Friday, June 05, 2009 WASHINGTON: The humanitarian crisis involving millions of displaced people of Swat and adjacent valleys is getting worse every day and it is critical that the government of Pakistan and the Obama Administration undertake immediate joint relief operations modeled on the successful efforts following the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, U.S. Senator John Kerry said.The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee suggested that the U.S. commit military assets, such as Chinook heavy-lift helicopters, combat engineers and uniformed medical personnel that the Pakistani government needs to facilitate these efforts without further delay. Kerry underscored the emergency for aid and said the two and three million displaced civilians need to have access to adequate shelter, food or medical care. “In a few weeks, the summer monsoons will turn ramshackle camps into fetid swamps, incubators for a host of preventable epidemics. History has already taught us that poorly-resourced refugee communities are prime breeding grounds for extremist movements.” He recalled that the Taliban itself had its genesis in the Afghan refugee community during the 1980s and 1990s. “We don’t need to repeat that disaster when instead we can show America’s true commitment to the Pakistani people.”
Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in
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