health: Lincoln Tribune

الأحد، 11 مارس 2012

Lincoln Tribune

Afghanistan: More than 140 people remain missing after avalanche
U.S. soldier detained after opening fire at Afghan civilians
U.S. drone kills at least 12 in northwestern Pakistan
UN: Over 3,000 Congolese have fled to Uganda this year alone
U.S. added 3.9 million jobs in past 2 years

Afghanistan: More than 140 people remain missing after avalanche

Posted: 11 Mar 2012 01:32 AM PST

FAYZABAD, Afghanistan (BNO NEWS) -- The death toll after an avalanche buried a remote village in northeastern Afghanistan earlier this week has risen to at least 55, the United Nations (UN) reported on Saturday. More than 140 people remain missing and are feared to have been killed as well.

The avalanche occurred on late Monday evening in the village of Deh Pasin in Shiki district, located in the remote and mountainous province of Badakhshan which faces severe snow every year between October and April. The village, located near the border with Tajikistan, can only be reached by helicopter or by a road from across the border.

The landslide buried dozens of houses in the village of 199 people, killing at least 50 people and injuring four others. The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan, Michael Keating, said 145 villagers remain missing and are presumed to have been killed as well, which would raise the total death toll to 195.

"This tragedy is likely to be one of many in the near future. Heavy snows will result not just in avalanches but also, in a few weeks' time, severe flooding in many parts of the country," Keating said. "Every effort is being made to minimize loss of life through emergency preparedness such as prepositioning of food, shelter and medicine, good information sharing and coordination among those actors able to respond."

Dozens of people from a nearby village began a search-and-rescue operation on Tuesday, but rescue efforts from the outside world have been severely hampered by the difficult conditions in the region. Roads from neighboring Tajikistan have been blocked by snow and helicopters cannot be used because they could trigger further avalanches.

Mountainous regions in Afghanistan are prone to avalanches. In January of this year, at least 49 people were killed when a series of avalanches devastated a number of villages in Badakhshan province. More than 500 houses were buried under the snow, including up to 80 houses in Zech village alone.

And in February 2010, more than 170 people were killed when a series of avalanches struck the Salang Pass, a major mountain pass which connects northern Afghanistan and the Afghan capital of Kabul.

U.S. soldier detained after opening fire at Afghan civilians

Posted: 11 Mar 2012 12:40 AM PST

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (BNO NEWS) -- A U.S. service member was arrested on early Sunday morning after going on a shooting spree in southern Afghanistan, killing as many as seventeen civilians and injuring others, officials said.

The attack happened at around 3:45 a.m. local time when a U.S. soldier opened fire in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province. "A U.S. Army soldier, at around 3 o'clock, came out [of his base] and turned his gun at the people," a spokesman for the governor said, adding that civilians had been wounded.

Few details about the number of casualties were immediately available, but a member of the Kandahar provincial council who visited the scene said as many as 17 civilians had been killed. Major Jason Wagner, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), could not confirm those figures.

"Right now our initial reporting is indicating that there were an unconfirmed number of casualties," Wagner said, without giving specific numbers. "There were some who were wounded, of course, and those wounded are being treated at a coalition medical facility now."

A brief statement from ISAF said the U.S. soldier, whose identity was not immediately released, had been arrested. "This is a deeply regrettable incident and we extend our thoughts and concerns to the families involved," the statement said. "U.S. Forces-Afghanistan (USFOR-A), in cooperation with Afghan authorities, will investigate this incident and release additional information as appropriate."

Sunday's incident comes after weeks of violence after U.S. troops were accused of burning Qurans at the Bagram Airbase. The accusations triggered a series of violent protests across Afghanistan which have left more than 30 people killed, including six U.S. soldiers who insurgents said were killed in revenge.

U.S. drone kills at least 12 in northwestern Pakistan

Posted: 10 Mar 2012 04:28 PM PST

MIRANSHAH, PAKISTAN (BNO NEWS) -- At least twelve people were killed on Friday in the latest U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan's volatile tribal region, local media reported on Saturday.

The unmanned aircraft targeted and completely destroyed a vehicle and a house in the Shaktoi area of South Waziristan, near the Afghan border. Two missile strikes were reportedly launched from the U.S. drone, killing at least twelve suspected militants, although the number of deaths could rise.

Few details about casualties from the strikes are usually available, but allegations of civilian casualties regularly spark protests in Pakistan. According to the Washington-based think tank New America Foundation, as many as 2,680 individuals were killed as a result of U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan between 2004 and early 2012.

And according to a report released by the Conflict Monitoring Center in January, at least 609 people were killed as a result of 75 drone strikes in Pakistan in 2011 alone. The group has documented 303 drone strikes since 2004, with a total death toll of at least 2,661.

In January, U.S. President Barack Obama, for the first time during his presidency, publicly acknowledged that U.S. drones regularly strike suspected militants along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. He confirmed that many of these strikes are carried out in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan, targeting al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects in tough terrain.

The U.S. considers the Pakistan-Afghan border to be the most dangerous place on Earth. The area is known to be a stronghold of the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani Network, which is one of the top terrorist organizations and threats to U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan.

But controversy has surrounded the drone strikes as local residents and officials have blamed them for killing innocent civilians and motivating young men to join the Taliban. Details about the alleged militants are usually not provided, and the U.S. government does not comment on the strikes.

UN: Over 3,000 Congolese have fled to Uganda this year alone

Posted: 10 Mar 2012 04:27 PM PST

GENEVA (BNO NEWS) -- Since the beginning of the year, over 3,000 civilians fleeing violence in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have entered Uganda, the United Nations (UN) said on Saturday.

People are crossing into Kisoro district in south-western Uganda and most of them have come form North Kivu's Rutshuru area. Others have come from Masisi and Walikale territories in North Kivu – between 200 and 350 kilometers from the Ugandan border.

Adrian Edwards, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said those arriving in Uganda are mostly farmers and have spoken of abductions, looting, harassment and rape. According to some of the refugees, he added, said that whole villages had fled night attacks by armed men.

In Kisoro, UNHCR staff heard the account of a man who said he was sexually assaulted by several armed men after being forced to witness the gang rape of his wife. His daughter, who resisted rape, was killed by the gang.

As the number of refugees continues to rise, the UNHCR has opened a transit center in an area of Kisoro district known as Nyakabande, with the capacity to accommodate 1,000 people. There are tents, water and sanitation facilities, cooked meals and basic medical care, Edwards said.

In addition, the agency is also supporting local health centers by providing essential drugs, water facilities and furniture.

"We regularly transport refugees from the transit centre to Nakivale and Oruchinga settlements, which already host Congolese refugees, some of whom have been in Uganda since the civil war of the 1990s, as well as people of several other nationalities," said Edwards.

UNHCR has also expressed concern that further deterioration of security in North Kivu could halt the tripartite process initiated by DRC, Uganda and UNHCR in 2010 to pave the way for the voluntary return of Congolese refugees in Uganda.

At the time of the signing of the agreement in October 2010, some 32,000 of the 81,000 Congolese refugees in Uganda had expressed a wish to return home. More than 7,000 refugees returned spontaneously to DRC in 2010 and last year. The fresh violence is, however, forcing many of them back into Uganda.

The violence, involving DRC Government troops, the Rwandan rebel group known as FDLR and local militias in DRC's eastern region has forced over 100,000 civilians out of their homes since late November, according to UNHCR.

Most are in North Kivu, where some 600,000 people are internally displaced, over one-third of the 1.7 million internally displace persons in the country.

U.S. added 3.9 million jobs in past 2 years

Posted: 10 Mar 2012 04:26 PM PST

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- The United States economy added approximately 233,000 private sector jobs last month while the unemployment rate held steady at a three-year low of 8.3 percent, the U.S. Labor Department (DoL) said on Friday.

In its February 2012 Employment Situation report, the DoL also pointed out that the country's private sector job growth has added jobs for 24 straight months, totaling to more than 3.9 million jobs.

"To an economy that was bleeding almost 800,000 jobs in a single month when President Obama took office," Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis noted, the U.S. job growth over the last six months has been the strongest since before the recession began in 2006.

According to the DoL, February's accelerated job growth was widespread across a range of industries, including 82,000 new jobs in professional and business services, 61,000 in health care and social assistance, 44,000 in leisure and hospitality, and 31,000 in manufacturing.

"The continued growth in the manufacturing sector is encouraging," Solis said. "This industry, which lost more than 2 million jobs through the recession, has added back 429,000 positions in the last two years."

Solis underlined that the U.S. could make 'great strides' if the country acts on President Obama's proposal to forge new partnerships between community colleges and businesses so employers in high-growth industries can put Americans in jobs requiring specific technical skills.

However, the report also shows that the construction sector has been of continued concern, as it lost 13,000 jobs in February. Solis expressed enthusiasm despite the numbers, adding that President Obama has put forward a specific plan to develop the nation's infrastructure, which is expected to have an immediate effect on this industry and the workers who depend on it.

"We need to build and modernize roads, rails, runways and schools, which would create thousands of good jobs in short order. Infrastructure investments are sorely needed across the country, and our unemployed construction workers deserve a bipartisan deal and the jobs it would bring," she stated.

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الأحد، 11 مارس 2012

Lincoln Tribune

Lincoln Tribune

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