Translate

Search This Blog

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Desperation in Haiti as Aid Is Snarled, Looters Roam



Hundreds of U.S. troops touched down in shattered Port-au-Prince overnight as U.N. and other aid organizations struggled Friday to get food and water to stricken millions. Fears spread of unrest among the Haitian people in their fourth day of desperation. Looters roamed downtown streets, young men and boys with machetes. "They are scavenging everything. What can you do?" said Michel Legros, 53, as he waited for help to search for seven relatives buried in his collapsed house. Even as the U.S. military began distributing aid, Haiti's U.S. ambassador, Raymond Joseph, made a desperate plea Friday for body bags to help manage the sea of corpses that is swelling around the morgue in Port-au-Prince and lining the city's streets. "We want body bags, because the way they're disposing of some of the corpses is very undignified," Joseph said during brief remarks at the Greater Washington Hatian Relief Center. "We want body bags — a lot of body bags. If you know how to get them, if you know a company that makes them and wants to donate or even sell them." Hard-pressed government workers, meanwhile, were burying thousands of bodies in mass graves. The Red Cross estimates 45,000 to 50,000 people were killed in Tuesday's cataclysmic earthquake. More and more, the focus fell on the daunting challenge of getting aid to survivors. United Nations peacekeepers patrolling the capital said people's anger was rising that aid hasn't been distributed quickly, and warned aid convoys to add security to guard against looting.Angry Haitians have reportedly been using corpses to set up roadblocks in Port-au-Prince to protest those delays. Photographer Shaul Schwarz said he saw at least two downtown roadblocks formed with bodies of earthquake victims and rocks. "They are starting to block the roads with bodies," he told Reuters. "It's getting ugly out there, people are fed up with getting no help." On Friday morning, no sign was seen of foreign assistance entering the downtown area, other than a U.S. Navy helicopter flying overhead. Ordinary Haitians sensed the potential for an explosion of lawlessness. "We're worried that people will get a little uneasy," said attendant Jean Reynol, 37, explaining his gas station was ready to close immediately if violence breaks out. "People who have not been eating or drinking for almost 50 hours and are already in a very poor situation," U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said in Geneva. "If they see a truck with something, or if they see a supermarket which has collapsed, they just rush to get something to eat." The quake's destruction of Port-au-Prince's main prison complicated the security situation. International Red Cross spokesman Marcal Izard said some 4,000 prisoners had escaped and were freely roaming the streets.

Century’s longest solar eclipse in Asia and Africa



The longest partial solar eclipse of this century occurs in half of the world including Pakistan today. The eclipse was visible in Karachi at 10:45am, in Lahore it was seen at around 11:24am. Meanwhile, to ward off the evils such an eclipse brings along, Salatul Kasoof was performed in Masjid-al-Harram, Saudi Arabia, which was attended by a large number of people. The eclipse hit India at 11:00am and would continue till 3:30pm. Started from Chad, Africa at 9:00am and moving from Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, China and Myanmar, the eclipse would conclude at Shandong at around 2:00am in night in Pakistan Standard Time. The next such eclipse would occur on December 23, 3043.

Pakistan Officials: U.S. Kills Militant on FBI Most-Wanted List



 A U.S. missile strike in Pakistan killed one of the FBI's most-wanted terrorists, a man suspected in a deadly 1986 plane hijacking with a $5 million bounty on his head, three Pakistani intelligence officials said Friday. The death would be the latest victory for the CIA-led missile campaign against militant targets in Pakistan's insurgent-riddled tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, a campaign that has recently escalated. One Thursday is believed to have missed Pakistan's Taliban chief. The intelligence officials said a Jan. 9 missile strike in the North Waziristan tribal region killed Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim. The FBI's Web site lists him as a Palestinian with possible Lebanese citizenship. The Pakistani officials called him an Al Qaeda member, but the FBI site says he was a member of the Abu Nidal Palestinian terrorist group. Rahim is wanted for his alleged role in the Sept. 5, 1986, hijacking of Pan American World Airways Flight 73 during a stop in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, according to the FBI site. The hijackers demanded that 1,500 prisoners in Cyprus and Israel be released and that they be flown out of Pakistan. At one point, the hijackers shot and threw hand grenades at passengers and crew in one part of the plane. Some 20 people, including two Americans, died during the hijacking.

Third Drone Attack in 3 hours, 13 killed



A third drone attack in as many hours at Mashta in South Waziristan has killed 6 people. In separate incident earlier at ShaktoZai also killed 2 people in South Waziristan. The total number of people killed in South Wazirisitan reached 8.  Earlier according to sources 5 militants were killed in a drone attack on North Waziristan in which 5 missiles were fired. The attack took place at Zarnai area in the district of Mir Ali. There is fear of rise in the number of causalities. After the attack spy plane flew over the area and caused fear amongst the locals.

US deploying 10,000 troops to Haiti



Up to 10,000 US troops are to be sent to Haiti to help distribute aid and prevent potential rioting among desperate earthquake survivors, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff has said. Admiral Mike Mullen said the total US presence in and around the beleaguered country could rise beyond that figure as his military officers determine how much assistance may be needed in the days ahead. The announcement came as the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) reported that the death toll from the earthquake may be as high as 50,000 to 100,000 people, "A variety of sources are estimating the numbers [at] between 50,000 and 100,000," Jon Andrus of PAHO, the Americas arm of the World Health Organisation, said on Friday. Barack Obama, the US president, said Tueday's earthquake had inflicted "heartbreaking" losses and pledged Washington would do what it takes to save lives and get the country back on its feet. "The scale of the devastation is extraordinary ... and the losses are heartbreaking," Obama said at a news conference from the White House. He also urged Americans to have patience with the relief operation, saying there would be "many difficult days ahead". Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, said he would travel to Haiti "very soon" to show solidarity with earthquake victims and the staff of the devastated UN mission there.

Air strike kills suspected Al-Qaeda chiefs in north



An air strike Friday on an Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) position in north Yemen killed six suspected leaders of the group including its military boss, a senior Yemeni official said. The military chief, Qassem al-Rimi, was among 23 people who made a daring escape from a state security prison in Sanaa in February 2006 that left the government red-faced. "Six Al-Qaeda leaders, including the network's military chief, Qassem al-Rimi, were killed on Friday," the official said on condition of anonymity. "Ammar al-Waili, Ayedh al-Shabwani and Saleh al-Tais were also killed in the raid" at Al-Ajashir, a desert region in the eastern part of Saada province, he said. The two other leaders were not named, while two other men fled the scene. The Friday morning raid targeted two vehicles carrying eight members of Al-Qaeda, "six of whom were killed and two managed to escape," another official said earlier.