a decade of war and a “long and painful” recession.
He says the United States intends to “sustain and strenghten” its leadership in this young century.
He says much has changed since then-President George W. Bush announced the start of the war in March 2003, saying the war to disarm a state became a fight against an insurgency.
He says terrorism and sectarian fighting threatened to tear apart Iraq. He says thousands of Americans died in the war and tens of thousands have been wounded.
In the White House Oval Office address, President Obama declared an end to the American combat mission in Iraq and that Iraqis now have the lead responsibility for the security of their country.
In doing so, the president noted that the conflict in Iraq has been one of America’s longest wars. But he said at every turn, America’s men and women in uniform have served with courage and resolve.
The president said that as commander-in-chief, he is incredibly proud of their service and that like all Americans, he is awed by their sacrifice, and the sacrifices of their families.
He said the Americans who have served in Iraq completed every mission they were given and defeated a regime that had terrorized its people. The said U.S. forces, together with Iraqis and coalition partners who made huge sacrifices of their own, troops fought block by block to help Iraq seize the chance for a better future. President Obama noted they shifted tactics to protect Iraqis, trained Iraqi security forces and took out terrorist leaders.
He said Iraq has the opportunity to embrace a new destiny, even though many challenges remain.
Mr. Obama says he is following through on his pledge as a candidate to end the war in Iraq.
He says his administration has removed nearly 100,000 U.S. troops from Iraq, closed or transferred hundreds of bases to the Iraqis and have moved millions of pieces of equipment out of Iraq.
He says that even though Iraq continues to have terrorist attacks, security incidents have been near the lowest on record since the war began. He says Iraqi forces have “taken the fight to al-Qaida,” removing much of its leadership in Iraqi-led operations.
He encouraged Iraq’s leaders to “move forward with a sense of urgency” in forming an inclusive government. Iraq has been in a political deadlock, after general elections in March produced no clear winner.
The president said that going forward, a transitional force of U.S. troops will remain in Iraq with a different mission: advising and assisting Iraq’s Security Forces; supporting Iraqi troops in targeted counter-terrorism missions; and protecting American civilians.
He said that consistent with a U.S. agreement with the Iraqi government, all U.S. troops will leave Iraq by the end of next year.
Mr. Obama said that as the U.S. military draws down, America’s dedicated civilians -diplomats, aid workers, and advisors -are moving into the lead to support Iraq as it strengthens its government, resolves political disputes, resettles those displaced by war, and builds ties with the region and the world. He said that is a message that Vice President Biden is delivering to the Iraqi people through his visit there.
The president said this new approach reflects our long-term partnership with Iraq – one based upon mutual interests, and mutual respect. He said violence will not end with the U. S. combat mission. He said extremists will continue to set off bombs, attack Iraqi civilians and try to spark sectarian strife. But he said ultimately, these terrorists will fail to achieve their goals.
The president said Iraqis are a proud people, saying they have rejected sectarian war, and have no interest in endless destruction. He said only Iraqis can resolve their differences and police their streets and that only Iraqis can build a democracy within their borders. He said America will provide support for the Iraqi people as both a friend and a partner.
The president says ending the war is not only in Iraq’s interest, it is in the interest of the United States as well.
He says the United States has paid a “huge price to put the future of Iraq in the hands of its people.” Mr. Obama said the United States has met its responsibility in what he called a “remarkable chapter” in the history of the United States and Iraq.
He says it is now time to move forward.
The president said he spoke to former President George W. Bush earlier Tuesday, saying it is well known that he disagreed with the former president on the decision to go to war.
Related posts
Excerpts from President Barack Obama’s Address to the Nation on the End of Combat Operations in Iraq
(Released by the White House)
“But this milestone should serve as a reminder to all Americans that our future is ours to shape if we move forward with confidence and commitment. It should also serve as a message to the world that the United States of America intends to sustain and strengthen our leadership in this young century.”
***
“At every turn, America’s men and women in uniform have served with courage and resolve. As Commander-in-Chief, I am proud of their service. Like all Americans, I am awed by their sacrifice, and by the sacrifices of their families.”
***
“Tonight, I am announcing that the American combat mission in Iraq has ended. Operation Iraqi Freedom is over, and the Iraqi people now have lead responsibility for the security of their country. This was my pledge to the American people as a candidate for this office. Last February, I announced a plan that would bring our combat brigades out of Iraq, while redoubling our efforts to strengthen Iraq’s Security Forces and support its government and people. That is what we have done. We have removed nearly 100,000 U.S. troops from Iraq. We have closed or transferred hundreds of bases to the Iraqis. And we have moved millions of pieces of equipment out of Iraq.”
***
“Ending this war is not only in Iraq’s interest – it is in our own. The United States has paid a huge price to put the future of Iraq in the hands of its people. We have sent our young men and women to make enormous sacrifices in Iraq, and spent vast resources abroad at a time of tight budgets at home. We have persevered because of a belief we share with the Iraqi people – a belief that out of the ashes of war, a new beginning could be born in this cradle of civilization. Through this remarkable chapter in the history of the United States and Iraq, we have met our responsibility. Now, it is time to turn the page.”
***
“Today, our most urgent task is to restore our economy, and put the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs back to work. To strengthen our middle class, we must give all our children the education they deserve, and all our workers the skills that they need to compete in a global economy. We must jumpstart industries that create jobs, and end our dependence on foreign oil. We must unleash the innovation that allows new products to roll off our assembly lines, and nurture the ideas that spring from our entrepreneurs. This will be difficult. But in the days to come, it must be our central mission as a people, and my central responsibility as President.”
Related posts
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told an American veterans’ group Tuesday it is not time to celebrate victory in Iraq, even though the U.S. combat mission is formally ending. Gates spoke Tuesday to the annual meeting of the American Legion in the midwestern U.S. city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Secretary Gates called Wednesday’s formal handover in Baghdad the moment both countries have been working for and hoping for, a moment he said was “made possible by the dramatic security gains of the last three-and-a-half years.”
He said attacks are at their lowest levels since the beginning of the war in 2003, in spite of the recent series of incidents. He also noted that U.S. forces have not had to call in an air strike anywhere in Iraq for more than six months, and he said the remnants of al-Qaida’s Iraqi organization have been cut off from its commanders abroad.
Still, he warned, all is not well in Iraq. He noted the ongoing political stalemate and lingering sectarian tensions, and he said al-Qaida in Iraq is “beaten, but not gone.”
“This is not a time for premature victory parades or self-congratulation, even as we reflect with pride on what our troops and their Iraqi partners have accomplished. We still have a job to do and responsibilities there,” said the defense secretary.
Gates said the U.S. military will continue to work with the Iraqi Army and police forces, to train the Iraqi Navy and Air Force, and to help with operations against terrorist groups. He noted that so far 4,427 U.S. troops have been killed in the war, and more than 34,000 have been injured, some of them very seriously.
The secretary also said the Iraq War diverted American attention and resources from Afghanistan, where he said U.S. troops defeated the Taliban in 2001 and 2002, only to see the group reestablish itself and escalate its insurgency. That is a problem the United States is able to address only now, with a decreased troop commitment in Iraq.
The last of the additional forces President Barack Obama ordered to Afghanistan are just arriving, and the next 12 months will be critical in the effort to demonstrate the same type of counterinsurgency approach can work there that worked in Iraq. The troop increase, designed to fight the insurgents and enable engagement with local people in key areas, brings the American total close to 100,000, with nearly 50,000 more from other allied countries. Secretary Gates noted that is more than three times as many as when he took office not quite four years ago.
Still, he he said a “tough, hard campaign” lies ahead in Afghanistan, “with its share of setbacks and heartbreak.” “Success there is not inevitable. But with the right strategy and the willingness to see it through, it is possible. And it is worth the fight,” he said.
Gates called victory in Afghanistan “essential to the safety of the United States.” He said it would deliver “a strategic defeat to al-Qaida,” roll back Taliban gains, and build Afghanistan’s ability to defend itself and prevent the re-establishment of terrorist safe havens like the one the Taliban provided to al-Qaida to plan and launch the September 11th attacks on the United States in 2001.
Related posts
Four Israelis were killed on Tuesday after a Palestinian gunman opened fire on their vehicle on the West Bank. The Islamist militant group Hamas says its military wing carried out the attack. The attack came as Israeli and Palestinian negotiators prepare to resume direct talks.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says the gunman opened fire on the vehicle near the city of Hebron.
“An attack was carried out against a number of Israelis [who] were driving in a vehicle. Unfortunately, as a result of the shots that were fired, all four of them sustained critical injuries, the result being four Israelis killed — two of them men, two of them women,” said Rosenfeld.
Hebron has been a frequent flashpoint in the conflict between Palestinian residents and tens of thousands of Jewish settlers who live inside the city and in surrounding settlements.
Police say the Israeli victims were residents of a nearby settlement.
The shooting occurred as Israeli and Palestinian leaders prepared to resume U.S.-brokered direct negotiations in Washington. The talks have drawn opposition from within the Palestinian Authority led by President Mahmoud Abbas. Some Palestinians have demanded that the Palestinian leader not attend the talks unless Israel guarantees that it will stop the building of Jewish settlements in the Israeli occupied West Bank.
Israel has refused to commit to a permanent construction freeze, saying that it wants to negotiate without preconditions.
Mr. Abbas has come under harsh criticism from some Palestinians over his government’s security cooperation arrangements with Israel.
Within hours of the shooting, Hamas’ military unit claimed responsibility for the attack.
Reporting for VOA, journalist Mohammed Dawwas in Gaza says Hamas’ leaders called on hundreds of Palestinians to a rally late Tuesday.
“This rally is in the north of the Gaza Strip, in the Jabalya refugee camp, the biggest, most crowded refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. People are out celebrating the killing of four settlers in the West Bank,” Dawwas said.
Hamas condemns all negotiations with Israel and has strongly criticized Mr. Abbas’ decision to attend the talks.
Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak issued a statement promising a harsh response for the killings near Hebron, saying that Israel will “exact a price” from those responsible. He said the attack was aimed at sabotaging the peace talks.
Related posts
Five more American soldiers were killed in separate incidents in Afghanistan Tuesday, bringing the number of U.S. troops killed in the war-torn country since Saturday to 19.
NATO said four U.S. soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb in the east, while the fifth died in a gunfight with insurgents in the south.
On Monday, seven American troops and an Estonian soldier were killed in bomb attacks in the south, while another seven U.S. soldiers died in separate attacks on Saturday and Sunday.
U.S. President Barack Obama warned Tuesday of a “tough fight” ahead in Afghanistan, with more casualties likely.
The head of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, acknowledged Tuesday that the Taliban are expanding their influence, even as coalition forces close in on their southern strongholds.
Petraeus said the last of the additional 30,000 troops Mr. Obama ordered to Afghanistan will arrive in the next few days, bringing the number of U.S. and NATO forces in the country to nearly 150,000.
NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Tuesday voiced support for Afghan forces to begin taking charge of the country’s security in 2011. He said during an official visit to his native Denmark the issue would be taken up during the upcoming NATO summit in November.
In violence Tuesday, gunmen on a motorcycle killed three Afghan Supreme Court employees traveling on a bus near Kabul. At least 12 others were wounded.
And British aid group Oxfam said it was temporarily suspending operations in northern Badakhshan province after a roadside bomb killed two of its Afghan staff workers and a volunteer Monday.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.
Related posts
North Korea’s leader appears to have begun a trip to China, at the same time that former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is in Pyongyang to secure the release of an imprisoned American. And China’s top envoy on Korean issues is in Seoul in a bid to restart talks on the North’s nuclear programs.
South Korean government officials said Thursday North Korea’s leader apparently headed by train for the Chinese border. Officials in Seoul spoke on the condition that they not be identified.
The visit would be Kim Jong Il’s second to China this year. He rarely travels outside North Korea.
Some news reports say that Mr. Kim’s son and heir apparent, Kim Jong Un, is traveling with him.
Baek Seung-joo is a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul. He says the visit likely is tied to next month’s meeting of the North Korean Workers’ Party – the first in 40 years.
Baek says the senior Kim probably is informing the Chinese leadership of planned changes within the North Korean power structure.
Other North Korea analysts concur that the trip may be intended to clinch Beijing’s support for a third generation of the Kim family leading the country. But there are doubts among some regional experts in Seoul that the Kims are actually visiting China.
Also on Thursday, North Korea’s central news agency said the country is to receive “emergency relief materials” from China amid reports the impoverished country’s food crisis will worsen this year.
The reports of Mr. Kim’s visit to China come as former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is in the North Korean capital. The U.S. State Department says he is on a private humanitarian mission to secure the release of an imprisoned American.
Aijalan Mahli Gomes was sentenced to eight years of hard labor for illegally entering North Korea and fined the equivalent of 700,000 dollars. He has been held since January.
North Korean television showed Mr. Carter’s arrival at the Pyongyang airport Wednesday.
The announcer says Mr. Carter was greeted by vice foreign minister Kim Gye Gwan and later had a “cordial talk” with Kim Yong Nam, the president of the country’s Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly.
Also this week, China’s top envoy on Korean issues, Wu Dawei, is in Seoul. The South Korean Foreign Ministry says he is here to discuss the resumption of stalled talks about North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs.
Baek at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses thinks the three visits going on this week are linked. He calls the diplomacy significant and appears connected to efforts to resume the nuclear negotiations.
China is pushing to restart the six-nation nuclear talks. But three participants, South Korea, Japan and the United States, have expressed reservations in wake of the sinking of a South Korean naval vessel in March. An international investigation blamed the sinking of the Cheonan on a North Korean torpedo. Pyongyang denies any involvement.
Related posts
In what has become common practice when it comes to North Korea, the Chinese government refuses to comment on reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is on his way to China, in what would be his second visit this year.
As in the past, the Foreign Ministry had no immediate response to reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is visiting China. And officials at the North Korean embassy said they had no information.
During Mr. Kim’s trip to China in May, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu dodged questions about the visit, which was only formally announced after it was over.
She stopped short of confirming his presence, but said high-level visits are determined by consultation between Beijing and Pyongyang.
Jiang says that every country makes what she describes as “appropriate arrangements according to the actual situation” of each visit.
China is North Korea’s biggest supporter and source of aid. Some North Korea scholars think Mr. Kim may seek Beijing’s approval of plans for his son to eventually succeed him. But there is speculation that Mr. Kim wants more help for his impoverished nation.
Official North Korean media say Chinese President Hu Jintao sent a message of sympathy to North Korea because of recent flood losses. A separate report says China will provide aid to help North Korea recover from the floods.
Shi Yinhong, international relations professor at Renmin University, says he thinks the Chinese government is ready to provide some assistance to North Korea.
At the same time, Shi says Beijing will not satisfy all of Pyongyang’s requests. Specifically, he says China will refuse what he described as North Korea’s “excessive demands” for things such as military assistance.
There also are reports that Mr. Kim is bringing his son and heir apparent, Kim Jong Un, with him to meet Chinese officials. Shi says if these reports are true, it would show that Mr. Kim is “determined to let his successor succeed.”
Shi says the Chinese government does not have a say in who is going to inherit power in North Korea, and so will not publicize its views on the matter.
Reports that Mr. Kim is in China coincide with former President Jimmy Carter’s visit to North Korea to seek the release of an American imprisoned there.
Shi says the coincidence of these events could mean there is a chance that stalled talks on ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs could resume. China has been the host of the discussions, which also include the United States, North Korea, South Korea, Japan and Russia.
Related posts
Pakistani officials are urging 400,000 people to evacuate three southern towns threatened by new flooding.
Authorities issued the warning Thursday after the Indus River breached an embankment in Sindh province. Officials say the residents of Sujawal, Mir Pur Batoro and Daro are at risk. Authorities in the Thatta district are working to shore up other levees and the military has been called in to help with evacuations.
While floodwaters have receded in some parts of Pakistan, officials say high tides in the Arabian Sea have heightened the risk of new flooding in Sindh. Monsoon rains triggered the floods that began almost one month ago, killing an estimated 1,600 people and affecting up to 20 million others.
Pakistani and U.S. officials have warned that Islamist militants may try to exploit the disaster. On Thursday, an unnamed U.S. official told news agencies that the Pakistani Taliban may target foreign aid workers engaged in relief efforts. United Nations humanitarian spokesman Maurizio Giuliano called any such possible attacks inhumane.
Charities linked to Pakistan-based militant groups also have been providing assistance to flood victims.
Officials say the new evacuations on Thursday may worsen conditions in some already overcrowded relief camps, where clean water and food are said to be in short supply.
The U.N. says 800,000 people are still cut off by the floods and can only receive aid by air.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Related posts
An Afghan presidential aide who is under investigation for corruption is on the payroll of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, according to a report published in the New York Times newspaper.
The report quotes unnamed Afghan and U.S. officials as saying Afghan National Security Council official Mohammed Zia Salehi appears to have been receiving CIA money for many years.
It says it is not clear whether Salehi is being paid for information or to advance U.S. views inside the administration of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, or both. There was no immediate comment from Salehi on the allegations.
The New York Times says Salehi’s alleged ties to the CIA reflect deep contradictions in U.S. policy on Afghanistan. It says Washington is demanding that President Karzai root out government corruption while the CIA allegedly subsidizes the officials suspected of perpetrating it.
Afghan police arrested Salehi last month. They said a wiretap caught him soliciting a bribe in exchange for impeding a U.S. investigation of a company suspected of moving money for Afghan leaders, drug traffickers and insurgents. President Karzai intervened in the case, securing Salehi’s release after seven hours in prison.
In other developments, Afghan officials say insurgents killed eight Afghan policemen Thursday in raid on a police post in the northern city of Kunduz. They say one policeman survived the attack but was wounded.
Taliban militants traditionally based in southern and eastern Afghanistan have been increasing their attacks on Afghan and international forces in the country’s usually peaceful north.
Elsewhere, NATO says one of its reconnaissance drones crashed Thursday in the southern province of Kandahar after losing engine power. NATO says it recovered the drone but could not find the aircraft’s camera. It says residents reported that insurgents seized the device.
NATO says the camera had no recording capability and was used only to transmit images.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP.
Related posts
The trial of four Muslim men from Newburgh New York accused of attempting to blow up two New York synagogues and conspiring to shoot down military planes began in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday. The men were arrested in May 2009 in a car containing what prosecutors allege to be live explosives. Defense lawyers claim the accused were lured into criminal acts by a government agents with promises of cash and other goods and that they would not otherwise have plotted terrorist acts.
There is a mountain of evidence the jury will be asked to consider in the trial of the Newburgh Four, as prosecutors and the defense try to frame that evidence in ways that lead to conviction or acquittal for the men, all of whom have criminal pasts.
In their opening statements, a prosecutor alleged that the leader of the plot spewed hatred and said he wanted to do something to America. A defense attorney indicated that the men were merely the hapless and ineffectual victims of their own poverty and ignorance.
However, there is no dispute about the broad outlines of the case. All four attended the same mosque, and were recruited by a smooth-talking government informant to commit terrorist acts in exchange for travel, money and other goods.
Alicia McWilliams, the aunt of one defendant, admitted that the men were wrong to participate, but also said that they were treated unfairly and should go free.
“Were they right? No,” she admitted. “Was the government right? No. The government is not above the law. You cannot use a person getting away from crime to create crimes. And then to go into the community and sow unconstructive seeds. I don’t understand that. And as a government we should be ashamed. Is the world going mad?”
In fact, says Columbia University law professor and former prosecutor Daniel Richman, it is common practice for American law enforcement agencies to use undercover operatives to pose as terrorists or criminals in order to gain information from them or infiltrate their networks. And in contrast to many judicial systems abroad, they can do so with few restrictions.
At the same time, says Richman, certain safeguards against prosecutorial excess are built into American law.
“We don’t want to have a system in which the government pushes innocent people into criminal activity and then turns around and prosecutes them for it,” he said. “Courts will strain hard to preserve the so-called ‘entrapment defense’ which allows a jury to stand in the way and prevent the conviction of a person who was recruited and pushed into a criminal activity where he wouldn’t have been.”
According to Richman, the question of whether a suspect was entrapped hinges on two questions: first, whether the government induced or led the person into criminal activity, and second, whether the defendant was predisposed at that moment to commit the crime even without government action. In other words, was he or she ready to commit the crime, but simply lacked the opportunity or the means to do so?
“Where an entrapment defense is raised, the kind of person a defendant was – his ideology, his associations, his statements, his intelligence, his competence, his needs, all sorts of issues will be inquired into and will certainly be pushed by the defense, who will generally be saying ‘My guy was just sitting there and the government pushed him into action and he wouldn’t have been involved in, and this was a government operation from the get-go and my guy was just caught up in it,” Richmond said.
In response, says Richman, the government usually concedes its role as an enabler of the crime itself, but asserts that the suspect is responsible for committing the crime.
“We certainly did with provide you guy with the opportunity to commit a crime, – a grievous conspiracy – ‘but what we were doing is providing a controlled environment for him to do what he would otherwise would have done on his own,” he said. “And yes, in our case, it was a government operative who sparked this and kept it going. But it could have very easily have been a foreign jihadist who got this going and turned a bunch of hapless mopes into key members of a far flung conspiracy.”
Richman adds that in cases such as these jurors are often asked to put themselves in the position of the defendant and to consider what they would do in similar circumstances.
“We expect that when asked to commit a crime, even in loud and ringing terms, particularly when the crime is an especially heinous one, the average citizen will turn away,” said Richman. “And the government will consistently remind the jurors to think about themselves, saying ['if] you were presented with these circumstances, what would you do? Would you get swept in the spirit of the moment or the spirit of the group and plan to bomb a synagogue?”
Whether or not, at the end of what promised to be a lengthy trial the jury thinks so is of course of paramount interest to the many prosecutors and defense attorneys in the case.
Government lawyers did not speak to reporters on the first day of the trial, but defense lawyer Sam Braverman did.
“All we ask for is an honest jury,” he stated. “We want a jury that cares, that takes it seriously and follows the facts of the law wherever it leads.”
The trial of the Newburgh Four is expected to last at least six weeks.
Related posts
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday issued a formal invitation to Israel and the Palestinians to re-commence direct peace negotiations early next month in Washington after a break of nearly two years. U.S. officials say a peace accord can be achieved within a year, and that the United States is ready if needed to offer “bridging proposals.”
U.S. officials have every expectation that the sides, after months of U.S. brokered indirect talks, will accept the invitation.
Plans are being made for President Obama to host a meeting of Israeli, Palestinian, Egyptian and Jordanian leaders September 1 on the eve of the formal re-launch of negotiations the following day at the State Department.
At a press event, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she and President Obama are encouraged by the leadership of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and share their commitment to a two-state solution of the conflict.
She said Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordanian King Abdullah will attend in view of their critical role in the effort, and that continued Arab support will be essential to success.
Clinton appealed to both sides to avoid steps that would hinder direct negotiations and acknowledged that difficulties can be expected.
“Without a doubt we will hit more obstacles,” she said. “The enemies of peace will keep trying to defeat us and to derail the talks. But I ask the parties to persevere, to keep moving forward even through difficult times, and to continue working to achieve a just and lasting peace in the region.”
Watch Secretary Clinton’s Announcement:
‘Bridging proposals’
U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell, whose shuttle diplomacy opened the way for the upgrade of the dialogue from so-called “proximity talks,” said the direct talks will likely move after the opening meeting in Washington to a venue in the region.
He said it will be a negotiation by the parties themselves on all final status issues in the peace process such as refugees and the status of Jerusalem, but said the United States will be ready with compromise ideas as needed.
“We will make bridging proposals at such time as we deem necessary and appropriate,” said the envoy. “But I don’t want anyone to have the impression that we are somehow going to supplant or displace the roles of the parties themselves. Nor do we have any view other than this must in the end be an agreement by the parties themselves.
Mitchell a former Senate Majority Leader and 1990’s peace broker in Northern Ireland, said he is under no illusion about the difficulty of the process.
He said the fact that there are opponents of peace in both Israeli and Palestinian societies and in the broader region, must not deter the effort, saying that in his Northern Ireland role he encountered “about 700 days of failure, followed by one day of success.”
“It takes patience, persistence, a willingness to go back again and again, to not take the first no as a final no, to not take the 50th no as the final no, or the 100th no. We are patient, wed are persevering and we are determined. And we believe there is a basis for concluding a peace agreement in the region and that’s what we’re going to pursue,” said Mitchell.
In tandem with the announcement here, the international Middle East Quartet – the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States – issued a statement endorsing direct negotiations and urging the sides to refrain from “provocative actions and inflammatory rhetoric.”
In language seen as critical to getting Palestinian participation, the Quartet said an envisaged settlement would “end the occupation which began in 1967″ and lead to regional peace as envisaged in U.N. Security Council resolutions and the 2002 Arab League peace initiative.
Related posts
Israel and the Palestinians are both welcoming the U.S. announcement on the resumption of direct negotiations between the two.
Israeli and Palestinian officials both said they had achieved what they had wanted before agreeing to restart direct talks.
Israel had called for talks without preconditions. The Palestinians had asked for a timeframe and negotiations that would cover all the key issues and culminate with an independent Palestinian state along borders that existed before Israel’s 1967 occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Palestinian spokesman Ghassan Khatib, director of the Palestinian Government Media Center, tells VOA Palestinian leaders are encouraged by the decision to limit talks to one year.
“The timeframe that was announcement is a big achievement because the Palestinians have been all along insisting on the need to have clear terms of reference for the negotiations in order to avoid repeating the previous negotiations that were stalled, actually, and allowed only consolidation of occupation rather than progress toward ending the occupation which is the pre requisite for peace,” he said.
Also speaking to VOA, Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel wants the talks to be productive.
“From Israel’s perspective, all the core issues of the conflict are on the table and are open to negotiation,” he said. “We’ll bring our positions to the table. The Palestinians will bring their positions to the table. Ultimately, if leadership is exercised on both sides and I know the Israeli side is committed to this process, a deal is possible. I say that without in any way minimizing the challenges.”
Among the bigger challenges tempering the optimism is the construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, on the land where Palestinians want their future state.
Israel set a self-imposed moratorium on construction. But that freeze expires on September 26 and there has been no sign that Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing governing coalition will extend it.
Palestinian officials on Friday said the resumption of building of Israeli settlements would be – in their words – dangerous to the peace process that is barely getting underway.
Related posts
In response to country-wide flooding, Pakistan has received humanitarian aid and assistance from around the world, including $5 million from its rival India. But the extent of the disaster continues to complicate aid distribution.
Three weeks after massive flooding started in Pakistan, those affected say aid is reaching them slowly, if at all.
Authorities are quick to point out that the scope of the disaster is something Pakistan has never faced. In fact, it is the area’s worst flooding in more than 80 years.
The government estimates that about 20 million people are affected, while the United Nations says eight million are in need of urgent aid.
Watch Raw Video of Pakistan’s Flooding:
Azra Bibi told the Associated Press she lost everything after flooding hit her village in Punjab province. “We are sitting here without food and clothing. We are starving. We lost our livestock, crops and belongings. There is nothing left,” said Bibi, through a translator.
| Related News |
| Pakistan has thanked United Nations member states for pledging more than $200 million in response to a fresh appeal for emergency aid for millions of people affected by the country’s catastrophic floods.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the international community to keep up support for Pakistan, warning the country is facing “weeks, months and years of need.” |
In the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Hameeda Bibi shares her misery, as she recounted to AP.
“Our homes have been destroyed. Now we don’t have them. We are now in open air,” she said. We are not getting food. We are dying from hunger. What do we eat? Stones?”
Waziran Khatoon now lives at a makeshift relief camp in Sindh province with her large family. Her story, told to the Associated Press, illustrates what humanitarian officials fear as the second wave of the disaster, that vulnerable groups will fall prey to health problems.
“We faced big problems when the flood water reached our village and ruined everything and left nothing,” said Khatoon, through a translator. “Then, I gave birth to this baby, and now I am worried how I will take care of this baby and my other small children, how my future life will be.”
The floods originated in northwestern Pakistan, washing away infrastructure in the difficult to reach mountainous areas, and have since carved out a large path of destruction around the country’s Indus River, cutting through Pakistan’s central breadbasket and southern lowlands.
Analysts expect the realization of the scope of Pakistan’s flooding to take some time, as monsoon rains continue to damage infrastructure and drench swamped villages and important cash crops, such as wheat and cotton.
Related posts
The polls are open and Australian voters are casting ballots in their most closely contested election in years.
The final polls released before the vote began Saturday showed Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the head of the Labor Party, in a virtual tie with the leader of a Liberal Party-led coalition, Tony Abbott.
If she wins, Ms. Gillard will be Australia’s first woman to be elected as prime minister. She replaced Kevin Rudd as Labor leader two months ago amid dwindling voter support for the ruling party.
Watch Final Day Campaigning from Australia’s PM Candidates:
Polls opened at 8 a.m. local time Saturday with more than 14 million citizens eligible to cast ballots.
Ms. Gillard has argued that Labor’s economic policies brought the country through the global recession better than other developed countries. But Mr. Abbott says the party squandered public money on lavish stimulus programs and has also criticized Labor for the way it ousted Mr. Rudd.
The two candidates also disagree on a proposed mining tax and the composition of a new telecommunications infrastructure.
Ms. Gillard has faced a series of political hurdles, including opposition to the proposed mining profits tax, continued weakness in the economy and animosity from some party members for ousting Mr. Rudd.
During the last day of the campaign Thursday, she praised the government’s investment in public services such as health, education and the national broadband network.
Some information for this report provided by AFP and AP.
Related posts
Iran is making final preparations to start up a nuclear reactor at the Bushehr facility, scheduled to begin operations Saturday.
Russia, which helped build the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran, on Friday gave assurances that Tehran will not be able to use fuel intended for the plant to create nuclear weapons.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Interfax news agency that Russia will deliver the fuel for the reactor and will then recycle the waste in accordance with nonproliferation requirements. He gave “total 100 percent guarantees” that the use will be peaceful.
Many in the international community suspect Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
The head of Iran’s atomic energy agency, Ali Akbar Salehi, meanwhile says the country will continue to enrich uranium to use as nuclear fuel despite the Russian supply.
Salehi told the Iranian news agency IRNA that the country will need more fuel for Bushehr, as well as for future plants. He said Tehran is in the final stages of finding suitable locations for 10 new uranium enrichment facilities.
The United States, the United Nations and the European Union have imposed tough sanctions on Iran for its refusal to stop enriching uranium.
In an unrelated development, The New York Times reported that U.S. officials have assured Israel that Iran would need at least one year to convert nuclear material into a weapon.
The newspaper says Obama administration officials believe the assessment dims the chance that Israel will pre-emptively strike Iran’s nuclear facilities within the next year — something that Israel has previously hinted it would consider.
Israel views a nuclear-armed Iran as a threat to its existence because of repeated calls by Iranian leaders for the demise of the Jewish state. Israel has indicated it would respond with a military strike if it believes Iran is close to attaining a nuclear weapon.
Some information for this report provided by AP and Reuters.
Related posts
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he has never seen a disaster as bad as the flooding in Pakistan. He says the unprecedented floods demand unprecedented global support to help Pakistan deal with the humanitarian crisis. The United Nations chief spoke to reporters after meeting with Pakistani leaders and after flying over the worst hit areas in the southern and central parts of the country.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon traveled to Pakistan to witness the devastation caused by historic flooding during the past three weeks. Speaking to reporters after visiting the hardest-hit regions, the United Nations chief said his trip was meant to share his sympathy and U.N solidarity with both the government and the Pakistani people.
“I will never forget the destruction and sufferings I have witnessed today. In the past, I have visited scenes of many natural disasters around the world, but nothing like this. The scale of this disaster is so large – so many people, in so many place, in so much need,” he said.
Mr. Ban said the flooding has possibly affected 20 million people and has ravaged one-fifth of the country. “Thousands of towns and villages have simply been washed away. Roads, bridges, buildings, crops, millions of livelihoods have been lost. People are marooned on tiny islands with the floodwaters all around them. They are drinking dirty water. This disaster is far from over. The rains are still falling and could continue for weeks. Dams are at severe risk of rupture,” he said.
He says U.N. agencies and aid groups are moving as fast as they can to help Pakistan deliver desperately needed assistance to flood victims, including food, emergency shelter, and clean water. The U.N. leader urged the global community to speed up its assistance to Pakistan in order to speed up and bolster humanitarian operations. “These unprecedented floods demand unprecedented assistance. The flood waves must be matched with waves of global support,” he said.
The United Nations has appealed for nearly $460 million to meet the flood victims’ most immediate needs in the next 90 days. But U.N. officials say foreign aid has been slow to come, with only 20 percent of the initial appeal arriving so far.
The United States has already provided more than $76 million in aid and has sent helicopters to help Pakistan with relief efforts.
While in Pakistan, Mr. Ban allocated another $10 million for flood victims, bringing the total that the United Nations has committed so far to $27 million. He said that he would report back to the U.N. General Assembly, which is meeting on Thursday to discuss Pakistan’s needs. “We will try to mobilize all necessary assistance. And remember that the whole world is behind the people of Pakistan in this time of trial,” he said.
U.N. agencies and aid groups say that at least six million flood victims are now dependent on humanitarian assistance to survive. Pakistani officials have put a revised death toll from the floods to around 1,400.
But U.N. officials have warned of a second wave of death from disease among the sick and hungry victims if help does not arrive in time. They have already confirmed cases of water-borne diseases in the disaster zone.
Related posts
The U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, says he sees progress in the war but cautioned that the fight against the Taliban is an “up and down process.”
In an interview aired Sunday on NBC Meet the Press, General Petraeus said the goal is to defeat the Taliban and prevent the country from again becoming a sanctuary for transnational extremists.
Petraeus says that reconciliation in Afghanistan will ultimately involve the government sitting down with the Taliban and members of other insurgent groups.
Petraeus’ comments come as U.S. troops in Afghanistan have suffered some of the highest number of casualties in months.
U.S. President Barack Obama has set July 2011 as the date when U.S. forces will begin leaving Afghanistan. Petraeus says he will give the president his best professional military advice and would not hesitate to tell him if the date was unrealistic.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Related posts
Flags flew at half-staff and all public entertainment was suspended Sunday as China observed a national day of mourning for more than 1,200 people killed by massive mudslides in the northwest a week ago.
The State Council (Cabinet) on Saturday ordered flags throughout China and at all Chinese embassies lowered to honor 1,239 people killed in Gansu province.
The official announcement said public entertainment, including all games, music shows and movies, should be suspended Sunday.
Authorities said more than 500 people are still missing in the northwestern province. Soldiers are working around the clock to clear debris from Gansu’s Bailong River, to reduce the chance of further flooding with any new rainfall.
In China’s southwest, landslides ravaged Wenchuan County in Sichuan province early Saturday.
Xinhua news agency quoted a local government official as saying there were no confirmed casualty reports but that 38 people are missing. Thousands of people and vehicles were stranded on blocked roads in the area.
The same part of Sichuan was hit by a massive earthquake that killed almost 70,000 people two years ago.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
Related posts
A Russian ban on grain exports took effect Sunday as at least 500 fires raged across the country. Moscow put a halt to the exports because of low yields caused by the wildfires, record heat and drought.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s ban on grain exports took effect Sunday, and it is expected to continue through the end of the year. The banned items include wheat, wheat flour, rye and corn, among other things.
The Kremlin says the move is part of the government’s attempt to keep down the prices of basic foodstuffs amid the country’s worst drought on record. Some analysts say the ban is also an attempt by the government to quell the possibility of domestic unrest because of soaring prices.
Last year, Russia was the world’s third largest wheat producer with a harvest of nearly 100 million tons. But this year that number is expected to be about 25 percent lower.
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev says about one quarter of the country’s crops have dried up due to the drought, leaving many farmers are on the verge of bankruptcy.
Mr. Medvedev spoke this week about the severity of the problem.
Mr. Medvedev says now our greatest task is to help those who have been affected by the fires, to return to a normal life as soon as possible. He says the state is aware of their responsibilities and that those affected by the fires will get compensation for their loss.
The ban led to a more than 50 jump in wheat prices on the global markets Friday. Some economists worry the ban may also increase the price of other foodstuffs.
Karen Ward, a senior global economist with HSBC bank, addressed the issue during an interview on Russia’s state-run english television channel, Russia Today.
“The danger is that financial markets start to anticipate price rises for other commodities and that actually causes a more general food price spike,” Ward said.
Prime Minister Putin shrugged off any possible controversy surrounding the ban, saying the Kremlin may extend it beyond this year if the harvest is bad.
Meanwhile, as the heat continues, Russian emergency ministry officials say they have reduced the number of fires burning across the country by about a quarter to around 500. Despite the news, many environmentalists say they are worried about several blazes near the country’s top nuclear research facility in Sarov. Officials admit that they haven not been able to get the fires under control, but that there is no danger to the general public.
Additionally, nearly 30 fires continue in the outskirts of Moscow. As a result, the acrid smoke and smog that enveloped the capital, off and on this week, has returned forcing many to wear face masks outdoors.
Forecasters say they expect temperatures to hover in the mid-30’s Celsius for at least several more days.
Related posts
A series of bombings and drive-by shootings in Iraq has killed at least 10 people and wounded more than 20 others.
The killings Sunday are the latest in a surge of violence that has raised security concerns as the United States prepares to withdraw the last of its combat troops from Iraq by the end of this month.
Police say three people, including a police officer, were killed Sunday when a bomb struck a minibus heading into central Baghdad. Officials say other roadside bombs in the Iraqi capital killed three people.
Elsewhere, police say three Sunni worshippers were killed in a drive-by shooting as they left a mosque after morning prayers in Babil province, south of Baghdad.
And in the northern city of Mosul, officials say gunmen killed an Iraqi soldier in an attack on a security checkpoint.
Iraqi security forces have been frequent targets of insurgents in recent months as the United States reduces its troop strength in the country.
White House officials said last week the U.S. is on track to end its combat mission in Iraq at the end of August.
Fifty-thousand U.S. troops will remain in Iraq to serve as a transitional force. U.S. President Barack Obama has set a goal of removing all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP.
Related posts
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday announced the elimination of a major U.S. combat command and other steps designed to save money and protect his department’s ability to defend the country during a time of economic constraints.
Secretary Gates announced that within the next year, he will close Joint Forces Command – one of the department’s 10 major combat commands. The 2,800-member organization based in Virginia has an annual budget of $340 million. It promotes cooperation among the military services, helps determine which forces are needed for which missions and conducts joint training, sometimes including foreign forces. Gates said some of those functions are no longer needed and others can be done more efficiently by other units.
Gates also announced a series of cuts and freezes designed to sharply reduce the number of senior military officers, civilians and contractors in the defense department, to reduce the number of reports the department generates, and to eliminate redundancy in intelligence gathering, among other steps.
The secretary said the defense department needs to find enough savings to make up for expected slow growth in its half a trillion-dollar base budget in the coming years. He said he expects about one percent growth, but he noted that the department needs three percent to accomplish all of its missions.
“As I look around the world and see a more unstable world, more failed and failing states, countries that are investing heavily in their militaries, as I look at places like Iran and North Korea and elsewhere around the world, as I look at the new kinds of threats emerging from cyber to precision ballistic and cruise missiles and so on, my greatest worry is that we will do to the defense budget what we have done four times before, and that is slash it in an effort to find some kind of a dividend to put the money someplace else. I think that would be disastrous,” said Robert Gates.
Gates said the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan do not present a budget problem. Rather, he said, his concern is about the future.
“This isn’t about finding money for the wars we’re in today,” he said. “We’ve got that money. It’s about protecting the money for the future.”
The secretary would not specify which future threats he sees as most important, but he noted that the U.S. Navy needs more ships, an element that is critical to the U.S. desire to balance China’s growing capabilities and assertiveness in the Pacific.
Gates said that in order to defend the country at a time of fiscal restraint, he needs to change the way U.S. defense officials think.
“The ultimate success of these initiatives, as well as the other reforms underway, in the end will depend on a fundamental change in culture and attitude across our defense institutions,” said Gates. “The culture of endless money that has taken hold must be replaced with a culture of savings and restraint.”
The secretary called these steps a “down payment” toward making the defense department more efficient and said they focus resources where they are most needed. He said he also plans to tackle two politically sensitive issues by looking at potential base closures in the United States and at reducing the skyrocketing costs of military health care.
But unlike most of the steps he announced on Monday, those would require congressional approval. And many members of congress are concerned about losing jobs in their districts through base closures and about putting more health care costs on the troops.
Related posts
Crowds of Pakistanis swarm together in a camp at the Government College of Technology in Nowshera, 40 kilometers east Peshawar.
In a recessed field at the site, patches of dirty water lie among rows of open tents stenciled with green Pakistani government lettering and emblems.
Ghulan Rasool lives at the camp with his four children, after losing everything he owns in the flooding.
He says children are dying from hunger. There is no medicine. He says all of his children are sick and they have not received any food or water. He says they need everything, but they have not received anything.
Sean Maroney narrates a slide show of photos he took at the camp.
Mohammed was luckier. He tells VOA that he recently was able to send his two children to live with a friend’s family. After living in the camp for just a few days, he says they had begun suffering from high fevers.
He complains that trucks with supplies come infrequently, and when they do, officials just throw out the goods into the crowd.
“As they are taking the drinking or edible things here, the people just assemble. There is not a proper planning just to distribute all the things to all the affectees,” he complained.
Shaukat lives at the camp with his four children. He says they are treated like dogs with the way workers pass out food.
Camp officials say they have plenty of supplies to take care of the influx of people fleeing from the floods. They say the problem is that many people are coming to the camp who do not need the assistance.
The camp’s chief coordinator Noor Shad oversees aid for nearly 2,000 individuals.
“We have everything, from water, non-food items [and] food items. We have everything,” he said.
Shad says representatives with the International Rescue Committee are registering people, and Oxfam is on site to help with medical treatment. But he says too many people are sneaking into the camp to receive free handouts.
“We are not able to provide them. From those people who are not victims,” said Shad.
The floods have destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes and washed away roads, bridges, crops and livestock.
As weather forecasters predict more rain in the days to come, U.N. officials say the scale of the disaster could be worse than January’s earthquake in Haiti, the 2004 tsunami and the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan combined.
Related posts
Russia’s summer of heat, drought and fire is starting to take a human toll in Moscow, Europe’s most populous city.
Deaths in Moscow have doubled to an average of 700 people a day as the city struggles with a deadly combination of record hot temperatures and poisonous smog from wildfires.
Andre Seltsovky, Moscow’s health chief, blamed weeks of heat and smog for the jump in mortality compared to the same time last year.
The average death rate in the city during normal times is between 360-380 people a day, he said. Today, we have around 700.
He added that the city’s morgues are filled with 1,300 bodies, close to their capacity. In addition, he said, ambulance trips are up by almost one third, to 10,000 a day. And city officials have ordered 3 million face masks for the population, estimated to be 11 million.
The health department director’s comments broke days of official silence on the human toll in the capital. But within hours, Russia’s health minister, Tatyana Golikova, demanded an explanation for the statistics.
Acrid smog blanketed Moscow for a sixth straight day Monday, with concentrations of carbon monoxide and other poisonous substances running at roughly double the safe levels. Last weekend, airborne pollutants soared, exceeding safe limits by nearly seven times.
In face of the smog, several embassies in Moscow, including the American, cut their services Monday. Citing ‘hazardous levels of air pollution,’ the U.S. State Department issued a warning advising people planning to visit Moscow to carefully consider their plans. The warning expires Sept. 5.
Since Friday, smoke from wildfires has delayed or forced the cancellation of 64,000 flights in European Russia, Rosgidromet, the national weather bureau, reported Monday.
On Sunday, Moscow airports experienced a record exodus – 104,000 people flying out of the city. Travel agents report that package tours to destinations popular with Russians like Egypt, Montenegro and Turkey are completely sold out for next weekend.
At the heart of the smog is an infernal archipelago of 550 wildfires across central Russia. NASA estimates that they are pumping as much as 1 million tons of carbon monoxide into the air every day.
Sergei Shoigu, Minister of Emergency Situation, told reporters Monday: “We need a wind, any kind of wind.”
Without a wind, he said, the Moscow basin is filling up with automobile exhaust gases and the smoke of about 40 peat fires burning around the capital.
Forecasters say the pollution may decline on Wednesday with a wind from the west. To help Mother Nature, Russia’s national weather bureau, asked Moscow’s industrial enterprises to cut emissions by about one third through Wednesday afternoon. Health authorities have asked employers to give workers Tuesday off.
On the fire front, there is little room for optimism. The weather bureau expects another 10 days of African-style heat for European Russia – and no significant rain for the rest of August.
On Monday, Prime Minister Putin further cut his forecast of Russia’s grain crop, saying it would be at least one third less than last year’s bumper crop of 97 million tons. Last week, Mr. Putin shocked world markets by barring further exports of wheat this year from Russia, the world’s third largest producer.
Alexander Frolov, head of Russia’s weather service, said Monday that historic records and the study of lake deposits indicate that this summer’s heat wave could be Russia’s worst in 1,000 years.
Speaking at a Moscow a news conference, he said: “This phenomenon is absolutely unique. We have an ‘archive’ of abnormal weather situations stretching over a 1,000 years. It is possible to say there was nothing similar to this on the territory of Russia during the last 1,000 years in regard to the heat.”
Health authorities say that living in Moscow these days is the equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. In response, city officials have opened 123 air-conditioned rooms with filtered air – the pulmonary equivalent of a municipal network of non-smoking rooms.
See additional photos by VOA’s Sergei Moskalev in Moscow:
Related posts
A United Nations official says the number of people affected by Pakistan’s massive floods could exceed the combined total of three recent major natural disasters.
Maurizio Giuliano, a spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said Monday if the Pakistan government’s calculations are correct, the scale of the disaster could be worse than Haiti’s January earthquake, the 2004 tsunami, and the 2005 Pakistan earthquake combined.
New downpours
Relief workers in Pakistan say continued heavy rains have worsened the situation in the country where raging floodwaters have killed more than 1,600 people and affected 15 million.
The floods have destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes and washed away roads, bridges, crops and livestock.
New downpours have hampered relief efforts in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and spread the floods to the agriculture heartland of Punjab and further south along the Indus River into Sindh province.
In the northern area of Gilgit-Baltistan Sunday, at least 28 people were killed in landslides, but officials said up to 40 people were feared dead.
Relief efforts
Pakistan’s army is leading the relief efforts, but bad weather is hampering helicopter flights carrying emergency aid to victims still trapped in remote areas.
The United Nations says Pakistan will need billions of dollars to recover from its worst floods in history.
U.N. official Guiliano told VOA that shelter for the millions of victims is the biggest and most urgent concern.
Prime minister’s visit
Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani visited the flood-hit areas of Sindh province Sunday and appealed for more international aid.
He said the crisis has spiraled beyond the government’s capacity, adding the country has been set back many years because of the devastation.
The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said its workers were reporting shortages of food, medicine and clean water. The NATO alliance pledged to help transport aid to the region.
The World Health Organization warned that without access to safe water, Pakistanis are at high risk of contracting water-borne diseases such as diarrhea and cholera.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.
VOA’s Sean Maroney visited a flood relief camp in Nowshera, Pakistan and has this report:
Related posts
Rescuers using shovels pulled dozens of bodies from thick mud on Monday in northwestern China, where more than 1,000 people are missing.
Authorities said 337 people are now confirmed dead in landslides that buried entire villages in Zhouqu County, part of Gansu province. The treeless region of hilly pastureland is populated largely by ethnic Tibetan herders and farmers.
A 74-year-old woman was pulled alive Monday from a four-story building, but hope of finding more survivors was dimming 48 hours after the mudslides. Premier Wen Jiabao visited the scene for a second day, urging the rescuers not to give up.
The Gansu mudslides are the deadliest single incident in weeks of flooding that have killed more than 1,300 people across China this year. Authorities say the flooding of the Bailong River submerged half of Zhouqu County, and that about 45,000 people were evacuated. Blockages on the river created an artificial lake three kilometers long.
More than 4,000 soldiers, police, firefighters and medics were deployed in the region, but road conditions made it difficult to bring in heavy earth-moving equipment. The rescuers brought tents, food and bottled water with them.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.
