Pakistan calls for aid as homeless flood toll reaches 1 million
Floods following a cyclone and rain have left as many as 100 people dead in southwestern Pakistan, a senior relief official said Sunday, but unofficial estimates are considerably higher.
Some 500 people have died across the subcontinent - in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan - since the start of the monsoon season in early July.
Following a two-day tour of the flooded area Sunday, Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz asked for relief and rehabilitation aid from foreign countries, international agencies and private donors.
He said more helicopters would be added to army efforts to ferry food, medicine and other relief supplies to areas of Baluchistan province which was hit by Cyclone Yemyin last Tuesday.
The flooding also has spread into adjacent Sindh province to the east, where some 20,000 people were rendered homeless in Shahdad Kot district after waters from a canal spilled over protective embankments, provincial relief comissioner Munir Ahmed said Monday.
Tariq Ayub, Baluchistan's home secretary, who is overseeing the flood relief operation, said many of the casualties occurred due to drowning and people getting trapped under the debris of their collapsing homes in 13 hardest-hit Baluchistan districts.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-465689/Pakistan-calls-aid-homeless-flood-toll-reaches-1-million.html#ixzz0vUL0peC5
Monday, 2 August 2010
Wild Fires in Russia
(CNN) -- With nearly 86,000 people evacuated from fire-ravaged regions, Russian authorities said Sunday that firefighters were gaining control over blazes sweeping across thousands of acres in western Russia.
"Despite complicated weather conditions, the situation is under control thanks to preventive measures and efforts taken by the Russian Emergencies Ministry," a spokesman for the ministry told the Itar-Tass news agency.
At least 28 people have been killed and thousands left homeless by the wildfires, which are among the worst ever to hit western Russia. No fire-related deaths were reported since Friday, officials said Sunday.
Two firefighters were among the dead, Itar-Tass reported, citing the Emergency Ministry.
Latest figures from the ministry showed that 128,500 hectares (317,530 acres) were burned or had burned, and 774 "hotbeds of wildfire" were counted as of 6 a.m. Sunday. About half the fires had either been extinguished or contained, the ministry spokesman said.
"The most difficult situation with wildfires remains in the Nizhny Novgorod, Vladimir and Voronezh regions and the Republic of Mordovia, where fires threaten several populated settlements," the ministry's information department said.
A hot, dry summer has been a key factor in the fires, drying out large parts of land and igniting the peat bogs that lie all over central Russia.
Moscow, Russia, hit a temperature of 39 Celsius (102 Fahrenheit) on Thursday, the highest temperature since records began in 1879.
"Despite complicated weather conditions, the situation is under control thanks to preventive measures and efforts taken by the Russian Emergencies Ministry," a spokesman for the ministry told the Itar-Tass news agency.
At least 28 people have been killed and thousands left homeless by the wildfires, which are among the worst ever to hit western Russia. No fire-related deaths were reported since Friday, officials said Sunday.
Two firefighters were among the dead, Itar-Tass reported, citing the Emergency Ministry.
Latest figures from the ministry showed that 128,500 hectares (317,530 acres) were burned or had burned, and 774 "hotbeds of wildfire" were counted as of 6 a.m. Sunday. About half the fires had either been extinguished or contained, the ministry spokesman said.
"The most difficult situation with wildfires remains in the Nizhny Novgorod, Vladimir and Voronezh regions and the Republic of Mordovia, where fires threaten several populated settlements," the ministry's information department said.
A hot, dry summer has been a key factor in the fires, drying out large parts of land and igniting the peat bogs that lie all over central Russia.
Moscow, Russia, hit a temperature of 39 Celsius (102 Fahrenheit) on Thursday, the highest temperature since records began in 1879.
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