Weekly Round-Up - IRINAS-13: 01-Apr-05
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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 13
26 March - 1 April 2005
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: Dam burst causes flooding in Ghazni
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on returnees to Shamali plains
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
KAZAKHSTAN: Greater HIV awareness amongst youth needed
KYRGYZSTAN: Political disputes continue amid improving security
NEPAL: Focus on maternal mortality
NEPAL: Effective action needed on human rights, ICG says
PAKISTAN: ADB to help improve livelihoods in Sindh coastal communities
PAKISTAN: National campaign to treat acute diarrhoea launched
PAKISTAN: Rehabilitation plans for flood-affected areas
TAJIKISTAN: HIV/AIDS among labour migrants causes concern
AFGHANISTAN: Dam burst causes flooding in Ghazni
The Band-e Sultan dam in Afghanistan's southeastern Ghazni province
burst on early Tuesday causing flooding in the area, a UN official told
IRIN from the Afghan capital Kabul on Wednesday. "Initial reports
indicated that there was flooding in two districts," Martin Battersby, a
public information officer with the United Nations Assistance Mission in
Afghanistan (UNAMA), said, although he noted that it was hard to get
confirmation at the moment.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46373&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on returnees to Shamali plains
Many Afghans returning to the Shamali plains, north of the capital
Kabul, continue to find it hard to rebuild their lives due to
unemployment and a lack of basic amenities and facilities. The Shamali
plains is a vast area wedged between the mountains stretching to the
north from the capital and one of the most fertile areas in the country,
once a major grape growing region.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46394&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
The political crisis following the ouster of Kyrgyz president Askar
Akaev on 24 March continued to dominate the news in the region this
week. The crisis deepened when the two parliaments - the outgoing and
the incoming - claimed legitimacy over the weekend. The situation eased
when the outgoing legislative body suspended its activity for the sake
of stability in the country.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46412&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
KAZAKHSTAN: Greater HIV awareness amongst youth needed
Despite efforts to raise the level of HIV/AIDS awareness in Kazakhstan,
young people remain inhibited about speaking openly about the issue and
how it may impact their lives. "Most people don't know a great deal
about AIDS," Lucy Soliyanova, sipping tea with two friends at a cafe in
the commercial capital, Almaty, told IRIN. While some information had
been introduced within the country's schools and universities to raise
awareness levels amongst young people, she believed that much more was
needed to put that awareness into everyday practice.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46369&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KAZAKHSTAN
KYRGYZSTAN: Political disputes continue amid improving security
Life began to return to normal in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, on
Monday, with all government offices and private businesses back at work
following the unrest of the last week. According to observers all eyes
are now on the political disputes about the legitimacy of both the
outgoing parliament and the new incoming one, waiting for action from
the interim government.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46340&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
NEPAL: Focus on maternal mortality
Dinanath, a Nepalese farmer, was struck by tragedy when he lost his wife
following the birth of their child a few months ago. She survived
prolonged labour and the eventual delivery of their baby in their home
village of Karma, 200 km south west of the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu.
There was no trained midwife in attendance to assist the 35-year-old
woman. When she started bleeding following the delivery, Dinanath tried
to get her to the nearest health centre at Bahadurganj, about 8 km from
his village. As buses rarely travel through the area, the ox-cart is the
only means of transport and the journey takes more than two hours.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46346&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: Effective action needed on human rights, ICG says
The International Crisis Group (ICG) has recently released a report on
the state of human rights in Nepal, calling for effective international
action to be taken. "The international community now finds itself
confronted with what it fears the most - a no-party state that has
decimated democracy and kills people at will," Robert Templer, the ICG's
Asia programme director said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46367&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
PAKISTAN: ADB to help improve livelihoods in Sindh coastal communities
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is preparing to improve the livelihoods
of marine fishing and farming communities in three southern districts of
Pakistan's Sindh province after declining river flows and seawater
intrusion badly damaged the biodiversity of the Indus Delta. "The goal
of the 'Sindh Coastal and Inland Community Project' (SCICP) is first to
reduce extensive poverty in coastal communities by enhancing
income-earning opportunities through a participatory and community-based
approach," Haroon Shah, programme analyst at the ADB's country mission,
told IRIN in the capital Islamabad.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46371&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: National campaign to treat acute diarrhoea launched
Pakistan's National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) has launched
a national campaign to treat acute diarrhoea with Oral Rehydration
Solution (ORS). Diarrhoea causes up to 30 percent of all deaths in
children aged five and under across the country, mostly in remote rural
areas. "Our main objective is to train one woman from every household to
prepare oral rehydration solutions at home and administer them to the
affected minor or adult," Dr Moazzam Khalil, head of the health
programmes at the NCHD, told IRIN in the Pakistani capital Islamabad
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46402&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Rehabilitation plans for flood-affected areas
With improving weather conditions in Pakistan's North West Frontier
Province (NWFP), the focus is gradually shifting to the rehabilitation
of local communities which have suffered nearly three months of heavy
rain, snowfall, avalanches, landslides and flooding. "The relief
operation is almost over now and the damage assessment and
rehabilitation proposals have been forwarded to the federal government.
We are awaiting the approval and allocation of funds for that," Ghulam
Farooq Khan, provincial relief commissioner, told IRIN on Monday from
Peshawar in the NWFP.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46341&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
TAJIKISTAN: HIV/AIDS among labour migrants causes concern
Mirzo Saidov (not his real name), a 32-year-old labour migrant from
Tajikistan, worked on a construction site in Moscow like many of his
fellow countrymen and used to earn good money by Tajik standards. After
a traffic accident in December, he was taken to a hospital with his
limbs broken. There, along with other blood tests, he had an HIV test.
The test results were positive whereupon he was promptly deported from
Russia back to his homeland. That was a blow for his family back in the
southern Tajik province of Kulyab, about 250 km south of the capital
Dushanbe, as he was the only bread-winner for his extended family.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46398&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN
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