European Union to beef up emergency aid program

BRUSSELS: The European Union says it is considering forming a task force to better coordinate its emergency aid in the future, after the French president criticized the union for its response following Pakistan's devastating flooding.

EU spokesman Ferran Tarandellas Espuny said Monday the bloc is debating how to ''reinforce our disaster response capability.''

It follows criticism by French President Nicolas Sarkozy over the weekend that EU's euro40 million ($51 million) in humanitarian aid following the flooding in Pakistan was insufficient.

Aid for Pakistan from all donors has fallen far short of an appeal by the United Nations for nearly $460 million in emergency assistance for victims of the country's worst floods in living memory.

Sarkozy said the 27-member union must react better and more quickly to events like Pakistan's flooding, Haiti's earthquake or Russian forest fires. -AP

Pakistan’s archaeological sites endangered by floods

SUKKUR: Pakistan’s devastating floods are now threatening ancient archaeological sites, on top of leaving millions of people dependent on humanitarian aid to survive, an antiquities official said Monday.

Pakistan has been ravaged by nearly three weeks of monsoon rains. Flooding has affected one-fifth of the country and hit up to 20 million people, destroying crops, infrastructure, towns and villages.

Flood waters in the southern province of Sindh have inundated hundreds of villages and also threaten its cultural heritage.

“There is danger to the 5,000-year-old Moenjodaro and Aamri archaeological sites,” said Karim Lashari, chief of the provincial antiquities department.

Moenjodaro is on UNESCO’s list of the world heritage sites. Its website says the city was built of unbaked brick in the third millennium BC and provides evidence of an early system of town planning.

Aamri, in the Dadu district of Sindh, has been declared a Pakistani national heritage site.

“Aamri is exposed to greater danger because the river Indus flows along this ancient town. There is also a major canal and any overflow of water there would submerge this town,” he said.

“There is already pressure on its banks and danger is severe.”

Pakistan is facing its worst floods for 80 years. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday visited scenes of the devastation and urged the world to speed up relief efforts.

The United Nations has launched an aid appeal for 460 million dollars, but charities say the response has been sluggish. —AFP

Zardari, Kayani discuss security, relief activities

ISLAMABAD: Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani called on President Asif Ali Zardari here on Monday and discussed matters relating to security situation in the country.

In a meeting held at Aiwan-i-Sadr, the activities of Pakistan army regarding relief and rescue operations in the flood affected areas were also discussed. — APP

Four months left for private security firms in Afghanistan

KABUL: President Hamid Karzai will give armed contracting firms in Afghanistan four months to dissolve, his spokesman said Monday, sparking fears over a potential security crisis in the war-torn country.

“Today the president is going to issue a four-month deadline for the dissolution of private security companies,” Waheed Omer said.

Omer gave notice last week that Karzai intended to deal with private security firms, calling it “a serious programme that the government of Afghanistan will execute”.

He said the firms employ 30,000-40,000 armed personnel throughout Afghanistan.

These are employed by more than 50 companies, roughly half of them Afghan.

Omer said last week that Karzai had spoken to his western backers as well as leaders of the US and Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) who contract the companies to safeguard many aspects of their work, including supply convoys.

The flourishing sector provides security services to the international forces, the Pentagon, the UN mission, aid and non-governmental organisations, embassies and Western media companies in Afghanistan.

But Afghans criticise the private security forces as overbearing and abusive, notably on the country's roads.

Karzai has often complained that they duplicate the work of the Afghan security forces, and divert resources needed to train the army and police.

Isaf said Monday dissolving private security firms would not be practical or possible until an alternative force was ready to take over.

“It's very clear for the Afghan side and for us as well to dissolve private security companies as soon as possible,” Isaf spokesman General Josef Blotz told reporters.

“But there's a condition to it and this condition is that we need to have enough Afghan national security force that can provide the necessary security which is prerequisite for the private security companies to do it,” he added.

The Pentagon last week played down Karzai's plans, saying the issue was under discussion, though conceded there were problems.

Colonel David Lapan, Pentagon spokesman, said efforts were underway to address issues raised by Karzai in a way that also met US security needs.

Allison Stanger, author of “One Nation Under Contract: The Outsourcing of American Power and the Future of Foreign Policy”, said eliminating private security firms would pose a major problem for western forces.

“Ending the use of private security contractors in Afghanistan effective immediately would be equivalent to accelerating the end of western involvement in Afghanistan,” she said.

“Our current programmes simply cannot be sustained without that vital support — unless we were to further increase the number of uniformed personnel on the ground,” she said.

It would also cut off a major source of jobs because more than 90 per cent of security contractors in Afghanistan are Afghans, she added.

At an international conference in Kabul on July 20, donors endorsed sweeping Afghan government plans to take responsibility for security by 2014.

The Taliban, overthrown in a 2001 US-led invasion, control large swathes of the south and have put up stiff resistance to a troop surge deploying 150,000 US and Nato troops as part of a counter-insurgency strategy.

Karzai's western backers have supported his call for Afghan security forces to “lead and conduct military operations in all provinces by the end of 2014”, allowing foreign troops to start pulling out.

The west is under increasing pressure at home to justify their commitments to Afghanistan, where the war has killed more than 400 foreign soldiers so far this year.

Up to 3.5 million children at risk of deadly diseases

ISLAMABAD: The United Nations warned Monday that up to 3.5 million children were at risk from water-borne diseases in flood-hit Pakistan and said it was bracing to deal with thousands of potential cholera cases.

Fresh rains threaten further anguish for millions of people that have been affected by Pakistan's worst floods for 80 years and UN chief Ban Ki-moon has urged the world to speed up international aid urgently.

Described as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today, the three-week disaster has affected 20 million people, and has destroyed crops, infrastructure, towns and villages, according to the government.

The United Nations has launched an aid appeal for 460 million dollars, but charities say the response has been sluggish and flood survivors on the ground have lashed out against the weak civilian government for failing to help.

Maurizio Giuliano, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), feared that Pakistan was on the brink of a “second wave of death” unless more donor funds materialised.

“Up to 3.5 million children are at high risk of deadly water-borne diseases, including diarrhoea-related, such as watery diarrhoea and dysentery,” he said, estimating the total number at risk from such diseases at six million.

Typhoid, hepatitis A and E are also concerns, he said.

“WHO (World Health Organisation) is preparing to assist up to 140,000 people in case there is any cholera, but the government has not notified us of any confirmed cases,” the spokesman told AFP.

“We fear we're getting close to the start of seeing a second wave of death if not enough money comes through, due to water-borne diseases along with lack of clean water and food shortages,” he said.

Cholera is endemic in Pakistan and the risk of outbreaks increases with flooding, but the government has so far confirmed no cases publicly.

One charity worker, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that several flood survivors had already died of the disease.

The United Nations estimates that 1,600 people have died in the floods, while the government in Islamabad has confirmed 1,384 deaths.

Several hundred people on Monday blocked the main highway linking the breadbasket of Punjab province to the financial capital Karachi, calling for assistance and holding up traffic for more than an hour, witnesses said.

“We have no food and no shelter. We need immediate help,” shouted the protesters, who included women and children.

Intermittent rain fell overnight and early Monday in Sukkur and other parts of Sindh, turning refugee camps into mud and increasing the misery of survivors and keeping alive fears of further breaches in the Indus river and canals.

The bad weather was also hampering relief efforts, officials said.

Bibi Momal, 35, sat in dirty clothes and broken shoes on a roadside waiting for relief, weak and exhausted..

“We have no tents. We spent the night in the rain. Our children are hungry and sick. We came here for relief but we got nothing.”

A shocked Ban became the first world leader to visit the flood-affected areas at the weekend, saying he would never forget the “heart wrenching” scenes of destruction and suffering that he witnessed.

“I'm here to urge the world to step up their generous support for Pakistan,” he told a news conference with President Asif Ali Zardari.

Ban said one-fifth of the country had been ravaged and officials warned that, in the long term, billions of dollars will be needed as villages, businesses, crops and infrastructure have been wiped out.

Pakistan's government has appealed to the global community to help it deal with a humanitarian crisis compared by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to the one which followed the sub-continent's partition in 1947.

“This is a long-term affair,” Zardari said. “We have to consider and keep it in mind that for two years we have to give them crops, fertilisers, seeds, and look after them and feed them to take them to where they were.”

Martin Kaymer takes PGA title with playoff win

SHEBOYGAN: Germany’s Martin Kaymer beat Bubba Watson in a three-hole playoff to capture the 92nd PGA Championship on Sunday after a shocking penalty knocked Dustin Johnson out of contention.

The 25-year-old Kaymer made a two-foot bogey putt on the final hole of the playoff to win his first major championship.

“It was a very exciting week,” said Kaymer who collected 1.35 million dollars for the victory. “I hope it is one of many majors I win in my career. It’s spectacular.”

Kaymer joins US Open winner Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland and British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa as first-time major winners this year. Six of the past seven major champions have been first-time major winners.

Johnson appeared set to join Watson and Kaymer in the playoff but the American was slapped with a two-stroke penalty immediately after his round for grounding his club in a bunker on the 18th hole.

Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy and American Zach Johnson shared third, missing the playoff by one shot.

In the playoff, Kaymer and Watson exchanged birdies on the first two holes before Watson got into trouble on the final hole, the par-four 18.

His approach landed in the water and his next shot sailed over the green. Watson chipped onto the green and even hit the flag stick, but it was too little too late as he had to settle for a double-bogey six.

“It was a weird day,” said Watson, who only consolation is he made the US Ryder Cup team. That left Kaymer, who played conservatively down the stretch, with two putts to close it out.

He became the first German to win the PGA Championship and the second German behind Bernhard Langer to win a major title.

Kaymer and Watson emerged from a crowded leaderboard Sunday that featured 10 players within two shots of the lead much of the day.

Kaymer kept a trend going by becoming the third consecutive non-US PGA Championship winner, following Ireland’s Padraig Harrington in 2008 and South Korea’s Yang Yong-eun last year in hoisting the Wanamaker Trophy.

Sunday’s bizarre turn of events added to the hardship this season for Dustin Johnson, who suffered a final-round meltdown at the US Open in June by blowing a three-shot lead.

Johnson finished his fourth round thinking he had shot 11-under 277 for 72 holes and would be going to a playoff with the others.

But an official then notified him on the green that there would be a review of his approach shot on 18 from a bunker outside the ropes.

Officials determined that he illegally placed his club face on the ground in a sand bunker before making his shot.

Because the sand bunker was well off the fairway and in the middle of the gallery where people had been walking all day, Johnson thought it was just a normal sand hazard without any special rules.

“It never crossed my mind I was in a sandtrap,” said Johnson. “That was one situation where I should have looked at the rule sheet a little harder.”

Whistling Straits labels itself a links-style course on US soil and has nearly 1,000 bunkers, many of them well off the fairways. So officials came up with a set of supplementary rules that were posted in the locker room.

Johnson thought he actually had a chance to win his first major title outright but a five-foot par putt at 18 missed right.

After the penalty was tacked on, Johnson ended up with a triple-bogey seven on the par-four 500-yard hole.

“The only worse thing that could have happened to me was if I made that putt on the last hole,” he said.

Johnson finished in a tie for fifth with countryman Jason Dufner and Australian Steve Elkington.

China’s Liang Wen-chong, who set the course record with a 64 on Saturday, shot a final round one-over 73 and finished in a tie for eighth.

Masters champion Phil Mickelson had the best round of the day, firing a five-under 67. Both Mickelson and Tiger Woods were unlikely early starters at Whistling Straits on Sunday.

Mickelson had a chance of passing Woods for the world number one ranking but it was a case of too little too late.

Mickelson eagled the par-five fifth hole and rolled in five birdies but it wasn’t enough to catch Woods for the top spot.

Mickelson, who started the day 12 shots back of the lead, needed to finish in solo fourth place and have Woods finish outside the top 46 to become No. 1 on Monday. He finished tied for 12th.

Four-time PGA champion Woods started out hot with birdies on three of the first four holes but he stumbled off the tee.

Woods shot one-over-par 73 and hit 21 of 56 fairways over the four days. —AFP

Internet at home goes hand-in-hand with romance

WASHINGTON: Dim the lights, turn on the schmoozy music, and log on... Adults who have Internet access at home are more likely to be in romantic relationships than adults who don’t, a study presented Monday found.

Just over 82 percent of adults who have Internet access at home also had a spouse or romantic partner, compared to just under 63 percent of adults who did not have access to the worldwide web, the study presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association says.

“Our research suggests that Internet access has an important role to play in helping Americans find mates,” said Michael Rosenfeld, an associate professor of sociology at Stanford University and the lead author of the study.

In addition to finding that people are more likely to be in romantic relationships if they have Internet access in their homes, the researchers found that the Internet is gaining importance as a place where couples meet, and especially same-sex couples.

“It is possible that in the next several years the Internet could eclipse friends as the most influential way Americans meet their romantic partners, displacing friends out of the top position for the first time since the early 1940s,” Rosenfeld said.

Among couples who met online, 61 percent were same-sex couples, the study said.

“Couples who meet online are much more likely to be same-sex couples, and somewhat more likely to be from different religious backgrounds,” Rosenfeld said.

“The Internet is not simply a new and more efficient way to keep in touch with our existing networks; rather the Internet is a new kind of social intermediary that may reshape the kinds of partners and relationships we have,” he said.

Rosenfeld and colleagues analyzed data from a national survey of 4,002 adults for the study.