Thursday

Pakistan recovery ‘to take years’

Asif Ali Zardari warned that the displacement and economic hardship caused by the floods could spark widespread unrest. He also defended his government’s response, saying no country would have been able to effectively handle the floods.

“There is no way any nation, even if it’s a superpower… can bring the same level of satisfaction that will be close to the expectations of people,” Zardari said in an interview in Islamabad with a small group of foreign reporters.

Flooding has killed more than 1,500 people, according to the United Nations, and affected more than 17 million. Hundreds of thousands of homes have been destroyed, and more than 1.7m acres of farmland are underwater.

“I don’t think Pakistan will ever fully recover, but we will move on,” Zardari said.

Sindh threatened

The waters are once again threatening southern Sindh province, where the Indus river has reached dangerously high levels at the Kotri barrage.

Flooding has already submerged a number of villages in Thatta and Larkana districts in Sindh. Workers have frantically piled sandbags and rebuilt levees, and hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated from the area.

Authorities estimated that 90 per cent of the 350,000 residents of the city of Shahad Kot have already fled.

More than 18km of new levees have already been built in Shahad Kot and nearby Qambar, but authorities worry that the rising floodwaters may top those barriers. The floods have been racing south down the Indus for several days.

‘Epidemic diseases’

Millions of people displaced by the floods have yet to receive any aid, and the UN said on Tuesday that more than 800,000 people have been cut off, reachable only by air.

Pakistani officials and aid organisations continue to warn of the threat of a disease epidemic. The UN says more than 3.5m children are at risk of waterborne diseases. And the flooding has ravaged Pakistan’s medical system: More than 200 hospitals and clinics are damaged.

Yousuf Raza Gilani, the Pakistani prime minister, warned on Tuesday that the country should prepare for an epidemic.

“As human misery continues to mount, we are seriously concerned with the spread of epidemic diseases,” he said during a visit to a makeshift health clinic.

• World battles swine flu as death toll rises Governments and health officials around the world continued to take steps Tuesday against the outbreak of swine flu that has killed scores of people in Mexico and spread to the U.S., Europe and possibly Asia. By early Tuesday, the swine flu outbreak in Mexico was suspected in 152 deaths and......
• Text of President Obama's State of the Union Address [/caption] Remarks of President Barack Obama The State of the Union Wednesday, January 27, 2009 Washington, DC Madame Speaker, Vice President Biden, Members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans: Our Constitution declares that from time to time, the President shall give to Congress information about the state of our......
• Copenhagen police release hundreds of detained activists [/caption] Only 13 protesters are still in custody after nearly a thousand arrested during demonstrations at climate change summit Danish police have released hundreds of activists who were detained during a mass rally to demand a global climate pact, as police were accused of overreacting to sporadic street violence. Only......
• Times Square probe yield 3 arrests [/caption] WATERTOWN, Mass. – Federal agents conducted Thursday morning raids in Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey in connection with the failed Times Square car bomb and arrested three people, including two Pakistani men who provided money to the suspect, Faisal Shahzad, law enforcement officials said. The searches were the......
• What is a Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicle? A PHEV (Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicle) is a vehicle that has batteries on board that can now be charged via the standard household electrical outlet. PHEVs still have the internal combustion engine and the batteries they were manufactured with, they have just had that one modification made. Plug in......