Weekly Round-Up - IRINAS-139: 02-Sep-07
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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 139
27 August - 2 September 2007
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: Afghan opium production soars to record levels
AFGHANISTAN: Benazir, Afghanistan, "I was sold four times"
AFGHANISTAN: Deminers demand security guarantees before resuming work
in Kandahar
BANGLADESH: Flood waters recede, but challenges remain
BANGLADESH: Flood victims face rising food prices
GLOBAL: A sprinkle a day keeps anaemia at bay
NEPAL: Strikes hampering aid deliveries to flood victims
NEPAL: Business community bemoans worsening security situation
NEPAL: Government urged to do more to curb small arms
PAKISTAN: Livelihoods at stake as flood-affected areas struggle to
recover
PAKISTAN: Shelter most pressing issue in flood-affected area
PAKISTAN: Women, children at increased risk in flood-affected areas
AFGHANISTAN: Afghan opium production soars to record levels
Opium production in Afghanistan increased by 17 percent in 2007, the UN
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said on 27 August. "No other country
in the world has ever produced narcotics on such a deadly scale," said
the Afghanistan Opium Survey 2007, an annual assessment prepared by
UNODC and the government of Afghanistan.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73970
AFGHANISTAN: Benazir, Afghanistan, "I was sold four times"
Thirty one-year-old Benazir - not her real name - was 12 when she was
wedded to a 24-year-old man in Shinwaar District of Nangarhar Province,
eastern Afghanistan. Benazir has been sold four times by men whom she
considers her husbands - in a formally proscribed tradition known as
women selling. She told IRIN of her extraordinary experiences.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73954
AFGHANISTAN: Deminers demand security guarantees before resuming work in
Kandahar
Less than a month after three deminers were shot dead by unidentified
gunmen in Kandahar Province, southern Afghanistan, the Mine Detection
Dog Centre (MDC) has announced it will not resume demining activities in
the volatile Kandahar and Helmand provinces unless security is
guaranteed.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74032
BANGLADESH: Flood waters recede, but challenges remain
Flood waters continue to recede in monsoon-hit Bangladesh, leaving
behind immense challenges in terms of crop and infrastructure damage,
and the delivery of health services and food aid.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73966
BANGLADESH: Flood victims face rising food prices
In line with international commodity prices and rising fuel costs, food
prices in Bangladesh are already prohibitively high. But the floods -
some of the worst in recent years - have exacerbated the situation.
Basic cereal prices over the last three weeks have risen by up to of 22
percent in some places.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73982
GLOBAL: A sprinkle a day keeps anaemia at bay
Stanley Zlotkin, the Canadian scientist who developed Sprinkles, a
nutritional supplement to reduce anaemia in infants and young children,
recalls the moment in Mongolia when he decided to take the idea global.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74049
NEPAL: Strikes hampering aid deliveries to flood victims
Strikes and political violence in southern Nepal have been hampering
efforts by aid workers to distribute aid to flood victims, said
officials from the Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS) on 26 August.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73963
NEPAL: Business community bemoans worsening security situation
Nepal's business community has expressed concern over the worsening
security situation: industries and factories are closing down owing to
constant protests, strikes, threats and extortion by former Maoist
rebels and pro-Madhesi groups in the Terai region of southern Nepal.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74000
NEPAL: Government urged to do more to curb small arms
Activists and human rights campaigners in Nepal believe the government
and political parties could do more to control small arms, which
continue to maim and kill innocent people.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74064
PAKISTAN: Livelihoods at stake as flood-affected areas struggle to
recover
Almost two months after heavy monsoon rains and a cyclone, life has not
returned to normal in the Pakistan's south and southwest. According to
the UN and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), more than 400 people
died, some 2.5 million were affected and close to 380,000 people were
displaced by the floods in the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73961
PAKISTAN: Shelter most pressing issue in flood-affected area
Two months after floods caused by heavy tropical rains displaced
hundreds of thousands of people in Pakistan's Sindh and Balochistan
provinces, shelter is the most urgent issue in the affected area, flood
victims and aid workers say.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74023
PAKISTAN: Women, children at increased risk in flood-affected areas
Since heavy tropical rains and a cyclone struck southern and
southwestern Pakistan in late June, killing 400, displacing nearly
400,000 and adversely affecting 2.5 million people, the intervening two
months have steadily seen the situation, especially for women and
children, go from bad to the verge of becoming "much worse", relief and
aid agency officials say.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74066
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