Weekly Round-Up - IRINAS-93: 13-Oct-06
U N I T E D N A T I O N S
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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 93
7 - 13 October 2006
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: USAID to provide small loans to thousands of farmers
AFGHANISTAN: UN and rights bodies condemn murder of two German journalists
AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: UN-assisted Afghan repatriation ends
PAKISTAN: IFRC to distribute shelter kits to quake survivors
PAKISTAN: Farmers in quake zone get assistance ahead of winter
PAKISTAN: 'Angels of Mercy' back in Allai skies
PAKISTAN: Focus on earthquake recovery 12 months on
PAKISTAN: Call to assist vulnerable in quake region
NEPAL: More work needed to achieve development goals - report
NEPAL: Peace talks to continue as progress remains elusive
NEPAL: Bhutanese refugees hesitant over US resettlement offer
NEPAL: Rebels and government agree to hold elections
NEPAL: Peace talks making positive headway - rebels and government
AFGHANISTAN: USAID to provide small loans to thousands of farmers
An estimated US $80 million will be distributed over a three-year period
in the form of small loans to some 60,000 people across Afghanistan to
boost rural development and livelihoods, the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) said on Tuesday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55897&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: UN and rights bodies condemn murder of two German
journalists
The United Nations (UN), Afghanistan's top media watchdog and the Afghan
Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) on Monday condemned the
killings of two German journalists and have called on the government to
take strict measures to maintain the safety of reporters.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55877&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: UN-assisted Afghan repatriation ends
After five years in operation, the UN-assisted Afghan repatriation
programme came to an end on Thursday, said UN officials in the Pakistani
capital Islamabad. "Today is the last scheduled departure for
[UNHCR-assisted] voluntary Afghan repatriation across the country
[Pakistan]," said Vivian Tan, a spokeswoman for the office of the United
Nations High commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Islamabad.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55931&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: IFRC to distribute shelter kits to quake survivors
As part of its winter contingency plan, the International Federation of
Red Cross and Red Crescent societies (IFRC), together with the Pakistan
Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has started preparing to assist some 13,500
families affected by last year's massive earthquake in northern
Pakistan.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55938&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Farmers in quake zone get assistance ahead of winter
The UN's Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) began training some
3,000 farmers from Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) at the
beginning of October to build quake-resistant animal shelters ahead of
the oncoming winter, the organisation said on Tuesday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55899&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: 'Angels of Mercy' back in Allai skies
Unlike the grim mood in the devastated town of Balakot, where rubble
still lies thick on the ground a year after the 8 October 2005 quake,
spirits in the remote Allai Valley are distinctly higher. In the small
village of Rashang, near the main town of Bana, children excitedly show
off new school books. Many of their fathers work on houses and though
tents are still visible in many places, there is confidence they may not
be needed too much longer.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55933&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Focus on earthquake recovery 12 months on
One year after the worst natural disaster in Pakistan's 59-year history,
which left 75,000 people dead and another 3.5 million homeless, progress
on earthquake recovery has remained slow and many reconstruction
programmes are facing a funding deficit.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55864&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Call to assist vulnerable in quake region
More than 12 months after the massive 7.6-magnitude earthquake in
northern Pakistan, humanitarian workers have called for assistance to
protect thousands of quake survivors in remote rural parts of North West
Frontier Province (NWFP) against the forthcoming Himalayan winter.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55876&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
NEPAL: More work needed to achieve development goals - report
Nepal, along with many other developing country in the Asia Pacific
region, is falling behind in efforts to meet the UN's Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), said a new report 'A Future Within Reach'
jointly prepared by the United Nations and the Asian Development bank
(ADB).
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55940&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: Peace talks to continue as progress remains elusive
Representatives from Nepal's Maoist rebels and the government said on
Thursday that ongoing peace talks were progressing effectively but more
time was needed to iron out differences. "We have narrowed down most of
our differences after a series of consultations. There is hope for a
positive end to our talks," said rebel spokesman and senior leader
Krishna Bahadur Mahara.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55932&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: Bhutanese refugees hesitant over US resettlement offer
Bhutanese refugees living in Nepal have expressed scepticism over an
offer of third-country settlement from Washington. On 2 October, US
Assistant Secretary of State for Refugee Affairs, Ellen Sauerbury, told
reporters in Geneva that her government was willing to "absorb 50,000 or
60,000 of the [Bhutanese] people who are now in these [refugee] camps".
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55880&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: Rebels and government agree to hold elections
Maoist rebels and Nepal's interim government have agreed to hold
elections for a constituent assembly by June 2007, negotiators from both
sides said on Tuesday at the end of three days of high-level peace
talks. Maoists have been waging a 'people's war' against the Nepalese
state since 1996 in a conflict that has left 14,000 people dead.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55898&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: Peace talks making positive headway - rebels and government
High-level peace talks in Nepal, which got under way at the weekend, are
making good progress, according to both government and Maoist rebel
representatives. After 10 years of violent conflict that has claimed at
least 14,000 lives and a series of unsuccessful peace talks earlier in
the year, both sides want to bring the three-day discussions to a
positive conclusion as quickly as possible, they said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55874&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
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