Reuters Emergency News Service now in operation (EIS)
Joseph Raglione
January 27, 2010
* The Thomson Reuters Foundation has launched its new Emergency Information Service (EIS) to provide survivors of the Haiti earthquake with information. For information on EIS, copy and paste this...http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/126373176384.htmand
For the website copy and paste this...http://www.trust.org/trust.org/page/files/eis.html
TrustLaw - New service available for AlertNet members
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WEEKLY ALERTNET - Aid agencies try to feed thousands of quake survivors in Haiti - Nigerian VP pledges government will prevent further clashes between Muslims and Christian gangs - Afghan civil society demands a bigger say in the country's future
Jan 27, 2010
AMERICAS
HAITI: With food, cash and medicine starting to flow, Haiti's government and aid workers turned to the mammoth task of feeding and sheltering hundreds of thousands of earthquake survivors still living in the capital's rubble-strewn streets and filthy tent cities. As many as 1.5 million Haitians were made homeless by the Jan. 12 earthquake and the government has said 400,000 survivors will be moved to new villages to be built outside the ravaged coastal city, where the homeless huddle, cook and sleep amid decaying corpses and mounds of garbage. Meanwhile, the death toll for the United Nations in Haiti reached 61, the greatest loss of life the world body has suffered from a single incident in its 65-year history. The Haitian government said it would need international support for at least five to ten years to help recover from the earthquake. Donors have decided to hold an urgent international pledging conference at the U.N. headquarters in New York in March. The government and aid groups also warned that children who have lost their parents in the earthquake face a growing threat from child traffickers or illicit adoptions. On Tuesday, U.S. troops pulled a man alive from under a collapsed building in Haiti's capital as U.N. soldiers sprayed tear gas at survivors desperate for food two weeks after a catastrophic earthquake.
For a selection of news, features and pictures on Haiti, please click here.
PERU: Mudslides in Peru have washed away some 250 homes, bridges and parts of several highways, as well as stranding tourists at the ancient Inca site of Machu Picchu.
AFRICA
NIGERIA: Nigerian authorities relaxed a 24-hour curfew in the central city of Jos on Thursday to allow thousands of residents to return to their homes following religious clashes that killed hundreds. Four days of clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs this week killed more than 460, wounded nearly 1,000, and forced thousands to flee their homes. The country's vice president ordered the army to take over security in the central city of Jos and pledged the government would prevent further clashes. Goodluck Jonathan, who has been empowered by a federal court to perform executive duties in the absence of President Umaru Yar'Adua, ordered the army to take over security in and around Jos after days of clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs.
CHAD: Aid workers in volatile eastern Chad anxiously watched discussions over the possible exit of U.N. peacekeepers, after the government said it wanted the mission out when its mandate ends on March 15. "The principal worry for aid agencies is what would be the impact on the security situation," said an aid worker in eastern Chad. "If the Chadian government can create the conditions in which aid operations can go forward in a secure environment, good. But if not, continuing humanitarian work here will be very difficult."
ETHIOPIA: Britain will give Ethiopia $6.4 million to feed and treat 80,000 severely malnourished children across the huge Horn of Africa country, the U.N children's agency UNICEF said. The agency said it still needed another $14.7 million for emergency feeding in Ethiopia this year. The Ethiopian government says 6.2 million people will need emergency food this year. Another 7 million Ethiopians are on a long-running food-for-work scheme.
KENYA: Kenya deported Jamaican Muslim cleric Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal, a week after protests against his detention in east Africa's biggest economy degenerated into running battles in the capital. There had been fears the cleric's continued presence in Kenya, along with the suppression by the security forces of last Friday's march, could trigger more violence in the capital Nairobi and the port city Mombasa. Meanwhile, Somalia's hardline al Shabaab rebels denied they had threatened to attack Kenya following a crackdown on Somalis in its capital Nairobi, and said a recording posted on the internet was a fake.
DARFUR: Nearly 80 percent of the 300,000 conflict-related deaths in Darfur were due to diseases like diarrhoea, not violence, Belgian scientists say. An analysis of deaths dating from 2003, when rebels took up arms against the government of Sudan, showed that after an initial peak of violent deaths in the still-ongoing conflict, diseases associated with diarrhoea became the major killers.
SOUTH SUDAN: The United States is worried about the flow of arms into semi-autonomous southern Sudan, some of it heavy weapons, ahead of a nationwide April election, according to the U.S. envoy to the United Nations. "We heard today from the U.N. that it is not just small arms but some heavier munitions that seem to be flowing in," said U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice after a U.N. Security Council meeting on Sudan.
ASIA
AFGHANISTAN: Poor rains and a lack of snowfall in recent weeks in war-torn Afghanistan have left the impoverished nation at risk of a drought that could push millions of already vulnerable civilians over the brink, aid workers warned. The commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan told The Financial Times he hoped increased troop levels would weaken the Taliban enough that its leaders would accept a peace deal and bring the war to an end. Afghanistan won $1.6 billion in debt relief from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and creditor nations, as the war-torn country faces funding needs to rebuild from years of conflict. Meanwhile, members of Afghan civil society demanded a bigger say in the country's future, arguing aid and development programmes have become too enmeshed with international political and military goals. And, ahead of an international conference in London on Thursday to discuss the country's future, Afghanistan's neighbours gave their backing to plans to reconcile with Taliban insurgents.
SOUTHEAST ASIA: Southeast Asia's exposure to natural disasters has spurred ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, to agree a legally binding pact to establish national and regional structures to deal with disasters - the first of its kind. Under the agreement, which came into force on Dec. 24, 2009, governments of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam are required to draw up national plans on managing disasters - ranging from early warning and preparedness to rehabilitation and scientific research. "This is the Kyoto Protocol of disaster management. It's a watershed for all of us," Jerry Velasquez, senior regional coordinator for U.N. disaster agency UNISDR told AlertNet. For a Q&A on the pact, click here.
SRI LANKA: Sri Lankan state TV proclaimed President Mahinda Rajapaksa the winner of a historic post-war vote, as his chief rival hunkers down in a luxury hotel surrounded by troops he said he feared would arrest him. Final results from Tuesday's poll are not due until after 4 p.m. (1030GMT), but an estimated two-thirds of all ballots already officially released show Rajapaksa with 4.2 million votes to 2.8 million for former army commander General Sarath Fonseka.
MONGOLIA: An unusually severe winter following a summer drought risks pushing almost 200,000 people into hunger and deeper poverty in Mongolia, the United Nations warned. Daily temperatures have fallen below -40 degrees Celcius in most of the country - well below habitual winter temperatures of -15 to -35 degrees. As a result, more than one million livestock have already died, according to the National Emergency Management Agency.
MIDDLE EAST
YEMEN: The Obama administration plans to couple expanded military support for Yemen to fight al Qaeda with an economic assistance program aimed at curbing the appeal of Islamists, officials said. In addition to military cooperation that includes U.S. training and other assistance for Yemen's counterterrorism forces, the Pentagon is working with the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development on a development and reconstruction package targeting young men and those who live in tribal and rural areas.
AID AGENCY PERSPECTIVES AND ALERTNET INSIGHT
HAVE YOUR SAY: How could Haiti aid efforts be coordinated better? - AlertNet Insight
Doctors perform hundreds of amputations in quake-hit Haiti daily - Anastasia Moloney, AlertNet Insight
Email scams mar generous response to Haiti quake - Katie Nguyen, AlertNet Insight
Is rivalry among relief and media groups hampering aid flow to Haiti? - Olesya Dmitracova, AlertNet Insight
Haiti quake children plagued by nightmares - Plan UK
Why the media prefer natural disasters - Andrew Stroehlein
Yemen stops airport visas to hamper militants - Reuters
ANALYSIS-Unrest risk clouds Cameroon's "bright future" - Reuters
Africans pledge support to devastated Haiti - George Fominyen and Frank Nyakairu, AlertNet Insight
Haitian girls face increased vulnerability after quake - Laurie Goering, AlertNet Insight
The stars come out for Haiti relief - UNICEF
HAITI: "Anywhere but here" - IRIN
Efforts to curb climate change may need a rethink in wake of U.S. vote - Laurie Goering, AlertNet
Kenyans get satellite insurance for cows, camels - Reuters
In pictures: Rebuilding northern Uganda - ECHO
ANALYSIS-U.S. gambles on long-term aid as security key - Reuters
FEATURE-China casts nervous eye at erstwhile ally Myanmar - Reuters
VIDEO: China in push for renewable energy - Reuters
Q+A What is the fate of the Hmongs deported from Thailand? - Thin Lei Win, AlertNet Insight
Afghanistan: war's heavy toll on civilians - ICRC
Afghans demand bigger say in country's future - AlertNet Insight, Katherine Baldwin
Extreme weather threatens Mongolians with hunger and poverty - Thin Lei Win, AlertNet Insight
TIP OF THE WEEK - Who works where:
Go here to find contact details of aid organisations working across the world. You can filter your search by emergency, country and organisation.
If you no longer wish to receive this weekly digest, please click here.
This Email was sent to you by Thomson Reuters, the global news and information company.
Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender specifically states them to be the views of Thomson Reuters.
This email was sent to you by Thomson Reuters, the global news and information company.
Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender specifically states them to be the views of Thomson Reuters.
For the website copy and paste this...http://www.trust.org/trust.org/page/files/eis.html
TrustLaw - New service available for AlertNet members
Does your organisation need free legal assistance for your programmes and projects? The Thomson Reuters Foundation has just launched a free new service enabling AlertNet member NGOs to connect with some of the world's leading law firms and lawyers. Find out how to apply to TrustLaw Connect.
Become a fan of Alertnet on our Facebook page. You can also follow us on Twitter.
Please also visit our new Climate Change page for news stories, briefings and resources.
WEEKLY ALERTNET - Aid agencies try to feed thousands of quake survivors in Haiti - Nigerian VP pledges government will prevent further clashes between Muslims and Christian gangs - Afghan civil society demands a bigger say in the country's future
Jan 27, 2010
AMERICAS
HAITI: With food, cash and medicine starting to flow, Haiti's government and aid workers turned to the mammoth task of feeding and sheltering hundreds of thousands of earthquake survivors still living in the capital's rubble-strewn streets and filthy tent cities. As many as 1.5 million Haitians were made homeless by the Jan. 12 earthquake and the government has said 400,000 survivors will be moved to new villages to be built outside the ravaged coastal city, where the homeless huddle, cook and sleep amid decaying corpses and mounds of garbage. Meanwhile, the death toll for the United Nations in Haiti reached 61, the greatest loss of life the world body has suffered from a single incident in its 65-year history. The Haitian government said it would need international support for at least five to ten years to help recover from the earthquake. Donors have decided to hold an urgent international pledging conference at the U.N. headquarters in New York in March. The government and aid groups also warned that children who have lost their parents in the earthquake face a growing threat from child traffickers or illicit adoptions. On Tuesday, U.S. troops pulled a man alive from under a collapsed building in Haiti's capital as U.N. soldiers sprayed tear gas at survivors desperate for food two weeks after a catastrophic earthquake.
For a selection of news, features and pictures on Haiti, please click here.
PERU: Mudslides in Peru have washed away some 250 homes, bridges and parts of several highways, as well as stranding tourists at the ancient Inca site of Machu Picchu.
AFRICA
NIGERIA: Nigerian authorities relaxed a 24-hour curfew in the central city of Jos on Thursday to allow thousands of residents to return to their homes following religious clashes that killed hundreds. Four days of clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs this week killed more than 460, wounded nearly 1,000, and forced thousands to flee their homes. The country's vice president ordered the army to take over security in the central city of Jos and pledged the government would prevent further clashes. Goodluck Jonathan, who has been empowered by a federal court to perform executive duties in the absence of President Umaru Yar'Adua, ordered the army to take over security in and around Jos after days of clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs.
CHAD: Aid workers in volatile eastern Chad anxiously watched discussions over the possible exit of U.N. peacekeepers, after the government said it wanted the mission out when its mandate ends on March 15. "The principal worry for aid agencies is what would be the impact on the security situation," said an aid worker in eastern Chad. "If the Chadian government can create the conditions in which aid operations can go forward in a secure environment, good. But if not, continuing humanitarian work here will be very difficult."
ETHIOPIA: Britain will give Ethiopia $6.4 million to feed and treat 80,000 severely malnourished children across the huge Horn of Africa country, the U.N children's agency UNICEF said. The agency said it still needed another $14.7 million for emergency feeding in Ethiopia this year. The Ethiopian government says 6.2 million people will need emergency food this year. Another 7 million Ethiopians are on a long-running food-for-work scheme.
KENYA: Kenya deported Jamaican Muslim cleric Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal, a week after protests against his detention in east Africa's biggest economy degenerated into running battles in the capital. There had been fears the cleric's continued presence in Kenya, along with the suppression by the security forces of last Friday's march, could trigger more violence in the capital Nairobi and the port city Mombasa. Meanwhile, Somalia's hardline al Shabaab rebels denied they had threatened to attack Kenya following a crackdown on Somalis in its capital Nairobi, and said a recording posted on the internet was a fake.
DARFUR: Nearly 80 percent of the 300,000 conflict-related deaths in Darfur were due to diseases like diarrhoea, not violence, Belgian scientists say. An analysis of deaths dating from 2003, when rebels took up arms against the government of Sudan, showed that after an initial peak of violent deaths in the still-ongoing conflict, diseases associated with diarrhoea became the major killers.
SOUTH SUDAN: The United States is worried about the flow of arms into semi-autonomous southern Sudan, some of it heavy weapons, ahead of a nationwide April election, according to the U.S. envoy to the United Nations. "We heard today from the U.N. that it is not just small arms but some heavier munitions that seem to be flowing in," said U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice after a U.N. Security Council meeting on Sudan.
ASIA
AFGHANISTAN: Poor rains and a lack of snowfall in recent weeks in war-torn Afghanistan have left the impoverished nation at risk of a drought that could push millions of already vulnerable civilians over the brink, aid workers warned. The commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan told The Financial Times he hoped increased troop levels would weaken the Taliban enough that its leaders would accept a peace deal and bring the war to an end. Afghanistan won $1.6 billion in debt relief from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and creditor nations, as the war-torn country faces funding needs to rebuild from years of conflict. Meanwhile, members of Afghan civil society demanded a bigger say in the country's future, arguing aid and development programmes have become too enmeshed with international political and military goals. And, ahead of an international conference in London on Thursday to discuss the country's future, Afghanistan's neighbours gave their backing to plans to reconcile with Taliban insurgents.
SOUTHEAST ASIA: Southeast Asia's exposure to natural disasters has spurred ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, to agree a legally binding pact to establish national and regional structures to deal with disasters - the first of its kind. Under the agreement, which came into force on Dec. 24, 2009, governments of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam are required to draw up national plans on managing disasters - ranging from early warning and preparedness to rehabilitation and scientific research. "This is the Kyoto Protocol of disaster management. It's a watershed for all of us," Jerry Velasquez, senior regional coordinator for U.N. disaster agency UNISDR told AlertNet. For a Q&A on the pact, click here.
SRI LANKA: Sri Lankan state TV proclaimed President Mahinda Rajapaksa the winner of a historic post-war vote, as his chief rival hunkers down in a luxury hotel surrounded by troops he said he feared would arrest him. Final results from Tuesday's poll are not due until after 4 p.m. (1030GMT), but an estimated two-thirds of all ballots already officially released show Rajapaksa with 4.2 million votes to 2.8 million for former army commander General Sarath Fonseka.
MONGOLIA: An unusually severe winter following a summer drought risks pushing almost 200,000 people into hunger and deeper poverty in Mongolia, the United Nations warned. Daily temperatures have fallen below -40 degrees Celcius in most of the country - well below habitual winter temperatures of -15 to -35 degrees. As a result, more than one million livestock have already died, according to the National Emergency Management Agency.
MIDDLE EAST
YEMEN: The Obama administration plans to couple expanded military support for Yemen to fight al Qaeda with an economic assistance program aimed at curbing the appeal of Islamists, officials said. In addition to military cooperation that includes U.S. training and other assistance for Yemen's counterterrorism forces, the Pentagon is working with the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development on a development and reconstruction package targeting young men and those who live in tribal and rural areas.
AID AGENCY PERSPECTIVES AND ALERTNET INSIGHT
HAVE YOUR SAY: How could Haiti aid efforts be coordinated better? - AlertNet Insight
Doctors perform hundreds of amputations in quake-hit Haiti daily - Anastasia Moloney, AlertNet Insight
Email scams mar generous response to Haiti quake - Katie Nguyen, AlertNet Insight
Is rivalry among relief and media groups hampering aid flow to Haiti? - Olesya Dmitracova, AlertNet Insight
Haiti quake children plagued by nightmares - Plan UK
Why the media prefer natural disasters - Andrew Stroehlein
Yemen stops airport visas to hamper militants - Reuters
ANALYSIS-Unrest risk clouds Cameroon's "bright future" - Reuters
Africans pledge support to devastated Haiti - George Fominyen and Frank Nyakairu, AlertNet Insight
Haitian girls face increased vulnerability after quake - Laurie Goering, AlertNet Insight
The stars come out for Haiti relief - UNICEF
HAITI: "Anywhere but here" - IRIN
Efforts to curb climate change may need a rethink in wake of U.S. vote - Laurie Goering, AlertNet
Kenyans get satellite insurance for cows, camels - Reuters
In pictures: Rebuilding northern Uganda - ECHO
ANALYSIS-U.S. gambles on long-term aid as security key - Reuters
FEATURE-China casts nervous eye at erstwhile ally Myanmar - Reuters
VIDEO: China in push for renewable energy - Reuters
Q+A What is the fate of the Hmongs deported from Thailand? - Thin Lei Win, AlertNet Insight
Afghanistan: war's heavy toll on civilians - ICRC
Afghans demand bigger say in country's future - AlertNet Insight, Katherine Baldwin
Extreme weather threatens Mongolians with hunger and poverty - Thin Lei Win, AlertNet Insight
TIP OF THE WEEK - Who works where:
Go here to find contact details of aid organisations working across the world. You can filter your search by emergency, country and organisation.
If you no longer wish to receive this weekly digest, please click here.
This Email was sent to you by Thomson Reuters, the global news and information company.
Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender specifically states them to be the views of Thomson Reuters.
This email was sent to you by Thomson Reuters, the global news and information company.
Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender specifically states them to be the views of Thomson Reuters.
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