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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 130
25 June - 1 July 2007


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Demand for narcotics outstrips available treatment for
   drug addicts
AFGHANISTAN: Floods kill 17 across seven
AFGHANISTAN: Taliban impose rule, hefty taxes in Musa Qala District
AFGHANISTAN: Aid agency distributes tents, blankets after floods kill
   50
KAZAKHSTAN: Regional cooperation seen as key in fight against drugs
PAKISTAN: Storm leaves 66 dead in Karachi
PAKISTAN: More effective disaster preparedness urged as storm kills 200
PAKISTAN: Cyclone leaves devastation across Balochistan Province
PAKISTAN: Rains leave 100,000 homeless in Balochistan
PAKISTAN: Measles campaign to proceed despite monsoon floods
SRI LANKA: Post-tsunami jobs increase, incomes decline
SRI LANKA: Protecting tsunami orphans from child abuse
TAJIKISTAN: Melting glaciers pose growing threat in the Pamirs
TAJIKISTAN: Afghan narcotics fuel drug addiction


AFGHANISTAN: Demand for narcotics outstrips available treatment for drug 
addicts

Afghanistan produces about 92 percent of the heroin consumed in the 
world, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). About one 
million people - or 3.7 percent of Afghanistan's estimated 27 million 
population - are considered to be addicted to different kinds of 
narcotics, including heroin, opium and hashish.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72927


AFGHANISTAN: Floods kill 17 across seven regions

Unusual flash floods, and a landslide, have killed at least 17 people, 
mostly women and children, in seven provinces of Afghanistan, the 
country's disaster management authority and provincial officials said on 
26 June. On 25 June, torrential rain led to a wave of floods in the 
eastern Kunar Province that resulted in human losses and inflicted 
damage.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72935


AFGHANISTAN: Taliban impose rule, hefty taxes in Musa Qala District

The bodies of four bearded men still hang from two tall poles at a 
roundabout in Musa Qala District, Helmand Province, in southern 
Afghanistan. Musa Qala District is controlled by Taliban insurgents. The 
four were hanged two days ago allegedly for spying for the Americans and 
the government of President Hamid Karzai.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72979


AFGHANISTAN: Aid agency distributes tents, blankets after floods kill 50

Floods have killed at least 50 people and injured tens of others in 
seven provinces in the north, east and south of Afghanistan over the 
past two days, Afghan officials said. According to Afghanistan's 
national meteorology department, heavy rain, flooding and storms are 
unusual at this time of the year.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72981


KAZAKHSTAN: Regional cooperation seen as key in fight against drugs

As Kazakhstan marked international anti-narcotics day on 26 June, health 
officials expressed cautious optimism that the fight against drugs is 
showing some progress. There has been a drop in the number of registered 
drug users, and plans for a regional body which will help combat the 
drug trade are moving ahead, say officials.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72950


PAKISTAN: Storm leaves 66 dead in Karachi

Pakistan's huge southern port city of Karachi struggled to recover on 25 
June from what the authorities called an unprecedented storm. According 
to a former city mayor, 66 people died and many more were injured after 
strong winds and heavy rain wreaked havoc.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72908


PAKISTAN: More effective disaster preparedness urged as storm kills 200

Three days after the rainstorm that lashed Paksitan's main port city of 
Karachi on 23 June, Khursheed Jamshed, 50, is unsure if her 20-year-old 
son, Pervaiz, has survived. As if the chaos unleashed by the storm was 
not enough, people in Karachi were bracing for Cyclone Yemyin 03b, which 
has formed in the Arabian Sea 150km south of Karachi.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72934


PAKISTAN: Cyclone leaves devastation across Balochistan Province

Cyclone Yemyin which struck coastal areas of Pakistan's Sindh and 
Balochistan provinces over the past few days has killed over a dozen 
people and inflicted extensive damage to houses and roads along the 
coast, leaving structures flattened.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72955


PAKISTAN: Rains leave 100,000 homeless in Balochistan

Rains triggered by the cyclone that hit coastal areas of Pakistan this 
week have continued across Balochistan Province in the southwest of the 
country, home to some eight million of Pakistan's estimated more than 
150 million people.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72968


PAKISTAN: Measles campaign to proceed despite monsoon floods

A major effort in Pakistan to immunise 63 million children against 
measles will proceed as planned this week, despite recent heavy rains 
and flooding in the south of the country which took the lives of more 
than 100 people and affected hundreds of thousands.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73020


SRI LANKA: Post-tsunami jobs increase, incomes decline

The Livelihoods Division at the Reconstruction and Development Agency 
(RADA) - the main government arm overseeing employment in the aftermath 
of the tsunami in Sri Lanka - is claiming great success.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72977


SRI LANKA: Protecting tsunami orphans from child abuse

According to the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA), 635 
children were orphaned in Sri Lanka after the 2004 tsunami. In southern 
districts of the country - including Kalutara, Galle, Matara and 
Hambantota - 137 boys and 129 girls were orphaned.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73017


TAJIKISTAN: Melting glaciers pose growing threat in the Pamirs

Changing climatic conditions and warming temperatures are increasing the 
risk of natural hazards posed by melting glaciers in the Pamir mountains 
of eastern Tajikistan. In Tajikistan the impact of climate change is 
mostly observed on glaciers, say officials.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72916


TAJIKISTAN: Afghan narcotics fuel drug addiction

Tajikistan's Drug Control Agency (DCA) estimates that there are about 
55,000-75,000 drug users in the country, of whom 80 percent use heroin, 
made from opium produced in neighbouring Afghanistan.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72937


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