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/ 21 November 2005

Scary Monday for English cricketers

A powerful blast during play and Pakistan’s sharp pace attack combined to make Monday a scary day for England in the second cricket Test. The tourists — one down in the three-Test series — were 113-3 when bad light stopped play for the day, still 349 behind Pakistan’s challenging first-innings total of 462.

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/ 17 November 2005

Annan arrives in Pakistan, appeals for quake aid

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan appealed on Thursday to donors to give generously for victims of the October 8 earthquake, as Kashmiri civilians were poised to cross the disputed territory’s frontier. "What happened here … was something that the world could not have imagined," Annan said after arriving in Pakistan.

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/ 15 November 2005

Quake victims taught to build shelters from ruins

Thirty thousand quake-hit families in Pakistan’s wintry mountains are being taught to build shelters from the rubble of their homes under a new United Nations programme launched on Monday. Survivors will receive tool kits, iron sheeting for roofs and technical details on how to build makeshift homes to protect them from the coming winter, the United Nations Development Programme said.

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/ 15 November 2005

Bomb explodes outside KFC in Karachi

A powerful car bomb exploded outside a KFC restaurant in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi on Tuesday, killing at least three people and injuring 22 others, police said. The blast struck at about 8.45am local time, as commuters were heading to shops and offices in the crowded business hub.

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/ 11 November 2005

Police break up protest by quake refugees

Pakistani police using canes and rifle butts broke up a march on Friday by earthquake survivors protesting what they said were orders to evict them from a makeshift refugee camp. Police denied they were forcing people to leave. Meanwhile, international lenders estimated the economic cost of the quake at more than -billion.

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/ 7 November 2005

Shooting, tear gas as Kashmiris surge to frontier

Pakistani police shot in the air and fired tear gas on Monday to disperse hundreds of angry Kashmiris who surged towards the Indian side of the Line of Control.
A crowd had gathered to watch a ceremony in which troops formally opened the de facto frontier that divides Kashmir to allow earthquake relief goods to cross between the two sides.

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/ 4 November 2005

West criticised for quake aid shortfall

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on Friday accused the West of double standards for failing to meet the country’s quake aid needs, adding that he will delay buying United States fighter jets to focus on relief efforts. Musharraf met quake survivors in stricken Kashmir during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr.

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/ 2 November 2005

England roar back to victory in Pakistan

England made a gallant comeback on Wednesday to snatch a 52-run win over a Patron’s XI in their tour warm-up match in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Defending a modest total of 157 in a minimum of 60 overs, medium-fast-bowler Liam Plunkett and left-arm spinner Ashley Giles combined to bundle out the hosts for a paltry 105 in 36,5 overs.

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/ 2 November 2005

Official quake toll jumps to 73 000

The official death toll in Pakistan from the mammoth October 8 earthquake has jumped to more than 73 000, with about the same number listed as severely injured. Meanwhile, the United States military resumed relief flights in northern Pakistan on Wednesday after one of its choppers allegedly came under attack.

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/ 1 November 2005

Anderson blames wicket for England batting failure

England’s forgotten pacer James Anderson on Tuesday blamed the wicket as his team’s batsmen slumped for a second time in their tour opener in Pakistan. ”The guys look in top nick in the nets. I know it’s different in the middle but the conditions in the middle are also lot different to the nets. I won’t read too much into it,” said Anderson.

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/ 1 November 2005

England’s Barmy Army invades Pakistan

England’s Barmy Army of cricket supporters started to arrive in Pakistan on Tuesday, hoping their bawdy chants can help the team keep up its Ashes-winning form. ”We’re the first batch,” said veteran supporter Phil Long as he and three of his colleagues crammed into a taxi bound for Pindi stadium, where England are playing their tour opener against the Pakistan Cricket Board Patron’s XI.

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/ 25 October 2005

England Test series can help heal Pakistan’s pain

Pakistani captain Inzamam-ul Haq has vowed to salve his country’s earthquake wounds with an exciting Test series against a resurgent England, who arrive on Wednesday on a high from their Ashes triumph. ”Cricket has been a great healer and we hope that both teams put on their best show to heal some of the wounds caused by the earthquake,” Inzamam said from Lahore.

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/ 24 October 2005

Time running out for quake survivors

More help arrived in quake-hit Pakistan on Monday as the United Nations warned that time is running out for survivors of the worst catastrophe in the country’s history. ”We are facing an enormous humanitarian catastrophe,” European Union humanitarian aid commissioner Louis Michel said.

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/ 24 October 2005

Pain and fear in the haven for the lucky

Arriving by donkey, helicopter, or on the shoulders of desperate relatives, grievously injured villagers are still streaming into makeshift hospitals in northern Pakistan 16 days after the earthquake that destroyed their world. By mid-afternoon on Sunday 420 patients had passed through a well-equipped field hospital run by army medics from the United Arab Emirates.

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/ 23 October 2005

Pakistan says support ‘is vital’

The international community failed to grasp the scale of the South Asian earthquake and more than two weeks after the disaster, the response is still not enough, a United Nations relief official said on Sunday. Rashid Khalikov, the UN humanitarian aid area coordinator in this quake-hit capital of Pakistani Kashmir, said international relief agencies were ”still coming to grips” with the disaster.

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/ 21 October 2005

Musharraf blasts ‘inadequate’ aid

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said the amount of foreign reconstruction aid promised after the devastating South Asian quake is ”totally inadequate”. Musharraf was quoted by the British Broadcasting Corporation as saying that Pakistan needed about -billion in disaster aid but the international community had pledged only around -million.

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/ 20 October 2005

UN warns of ‘wave of death’ in Pakistan

The United Nations begged the world on Thursday not to abandon survivors of Pakistan’s earthquake, warning of a second wave of deaths without a dramatic effort on a par with the Berlin airlift to reach stranded villagers. ”We thought the tsunami was the worst we could get. This is worse,” said Jan Egeland, the United Nations emergency relief coordinator.

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/ 20 October 2005

Pakistan disputes rise in quake death toll

Pakistani authorities on Thursday confirmed about 48 000 people died in the October 8 earthquake and said there were discrepancies in a higher toll of about 79 000 given by provincial authorities on Wednesday. The United Nations said the aid shortfall makes the situation worse than after the Indian Ocean tsunami last year.

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/ 18 October 2005

Quake: ‘Not enough tents in the world’

A senior United Nations official said on Tuesday there are not enough tents in the world to protect refugees from the coming winter after the October 8 earthquake in South Asia. Tents are a priority item with about three million people made homeless, with many of them forced to live in the open in plummeting temperatures.

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/ 17 October 2005

Earthquake death toll reaches 54 000

Heavy rains receded on Monday in the Himalayan region of Kashmir, giving hope that efforts could resume to bring aid to the millions of homeless survivors of a monster earthquake that killed an estimated 54 000 people. Two strong aftershocks struck the region in the early morning, including one with a magnitude of 4,5, but there was no immediate report of damage.

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/ 16 October 2005

Desperate scramble for shelter in Pakistan

Torrential downpours delayed quake relief efforts on Sunday in the Himalayan region of Kashmir, and the Pakistani military said one of its helicopters flying an aid mission crashed, killing all six people aboard. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz made it clear that shelter is now the priority.