Weekly Round-Up - IRINAS-52: 30-Dec-05
U N I T E D N A T I O N S
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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 52
24 - 30 December 2005
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: UN appoints new top envoy to country
AFGHANISTAN: First photo exhibition of female photographers
AFGHANISTAN: Roadside bomb wounds two NATO peacekeepers in north
AFGHANISTAN: Journalists still under threat
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
IRAN: Reconstruction efforts in quake-devastated Bam continue two years
on
PAKISTAN: Quake kids smile once more
PAKISTAN: Relief assistance needed in Khatker
PAKISTAN: Thousands of children back at school
PAKISTAN: Registration of quake-affected people to start
PAKISTAN: PIMS receives Hollywood star's donation
TAJIKISTAN: Interview with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis
and Malaria
AFGHANISTAN: UN appoints new top envoy to country
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed German peacekeeping
official Tom Koenigs as his top envoy in Afghanistan, the United Nations
Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) confirmed on Wednesday in the
Afghan capital Kabul. Koenigs, who had previously worked on the same
post in Guatemala and also served as a senior official with the UN
mission in Kosovo, replaces Jean Arnault, who had been Annan's special
representative in the country since early 2004.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50876&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: First photo exhibition of female photographers
In a further bid to boost the capacity of women, Afghanistan'92s Ministry
of Women Affairs (MOWA) for the first time on Thursday inaugurated a
photographic exhibition of 40 newly trained female photographers in the
Afghan capital, Kabul.
Funded by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the 10-day course
in photography and small businesses development was implemented by the
Pamir Training Centre and Rehabilitation Organisation (PTCRO), a local
NGO, in four provinces; Badakhshan, Balkh, Bamyan and Logar.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50891&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Roadside bomb wounds two NATO peacekeepers in north
A roadside bomb on Monday injured two soldiers serving with the
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and two civilians in
northern Afghanistan, ISAF said in the capital Kabul. "At around 11:15
Monday, a two-vehicle ISAF convoy was involved in an explosion in
Baghlan province," Maj Andrew Elmes, an ISAF spokesman said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50856&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Journalists still under threat
Regional warlords, coupled with low government presence, continue to
threaten freedom of expression in Afghanistan, the country's leading
media association warned on Monday in the capital, Kabul. "Journalists
are still not considered entirely free. They face pressure and
intimidation and violence from warlords in regions still not under the
full control of the central government," said Rahimullah Samander,
president of the Afghanistan Independent Journalists Association (AIJA),
adding that incidents of violence against journalists had actually
increased over 2004.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50847&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
Uzbek authorities this week dismissed as unfounded criticism by a top UN
official of the recent trials of alleged participants in a revolt
brutally put down by government troops in the southern Uzbek city of
Andijan in May.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50906&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
IRAN: Reconstruction efforts in quake-devastated Bam continue two years
on
Reconstruction efforts in Iran's southeastern city of Bam were
continuing on Monday, following the successful construction of thousands
of permanent shelters for survivors of the devastating earthquake that
levelled the city exactly two years ago. "The Bam reconstruction
programme has the potential to become a successful recovery programme,
in that it not only has enhanced standards of earthquake safety in Bam
but safety standards have been raised in other areas of Iran," Victoria
Kianpour Atabaki, programme officer for Disaster Risk Management and
Reconstruction for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in
Iran said from the capital, Tehran.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50846&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN
PAKISTAN: Quake kids smile once more
A few weeks ago, it was almost impossible to get a smile out of the
children of Shinkiari. Most, in the small, dusty town in the Mansehra
district of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP), simply
huddled closely to their mothers, or responded to relief workers handing
out gifts with little more than a blank stare.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50861&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Relief assistance needed in Khatker
Around 25 km up along the River Jehlum, heading towards the mountains,
lies Khatker, an area in Pakistani-administered Kashmir yet to be
visited by relief groups, local residents claim. Despite being less than
60 km from Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, it
takes more than three hours to negotiate the steep road to Mushtumba, a
village of around 4,000 residents in the Khatker area, over 1,500 m
above sea level.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50860&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Thousands of children back at school
Many tented camps dot the main road along the Jehlum Valley, one of the
worst-hit areas of the 8 October quake. When the road approaches Ghari
Dopatta village, half an hour's drive from Muzaffarabad, capital of
Pakistan-administered Kashmir, one can see children studying in the open
air. Naqqash, 12, is one such student attending a government pilot
school in Ghari Dopatta. Like many of his peers in the area he is happy
to be back at school.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50872&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Registration of quake-affected people to start
Together with the Pakistani authorities, the office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will soon launch a
household-level registration exercise to record the profiles of
quake-hit displaced families housed in tented camps across northern
parts of quake-hit Pakistan. "This camp registration aims to record
their total numbers and their vulnerability. The deduced information
will also serve in planning for the early recovery phrase," Indrika
Ratwatte, UNHCR's emergency coordinator for earthquake relief said in
the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50862&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: PIMS receives Hollywood star's donation
The Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) has received the first
orthopaedic bed of a total 40-bed donation pledged by Hollywood star,
Brad Pitt, one month earlier during his three-day visit to Pakistan's
quake-hit north.
Worth over US $100,000, the donation was made through the office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) when Pitt visited
quake-devastated Pakistan with the agency's Goodwill Ambassador,
Angelina Jolie, in late November.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50893&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
TAJIKISTAN: Interview with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis
and Malaria
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was created to
finance a dramatic turnaround in the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis
and malaria. These diseases kill over 6 million people each year, and
the numbers are growing. In an interview with IRIN, Murotboki
Beknazarov, Grant Implementation Unit Manager for the Global Fund in
Tajikistan discussed the many challenges they face in the impoverished
Central Asian state.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50880&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN
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