Weekly Round-Up - IRINAS-53: 06-Jan-06
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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 53
31 December 2005 - 6 January 2006
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: ADB to launch integrated water resources project in the
west
AFGHANISTAN: Floods destroy 130 homes in the north
AFGHANISTAN: Bangladeshi aid group to continue despite death
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
IRAN-PAKISTAN: Refugee returns in 2005 top half a million
KYRGYZSTAN: Respiratory infections in infants increasing
KYRGYZSTAN-UZBEKISTAN: No progress on Andijan refugee four
NEPAL: Maoist rebels call off cease-fire
NEPAL: Maoists resume war with series of bomb attacks
NEPAL: A week of violence as cease-fire fades
PAKISTAN: Winter weather hampering quake aid
PAKISTAN: Quake relief all but impossible at higher altitudes
PAKISTAN: Female quake survivors losing property
PAKISTAN: Quake relief operation resumes after three-day suspension
PAKISTAN: Relief tents collapsing in quake zone
AFGHANISTAN: ADB to launch integrated water resources project in the
west
About 400,000 low-income Afghans stand to benefit from a water
management project for country's western basins thanks to an Asian
Development Bank (ADB) assistance package totalling US $75 million, the
bank said on Wednesday. The project will help boost agricultural
production and rural livelihoods in the Hari Rud River Basin, which
includes parts of Herat province and the Murghab River Basin located in
Badghis, Ghowr and Herat provinces, the ADB said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50963&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Floods destroy 130 homes in the north
The victims of last week's floods in the northern Afghan province of
Balkh, which damaged 130 houses, have begun to receive humanitarian
relief, the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) said
on Tuesday. "Following heavy rain, floods completely destroyed 30
mud-built houses and damaged another 100 houses in the Dehdadi district
of Balkh province," said Abdul Rahim Zarin, spokesman for the MRRD in
the capital Kabul, adding there were no reports of casualties from the
affected area.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50926&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Bangladeshi aid group to continue despite death
Despite the killing of an Afghan engineer working for a Bangladeshi aid
group in southern Afghanistan, the agency said on Wednesday that it
would continue its relief activities in the area. Eng Mirwais was killed
on Monday in Lashkargah, capital of the insurgency-hit southern Helmand
province. He worked for the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee
(BRAC), which has been building schools, roads and clinics in rural
areas of Afghanistan.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50951&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
This week in Central Asia, unusually cold weather and heavy snow
impacted on life in Kazakhstan, with temperatures on Wednesday night
dropping to -35 degrees Celsius in the southern Almaty region, while in
East Kazakhstan region the thermometer was between -37 and -42 degrees
Celsius, the Kazakhstan Today news agency reported, citing the Kazakh
emergencies ministry. Local media reported that hundreds of residents in
the suburbs of the commercial capital Almaty protested a cut in
municipal heating, saying that it was unbearable to live in their
apartments that had been unheated for the past few weeks. Moreover,
night buses had been suspended in Almaty province due to poor weather
conditions.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50967&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
IRAN-PAKISTAN: Refugee returns in 2005 top half a million
Last year saw a significant number of returns to post-conflict
Afghanistan, with more than half a million Afghans repatriated, the
office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said
on Monday in the capital, Kabul. During 2005, a total of 520,100 Afghans
returned home with UNHCR assistance, the majority, 453,000, came from
Pakistan, according to the refugee agency.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50927&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN-PAKISTAN
KYRGYZSTAN: Respiratory infections in infants increasing
Health officials have said that the number of acute respiratory
infections in the former Soviet republic of 5.1 million is unacceptably
high and shows no sign of decreasing, especially among infants and young
children. Doctors in the capital, Bishkek, say they have witnessed more
children contracting the infections in recent months.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50952&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
KYRGYZSTAN-UZBEKISTAN: No progress on Andijan refugee four
The plight of four men held in Kyrgyzstan facing possible extradition to
Uzbekistan, despite being granted refugee status by the office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in October,
continued to raise concern on Monday. "The threat of their extradition
is there. It's possible and we cannot exclude it," Anna Mee, a UNHCR
national protection officer and acting officer-in-charge, said from the
Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50916&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN-UZBEKISTAN
NEPAL: Maoist rebels call off cease-fire
Nepal's Maoist rebels have decided not to continue their unilateral
cease-fire which expired on Monday after four months. Declared on 1
September 2005, this was the first unilateral cease-fire announced by
the rebels after nearly a decade of violence aimed at overthrowing the
monarchy and establishing a Maoist state. Two cease-fires in 2001 and
2003 were called jointly by both rebels and government but ensuing peace
talks ended in failure.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50915&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: Maoists resume war with series of bomb attacks
Maoists rebels resumed their violent insurgency on Tuesday with a series
of bomb blasts which brought an end to a four-month unilateral
cease-fire. One blast erupted in the popular tourist town of Pokhara,
200 km northwest of Kathmandu, just hours after Maoist rebels called off
their truce, raising fears of a resurgence of violence. No one was
injured in the blasts in Pokhara, in central Nepal, or the western towns
of Butwal and Bhairahawa shortly after the rebels' unilateral cease-fire
ended at midnight on Monday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50931&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: A week of violence as cease-fire fades
With the end of the Maoist unilateral cease-fire on Monday, Nepal has
witnessed days of violence. Three policemen have been killed in fighting
with rebels in southwestern Nepal, authorities said on Thursday. Two
other officers were hurt in the rebel attack on a police post in the key
border town of Nepalganj. Two policemen and a civilian were injured when
the Maoists attacked a police post at Chaman Chowk in Mahendranagar,
about 500 km northwest of the capital, Kathmandu in far west Nepal, the
Kathmandu Post reported.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50968&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
PAKISTAN: Winter weather hampering quake aid
Along a bleak, sleet-drenched street in the town of Abbottabad, Rafeeq
Khan, 15, waits at a bus stop. In his arms, he carries his youngest
brother, Imad. The child, wrapped in a thick woollen shawl, has a
hacking cough and a high fever, and the family, based at their village
near Balakot, some 45 km from Abbotabad, are concerned he may have
developed pneumonia.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50913&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Quake relief all but impossible at higher altitudes
Bad weather continues to hamper relief efforts in quake-affected
Pakistan, particularly at higher altitudes, where hundreds of thousands
of people still live. "We have already reached the vast majority of
people living in this area, however, lack of access makes it impossible
for us to do more," Larry Hollingworth, deputy humanitarian coordinator
for the United Nations, said from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on
Tuesday, referring to the estimated 400,000 people living above
altitudes of 1,524 metres.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50929&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Female quake survivors losing property
A thin, grey mule laden with bags and sacks fidgets restlessly as he
tries to flick a fly off his back. Beside the animal, an equally thin
boy stands, nervously adjusting the reins and loading the last few items
into the bags. Muhammad Kareem, 14, is ready to accompany his aunt,
Zumera Bibi, back to her village in the Allai Valley area, badly damaged
by October's devastating regional quake, to try and regain control of
the family property, which she fears has been lost.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50925&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Quake relief operation resumes after three-day suspension
Humanitarian agencies on Wednesday resumed some of their relief
operations in northern Pakistan after a three-day break due to heavy
rain and snow across much of the quake-affected region. "An emergency
operation has been launched for the mountain communities, which have
been cut off in recent days following the heavy wet spell. We are trying
to expand our relief operation wherever possible," Saleem Rehmat, a
spokesman for the International Organization of Migration (IOM), said in
the Pakistani capital, Islamabad on Wednesday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50950&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Relief tents collapsing in quake zone
Returning helicopter pilots, who have managed to complete brief sorties
over the snow-bound valleys of Allai, Battagram, Balakot and other
quake-affected locations in northern Pakistan, report tents distributed
to survivors are already failing as severe winter weather grips the
region. Many of the non-winterised tents distributed to victims have
collapsed under the weight of snow and the onslaught from fierce winds
that have been lashing mountainous parts of the North West Frontier
Province (NWFP) and Pakistani-administered Kashmir for the past three
days.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50949&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
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