The United States and other countries worldwide have now pledged a total of more than 700 million dollars towards flood relief in Pakistan, a senior US official said Monday.
The United Nations General Assembly meeting last Thursday was a real galvanizing moment in terms of contributions from other countries, said Dan Feldman, the deputy special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
US assure that different countries intend to give an aid of 300 million USD in aggregate for relief and rehabilitation process in Pakistan. It was further said that meetings are being held so that Pakistan would be provide with as much aid as possible and a solution developing session of the UN General Assembly will be held at the end of September.

World Pledges $700 million Towards Flood Relief in Pakistan: US was first posted on August 24, 2010 at 9:42 am.
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NEW YORK: The UN official said the incident changed the route of the ship of the United Nations was partly the fault of the ship’s captain, who did not follow the original plan to unload the goods in the country.

“A unilateral decision to change the route had been taken without consulting the UN, and arrived in country first, then proceed to India. This has resulted in the Pakistani cargo continue to be on board ship on arrival in India unlike the original plan, “spokesman of the UN Farhanul Haq said in a statement.

Aegean Glory, a ship bound from Karachi to transport military goods, was held by India on June 25 A ship carrying 500 tons of weapons, much of which was destined for Pakistan, were found in Indian waters off the coast of Calcutta as a result of “miscommunication” with the master and the United Nations authorities with the Indian government, according to the spokesman.

The ship, the Aegean Glory, has been transporting military cargo used in a mission of peacekeeping in Liberia United Nations to the countries who sent him, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. The UN has hired a contractor to perform private Frency materials, which included rocket launchers, antiaircraft guns, explosives and military vehicles.

But India held the ship last week because he was not aware it was a ship of peace and did not have a clear document of cargo that was headed to Pakistan.

An Indian official said the Aegean Glory was still being held near Kolkata, on Thursday, but expects the ship to be let go soon because it is now clear that it was a UN operation. The containers on the ship will not be opened or searched, the official said.

The UN official said it is standard procedure for carrying cargoes of arms and troops by “commercial means through international tender organized.” The official said the UN “tries to ensure that all items are secure.”

Supporters of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Kashmir’s chief clerk and chairman of the moderate faction of Hurriyat (Freedom) conference being detained by Indian police during a protest in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, 17 June, 2010. Indian police in Srinagar detained top leaders of the Hurriyat conference including Farooq and several supporters following a protest march led by Farooq to the office of United Nations Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan to handover a memorandum highlighting the increasing of human rights violations on Kashmiri people allegedly by Indian security forces in the Himalayan region on 17 June.

The US defence secretary has warned that Hezbollah now has more rockets and missiles than most governments. Robert Gates accused Syria and Iran of supplying weapons of “ever-increasing capability” to the military wing of the Lebanese Shia Islamist movement.

“This is obviously destabilising for the whole region,” he said following talks with his Israeli counterpart. Hezbollah has said the missile stock is not as big as the US or Israel’s and vowed to continue arming itself.

Gates did not say if Syria was supplying Hezbollah with Scud ballistic missiles, as Israel has alleged. Hezbollah fought a 34-day conflict with Israel in 2006 during which more than 1,200 Lebanese people, mostly civilians, were killed. Some 160 Israeli people, most of whom were soldiers, also died.

United Nations Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the conflict, included an arms embargo on Lebanon, except for transfers authorised by the Lebanese government or UN. After meeting Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak in Washington on Tuesday, Gates said Syria and Iran was “providing Hezbollah with rockets and missiles of ever-increasing capability”.

“And we’re at a point now, where Hezbollah has far more rockets and missiles than most governments in the world, and this is obviously destabilising for the whole region and we’re watching it very carefully,” he told a news conference at the Pentagon. Barak also warned that Syria was arming Hezbollah with “weapons systems that can turn or disrupt the very delicate balance in Lebanon”. But he played down the chances of war over the alleged transfers. “We do not intend to provoke any kind of major collision in Lebanon, or vis-a-vis Syria… but we are watching closely these developments and think that they do not contribute to stability in the region.”

Barak also chose not to repeat the allegation, made by Israeli President Shimon Peres last week, that Syria had been smuggling “Scud missiles to Hezbollah so that it can threaten peace”. A Hezbollah member of Lebanon’s parliament told local media that the organisation would continue to rearm itself.

“Our choice was and remains to secure all the arms of resistance that we can,” Hassan Fadlallah told the Arabic As-Safir newspaper. But he said Hezbollah’s armaments “do not compare” with the US or Israel’s. Syria strongly denied the charge, saying it believed Israel aimed “through these claims to further strain the atmosphere in the region”. Lebanon’s prime minister said it seemed Israel was trying to find a pretext for a military strike.

Last week, Syria’s most senior diplomat in Washington, Deputy Chief of Mission Zouheir Jabbour, was summoned by the state department to be warned about its “provocative behaviour”. A senior state department official later said the US would consider the “full range of tools” available to halt any smuggling of Scuds.

PARIS: US Defense Secretary Robert Gates wants to see the United Nations slap sanctions on Iran in “weeks, not months.”

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters Tuesday that Gates “clearly thinks time is of the essence.”

Gates is returning to Washington after spending a week in Europe. In Paris on Monday he met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Gates also met with NATO officials in Istanbul to discuss Afghanistan, including ways to address a shortfall of 4,000 military trainers.

Morrell says Gates believes a U.N. resolution would lay the legal groundwork countries need to impose sanctions independently and pressure Iran to abandon its nuclear program.

Haiti and Earthquake Breaking news updates :- Haiti’s president ‘alive’ after massive quake: official, The Haitian capital has largely been destroyed in the most powerful earthquake to hit the country in more than 200 years.

Journalists from The Associated Press described severe and widespread casualties after a tour of streets where blood and bodies could be seen.

The damage is staggering even in a country accustomed to tragedy and disaster. The Associated Press reporters said the National Palace was a crumbled ruin and tens of thousands of people were homeless.

Many gravely injured people sat in the street, pleading for doctors many hours after the quake. Thousands of people were singing hymns and holding hands in public squares.

The 7.0-magnitude quake struck at 4:53 p.m. Tuesday, leaving large numbers of people unaccounted for. The quake collapsed a hospital where people screamed for help and heavily damaged the National Palace, U.N. peacekeeper headquarters and other buildings.

United Nations officials said hours after the quake struck that they still couldn’t account for a large number of U.N. personnel.

Haiti’s President Rene Preval “is alive” after a massive earthquake that destroyed the presidential palace and other buildings in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s ambassador to Mexico said.

“All I can confirm is that president and his wife are alive and well,” Ambassador Robert Manuel said.

“The situation is very serious,” he added at a press conference after meeting with Mexico’s Deputy Foreign Minister Salvador Beltran.

KABUL:  6 Foreigners killed in Kabul Attack,  Six foreigners have been killed and five others wounded in an attack on a Kabul guest house used by United Nations personnel, an Afghan official said Wednesday.

United Nations confirmed earlier that three members of United Nations personnel stayed in the guesthouse were killed.

Three suicide bombers have been killed during the police operation that suicide bombers were armed, “said Zemarai Bashary, Interior Ministry spokesman.

“Unfortunately, six foreigners have been killed, five foreigners have been injured.

He had no other details.

An Afghan soldier from the site of the attack in a crowded commercial district near Kabul, Butcher’s Street, said four men and one woman were among the dead.

A police officer and an intelligence officer also was killed, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Rajasthan: India Fuel Depot Fire 5 killed, A huge fire broke out at an Indian Oil Coporation (IOC) fuel depot in the outskirts of Jaipur, capital of the northwestern Indian state of Rajasthan, killing at least 5 and injuring nearly 115 people. “One of the oil tanks caught fire and then it spread rapidly. There were huge flames as high as 70 feet and the whole area of nearly 2-3 kilometres was englufed in fire and flames,” an eyewitness said. All four containers in the depot have exploded and the army has joined in rescue operations. The depot contains about nine million litres of fuel products.

Israeli troops demolished Palestinians’ houses in Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque area and ousted them from there. Israeli officials said that the houses were constructed without permit while Philistines say that Israel wants to oust them forcefully by demolishing their houses. They maintained that Tel Aviv is using demolition tactics to tighten its hold on the occupied territory, and again with the aim of destroying the Islamic identity of Jerusalem Al-Quds.

Earlier this year, The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, called for a halt to home demolition in East Jerusalem Al-Quds.