Lahore triple blasts leave 18 dead, 157 injured

LAHORE: Eighteen people were killed and at least 157 others injured, some of them critically, in three blasts that ripped through a procession on the occasion of Yaum-e-Ali in Lahore on Wednesday.

DCO Lahore confirmed 18 people’s death while at least 157 , including women and children were shifted to hospitals. Twenty-five to 30 of the injured are said to be in serious condition.

A police constable was also killed in the blasts, CCPO Lahore said.

A banned organization Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al-Almi claimed responsibility of the deadly blasts.

The first blast that occurred in the middle of the procession at Karbala Gaame Shah was followed within minutes by two high intensity suicide blasts at Bhaati Chowk, police sources confirmed.

Commissioner Lahore said that the second and third blasts were suicidal and that a head of one of the suicide bombers has been recovered.

Relief and rescue efforts kick started after blasts and dozens of injured, including women and children were shifted to different medical facilities including Meo Hospital.

Later, the participants of the procession and enraged people pelted police vehicles with stones and damaged public property. A TV footage showed a motor cycle and furniture burning with rising flames.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani strongly condemned the blasts and ordered the concerned authorities to carry out investigation.

Two bombs hit Shiite march in Lahore

LAHORE: Police say two time bombs have exploded during a Shiite religious procession in Lahore. At least 20 people were wounded in the blasts and a subsequent stampede.

The explosions took place in two separate sites amid a traditional mourning procession.

Senior police officer Zulfiqar Hameed said the blasts came from low-intensity time bombs.

Footage of the first explosion shown on a news television showed a small blast erupting amid a crowd of people on the street followed by a large plume of smoke.—AP

Pakistan jets target militant hide-outs, 60 killed

PESHAWAR: Pakistan army jets and helicopters targeted militant hide-outs near the Afghan border, killing 60 people identified as insurgents or their family members, including children, security officials and a witness said Wednesday.

The deadliest strikes hit an area where army fire had killed 60 civilians earlier this year.

Accounts of civilian casualties in army airstrikes make it harder for the military to win the support of local tribesman in the border region, something crucial to flushing out Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who have found sanctuary there.

The attacks occurred Tuesday and Wednesday in different parts of the region.

There was no independent confirmation of the casualty figures because the area is too dangerous for outsiders to visit.

The raids Tuesday took place in several villages in Teerah Valley in the Khyber region and killed 45 people, the officials said. One official said some vehicles rigged with explosives had also been destroyed. He could not say how many.

He described the dead as insurgents, but said it was possible that people living with them could also have been killed. Separately, an intelligence officer said some women and children had been killed in the attacks.

Jihad Gul, who lives near one of the villages, said he had seen the bodies of at least 20 women and children.

Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said reports of civilian casualties were unconfirmed.

The security officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

An air attack Wednesday in the adjoining district of Orakzai killed 15 suspected militants and wounded 10 others, according to local government official Jamil Khan and a brief army statement.

In April, the Teerah Valley was hit by army airstrikes that killed about 60 civilians. The army, which initially described the victims as insurgents, ended up paying compensation to the victims’ families and its chief issued a rare public apology.

Pakistan’s army has been fighting militants in different parts of the northwest for more than two years.

Militants who fled major operations in the South Waziristan and Orakzai tribal regions are believed to have set up new bases in Khyber, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of the main city in the region, Peshawar. – AP

Obama readies bold Mideast peace bid

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama steps into Middle East peace efforts on Wednesday in a bold bid to re-launch direct Palestinian-Israeli negotiations amid skepticism over his chances of success.

Fresh violence blamed on the Islamist movement Hamas and continued deadlock over Israeli settlements threatened to curtail the latest efforts by Obama, who made Middle East peace a priority early in his presidency.

Israeli forces sealed off parts of the West Bank, Palestinian authorities arrested dozens of suspects, and furious settlers vowed to flout a moratorium on settlement construction after Hamas militants gunned down four Israelis near a Jewish settlement.

Obama, who is hoping to succeed where so many of his predecessors have failed, made his first presidential call to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and appointed a Middle East envoy, veteran peacemaker George Mitchell, two days after his inauguration.

The attack in the Palestininan West Bank, strongly condemned by Abbas and the White House, was a clear and bloody message from Hamas, a staunch opponent of the talks.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to keep the talks on track after a 20-month hiatus while stressing Israel’s security demands.

“I will set clearly the security needs that are required precisely to address these kind of terror,” Netanyahu said. “We will not let the blood of Israeli civilians go unpunished.”

And the host of the talks, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, offered fresh security assurances to the Israelis.

“It is one of the reasons why the prime minister is here today, to engage in direct negotiations with those Palestinians who themselves have rejected a path of violence in favor of a path of peace,” she said as she met with Netanyahu late Tuesday.

“We pledge to do all we can always to protect and defend the state of Israel and to provide security to the Israeli people.”

Netanyahu’s spokesman Mark Regev said Israel was “committed to peace” and the attack would not prevent the talks from going ahead.

Obama is hosting separate meetings not only with Abbas and Netanyahu, but also with key regional powerbrokers King Abdullah II of Jordan and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at the White House before dining with the four leaders and diplomatic Quartet representative Tony Blair.

The meetings are designed to help launch direct talks between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders at the State Department on Thursday.

The Quartet of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia launched a roadmap for peace in 2003 that calls for a Palestinian state existing alongside a secure Israel.

Top level talks in search of the elusive peace deal broke off in 2008 when Israel invaded the Palestinian Gaza Strip to halt militant rocket fire on its south.

And there are few illusions that the new direct talks, after months of US-sponsored indirect negotiations, will overcome lingering divisions anytime soon, even as Obama expends precious political capital ahead of congressional elections that may batter his Democratic Party this November.

Huge issues – many unresolved since Israel’s founding in 1948 – remain on the table, including the status of Jerusalem, which both sides claim as their capital, and the fate of Palestinian refugees chased from their lands.

Continued Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories are seen as a major hurdle to the peace process, with a 10-month Israeli freeze due to expire on September 26.

Yet Obama’s Middle East envoy George Mitchell said the president’s one-year timeframe to seal a deal was “realistic” despite the scale of the task.

“We believe these negotiations can be completed within one year,” Mitchell said. “We will engage with perseverance and patience to try to bring them to a successful conclusion.”

But Abbas has threatened to walk out of talks if settlement construction resumes, and Netanyahu has vowed not to extend the moratorium. The attack near the Kiryat Arba settlement underscored the massive importance of the issue.

Netanyahu, a hawk who only last year recognized the internationally-backed principle of a two-state solution, said on Sunday he hoped to reach “a peace based on recognition, security, stability and economic prosperity between the two peoples that will endure for us and our children.”

Abbas, meanwhile, has urged “Israel not to miss this historic opportunity for peace,” saying “if there is only a one percent chance of achieving peace we will strive for it.”

Israeli President Shimon Peres insisted Netanyahu was “aware of the greatness of his mission” during his US visit and was “well prepared to meet the chance.”

But Peres said any future Palestinian state must be demilitarized. – AFP

Lukewarm reaction to NY imam on Middle East tour

DUBAI: A heated US debate over a planned Islamic centre near New York’s World Trade Center site is seen by Middle East media, scholars and citizens as more of a domestic American issue rather than an attack on their faith.

Kuwait-born Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the Muslim cleric leading the project to establish the centre, has been in Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in the past two weeks but met with a more subdued reaction than the US media.

“Muslims this time are not part of this, they didn’t call for it, they didn’t defend it and didn’t bother with the whole issue,” Saudi columnist, Abdulrahman al-Rashid, wrote in the pan-Arab daily Asharq Alawsat.

The US row is perceived as much less of an affront to Islam than Switzerland’s vote to ban minarets and France’s moves to forbid the full face veil, observers say.

Asked whether the American people were becoming more intolerant, the Imam Abdul Rauf played down American prejudice.

“If they are informed properly about what the actual facts of the situation are, they will always make the right decision,” he said.

Abdul Rauf’s project, now named Park51, has been dubbed by its critics the “Ground Zero mosque” because of its proximity to the World Trade Centre site where nearly 3,000 people were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks.

Families of victims of Sept. 11 and conservative politicians have mounted an emotional campaign to block the planned centre, saying its location was a provocation.

US President Barack Obama and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg support the right of Muslims to build the centre.

An American Muslim cleric who delivers a weekly sermon at an Abu Dhabi mosque said the row was more about US domestic politics with the Nov. 2 congressional vote looming.

“It’s really a local issue,” the cleric, Jihad Hashim Brown, said. “It has to do with the current congressional election. As soon as the elections are finished it will blow over.”

Recent French moves to ban Muslim women from wearing the niqab or burqa in public triggered more af a media outcry in the Middle East.

“The niqab ban was a state-endorsed one and so seemed to Muslims like an act of oppression,” said public relations consultant Riham el Houshi, 22, an Egyptian living in Qatar, adding that she thought building the planned centre was insensitive.

Qatari Ghanim al-Naimi said the right to build mosques anywhere in the world should be guaranteed: “Religion had nothing to do with (Sept. 11).” – Reuters

Jerusalem to remain 'undivided capital of Israel'

WASHINGTON: Jerusalem should remain the “undivided capital of Israel,” an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday, clarifying Israel's position after published comments from defense minister Ehud Barak suggested division was a possiblity.

“The position of the prime minister is that Jerusalem is one of the core issues that are on the table at the talks,” the aide said.

“Our position is that Jerusalem will remain the undivided capital of Israel.” – AFP

Rape probe against WikiLeaks founder reopened

STOCKHOLM: A senior Swedish prosecutor is reopening a rape investigation against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the latest twist to a case in which prosecutors of different ranks have overruled each other.

The Australian has denied the allegations and suggested they are part of a smear campaign by opponents of WikiLeaks — an online whistle-blower that has angered Washington by publishing thousands of leaked documents about US military activities in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The case was dismissed last week by Eva Finne, chief prosecutor in Stockholm, who overruled a lower-ranked prosecutor and said there was no reason to suspect that Assange had raped a Swedish woman who had reported him to police.

The woman’s lawyer appealed the decision and on Wednesday Director of Public Prosecution Marianne Ny decided to reopen the case.

Ny also said that another complaint against Assange should be investigated on suspicion of ‘‘sexual coercion and sexual molestation.’’ That overruled a previous decision to only investigate the case as ‘‘molestation,’’ which is not a sex offense under Swedish law.

Assange is seeking legal protection for WikiLeaks in Sweden, one of the countries where the group says it has servers. The Swedish Migration Board has confirmed that Assange has applied for a work and residence permit in the Scandinavian country. —AP

Firing at religious procession in Karachi, four injured

KARACHI: Four people were injured on Wednesday, as unknown gunmen opened fire at a religious procession in Karachi.

The firing was reported near the Empress Market area during a religious procession on Yaum-i-Ali.

The injured have been moved to Jinnah hospital for treatment. Police have arrested three possible suspects.

Accused trio leave for London as squad trains

TAUNTON: Three Pakistan players embroiled in betting scam allegations headed to London on Wednesday to face questioning which is almost certain to sideline them from the team’s tour of England.

Test captain Salman Butt plus bowlers Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif look set to miss Pakistan’s match with county side Somerset in Taunton Thursday, a warm-up match before their limited overs internationals against England.

The trio, all casually dressed, left the team hotel in Taunton at 11:12am (1012 GMT) accompanied by team security officer Major Khawaja Najam, flanked by private security guards and police officers.

Butt shook his head when asked by a reporter if he was “guilty”.

The trio were due to face questions from Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ijaz Butt and Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan’s high commissioner (ambassador) to Britain, in London on Thursday.

“The boys are leaving today (Wednesday). They will have a meeting at the High Commission (Embassy) tomorrow (Thursday),” Pakistan team manager Yawar Saeed had earlier told reporters.

It appears increasingly likely the trio will play no further part in the tour amid mounting calls for the trio to be barred from appearing while the probe into the allegations is ongoing.

Following the Somerset warm-up, Pakistan play two Twenty20 matches against England in Cardiff on Sunday and Tuesday, then five one-day internationals.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has promised “prompt and decisive action” if the “spot-fixing” allegations linked to betting rings made by Britain’s biggest-selling newspaper are proven.

Its chief executive Haroon Lorgat hopes there will be “some sort of conclusion” to the probe within the next few days.

England’s players meanwhile are reportedly reluctant to line up against a Pakistan team containing the tainted trio, according to Professional Cricketers’ Association chief executive Angus Porter.

“The England players understand it is important the games go ahead and they will be professional but they would or will find it really difficult to play against the guys directly implicated,” Porter told the Daily Telegraph.

Customs officials in Britain meanwhile said they had arrested and bailed two men and a woman “as part of an ongoing investigation into money laundering”. A source confirmed the arrests were linked to the cricket scandal.

The furore erupted on Sunday when The News of the World alleged Mazhar Majeed, a 35-year-old agent for several Pakistan players, took 150,000 pounds (185,000 euros, 230,000 dollars) to arrange for deliberate no-balls to be bowled at precise points in last week’s Test match against England.

The information would be of enormous value to the spot-betting industry, where money is wagered on specific incidents in matches.

Majeed was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud bookmakers in the wake of the allegations, but was released on bail without charge on Sunday, to return at a later date.

Detectives interviewed Butt, Asif and 18-year-old prodigy Aamer, who delivered the no-balls – normally an accidental and unpredictable occurrence – and police seized their mobile phones.

The world of cricket has reacted with shock and dismay to claims that huge sums of money had changed hands in alleged fixing schemes at international level, linked to shadowy betting rings.

Investigators from the ICC’s anti-corruption and security unit are in Britain looking into the allegations. —AFP

Turkmen, Pakistani presidents pledge pipeline summit

ASHGABAT: The leaders of Turkmenistan and Pakistan have called for a top-level summit to revive a stalled project to build a natural gas pipeline from the ex-Soviet state to the east, state media said Wednesday.

Ashgabat and Islamabad agreed in 2002 to build a 1,700 kilometre (1,060 mile) pipeline to deliver Turkmen gas to Pakistan and India via Afghanistan but the project has stalled because of the conflict with the Taliban.

The summit, proposed for December, is the latest sign of growing momentum around the project following a series of recent high-level talks between regional leaders and the signing of a framework deal in Kabul on Monday.

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari agreed in telephone talks to hold the meeting in the Turkmen capital Ashgabat, Turkmen state television said.

Zardari “would be pleased to participate in a December meeting of the heads of states of the participants of the project,” it reported following the conversation.

The pipeline aims to transport over 30 billion cubic metres of gas annually from the Dauletabad gas fields in southeast Turkmenistan to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and possibly India.

Despite receiving financing from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) the project, whose route would take it through conflict torn-Helmand and Kandahar in Afghanistan and Quetta in Pakistan, has been held up by security problems.

Turkmenistan sits atop the world's fourth-biggest natural gas reserves and Russia, China and the West are vying to expand their presence there as the country cautiously relaxes the policy of isolation imposed by Berdymukhamedov's late predecessor Saparmurat Niyazov. – AFP

Three Oxfam workers killed in Afghanistan

KABUL: Oxfam has suspended operations in a northeastern Afghan province after two of its staff members and a community volunteer were killed there last week, the aid agency said.

The three Afghans were killed on Saturday when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in Badakhshan, the province’s deputy governor, Shamsul Rahman, said by phone Wednesday.

The province that had been largely free from insurgent attacks but has seen growing violence recently blamed on Taliban units who have moved to the area as part of a strategy of spreading their presence away from their traditional strongholds in the south and along the mountainous border with Pakistan.

Rahman said Taliban insurgents who have recently infiltrated into the area were likely behind the attack in Shahri Buzurg district, about 185 miles northeast of Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul.

‘‘We have temporarily suspended operations in Badakhshan and are reviewing all security measures and protocols. At present, Oxfam has no plans to discontinue its work in Afghanistan,’’ the Britain-based group said in a statement issued late Tuesday.

Spokesmen for the group were not immediately available for comment on Wednesday.

In early August, a group of suspected insurgents in the province murdered 10 members of the International Assistance Mission — six Americans, three Afghans, one German and a Briton — who had spent two weeks giving vision and other medical care to impoverished villagers in neighboring Nuristan province.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the murders, although Al-Qaeda-linked foreign fighters and the Hizb-i-Islami group under the leadership of warlord and former Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar also operate in the area.

Oxfam staffs numerous offices around Afghanistan overseeing projects ranging from distributing livestock, to running schools, providing clean water and advocating for women’s rights. —AP

Aisam Qureshi, Rohan Bopanna ease to first-round win

KARACHI: After becoming the first Pakistani to be seeded at the US Open, Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi ,and his Indian partner Rohan Bopanna entered the second round of the grand slam on Tuesday.

Seeded 16th at the last grand slam of the year, the Pakistani and Indian pair scored a straight-sets win (6-3, 7-6) over Brian Battistone and Ryler Deheart of the United States.

Both sides sailed through the first four service games but Qureshi and Bopanna did face a test at 2-2, when they had to save a break point before securing the game. In the next game, however, they put their opponents under pressure and managed to break serve and take a 4-2 lead. The set was essentially decided at this point, as the South Asian duo held their next two games to win 6-3.

The second set was a much livelier affair as the Americans, already forced into a corner, decided to fight back and dictated the pace of the set. At 2-3, Qureshi and Bopanna succumbed to their opponents’ aggression and lost their serve and the Americans held their own serve for a 5-3 lead. This was a stern test for the Indo-Pak duo, who showed great resolve to break back Deheart’s serve, and restore parity at 5-5, sending the set into a tie-break

Qureshi and Bopanna secured an early mini-break in the tie-break and led all the way up to 6-4. The Americans put a few points together to serve at 7-8 to stay in the match but unwilling to take the match to three sets, the Indo-Pak pair won the tie break 9-7, and the match 6-3 7-6(7).

In the next round, Qureshi and Bopanna will play the winner of the match between Sekou Bangoura and Nathan Pasha, and German pair of Michael Kohlmann and Jarkko Nieminen.

Floods slow growth, raise inflation: Gilani

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's economic growth will plunge two percentage points because of the floods and lead to ''massive'' job losses, the prime minister warned Wednesday in a speech that predicted a grim couple of years for the already fragile country.

Yousuf Raza Gilani said one-fifth of the country's irrigation infrastructure, livestock and crops had been destroyed.

''Performance of agriculture consequently will be much lower this year and the year ahead. This loss will have a snowball effect on manufacturing, services and export sectors,'' he said in a speech to his Cabinet. ''Food security of the country is also under threat.''

The floods began over a month ago in the northwest after extremely heavy monsoon rains and surged south along the Indus River and its tributaries. The army, along with international aid agencies, are struggling to reach the some 8 million people who are still in need of emergency assistance.

The scale of the disaster has raised concerns about the stability of the country, which was already struggling with an anemic economy and relentless attacks by the Taliban and al-Qaida. Gilani warned the floods may yet have ''social implications,'' but did not elaborate.

Gilani said economic growth would drop to 2.5 per cent in the 2011 financial year, down from a predicted 4.5 per cent this year. Inflation, currently predicted to hit 9.5 per cent next year, would likely be in the range of 15 per cent to 20 per cent.

''This economic loss will translate into massive job losses,'' he said.

The floods have receded in parts of north and central Pakistan but are continuing in the south. The waters are expected to remain for several weeks, prolonging the misery of millions desperate to return home and rebuild their lives.

Foreign countries have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to help Pakistan respond to the floods. – AP

Iraq civilian deaths dip as US combat mission ends

BAGHDAD: The number of civilians killed by violence in Iraq fell in August from the month before, even as the US military formally ended combat operations and cut its numbers to 50,000, government data showed on Wednesday.

The 295 civilians killed in bombings and shootings last month, according to Health Ministry statistics, was roughly a quarter lower than July’s tally of 396 and also below last August’s bodycount of 393.

Casualties were high in July, however, among the Iraqi security forces, a total of 54 soldiers and 77 police were also killed in insurgent attacks, the defence and interior ministries said.

The end to the US combat mission on Aug. 31 and accompanying fall in US military strength has been met with apprehension by many Iraqis because of the failure of their leaders to form a new government six months after an election.

Al Qaeda-linked insurgents have sought to exploit the political impasse through persistent suicide bombings and attacks.

They have claimed credit for a suicide bombing at an army recruitment centre in Baghdad on Aug. 17, in which 57 people were killed, and attacks on police stations on Aug. 25, in which more than 60 people were killed.

Overall violence in Iraq has fallen sharply since the 2006/07 height of the sectarian war unleashed after the 2003 US-led invasion. Still, insurgents and Shia militia continue to carry out daily attacks around the country.

The 50,000 US soldiers remaining in Iraq will turn their focus to advising and assisting their Iraqi counterparts, ahead of an end-2011 deadline for all US soldiers to withdraw.

There were three US fatalities in August attributed to hostile fire, up from just one the month before, according to icasualties.org. —Reuters

Hungry families block highway in Thatta

THATTA: Hundreds of hungry families blocked a highway in Pakistan's flood-hit south on Wednesday, demanding the government provide more food as the UN warned of a “triple threat” to desperate survivors.

Up to 500 people from a government-run relief camp in Thatta city, in the worst-hit province of Sindh, blocked the main road between Karachi city and Thatta for three hours calling for the state to provide food and shelter.

“No food or water has been provided to us for the past two days,” Mohammad Qasim, a 60-year-old resident of the flooded town of Sujawal, told AFP.

The World Food Programme issued a stark warning of the threat to food supplies after a month of catastrophic flooding that has affected 18 million people, as the deluge flows south on its way to the Arabian Sea.

Pakistan's government - widely painted as corrupt and bogged down in red tape and infighting - has been derided in domestic media over its response to the floods and has been the focus of angry isolated protests by the affected.

While the international community has now donated 700 million dollars, domestic anger has been mounting at the civilian government, which has staggered from crisis to crisis in the 30 months since its election.

“There is a triple threat unfolding as this crisis widens and deepens,” World Food Programme chief Josette Sheeran said at a press conference in Islamabad on Tuesday, after visiting flooded areas.

The triple threat was people's loss of seeds, crops and incomes, "leaving them vulnerable to hunger, homelessness and desperation - the situation is extremely critical," she said.

Devastation to farmland and transport links mean that food prices have rocketed, fanning frustration among the masses already struggling to make ends meet in Pakistan's shaky economy.

In televised comments Wednesday, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani told his cabinet that the flooding had “devastated the infrastructure on a large scale and the government is trying to cope with the crisis”.

The floods have engulfed a fifth of the volatile country of 167 million, with 3.4 million hectares (8.4 million acres) of rich farmland ruined, according to latest UN figures.

“We need to bring in a lot more (food). We're still looking at a caseload in urgent need of about six million but with the floodwaters still moving it's quite possible that number will increase,” WFP spokesman Marcus Prior told AFP.

Meanwhile, floodwaters flowing south in Sindh province entered one town and threatened another on the east bank of the swollen Indus.

“Water has entered the outskirts of Jati town and is two kilometres (1.25 miles) away form Choohar Jamali town,” senior city official Hadi Bakhsh Kalhoro told AFP, adding that a few thousand people remained trapped in both towns.

Kalhoro said power cuts were hindering rescue efforts but said that all other districts in the southern province were now safe.

Pakistani troops and city workers managed to save Thatta from the waters by fixing a breach in river defences on Tuesday, with most of the population of 300,000 now returned home, according to officials.

Sindh is the worst-affected province, with 19 of its 23 districts ravaged as floodwaters have swollen the raging Indus river to 40 times its usual volume.

One million people have been displaced over the past few days alone.

River management official Qadir Bakhsh Palijo said that waters in the area were receding, but could take up to 10 days to lower to a “satisfactory level”.

Pakistan's government has confirmed 1,645 people dead and 2,479 injured but officials warn that millions are at risk from food shortages and disease.

The UN children's fund UNICEF said the disaster had affected nearly 8.6 million children, with the risk of more deaths from waterborne disease if clean water, good nutrition, sanitation and vaccination are not forthcoming. – AFP