GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Karachi, Pakistan “shut down” Monday, according to news media Dawn, after two bombs Sunday in the city’s Abbastown area killed 45 people and injured 135. The government declared an official day of mourning and most schools, businesses and markets are closed. The target of the bombs was not clear reports Aljazeera: they [...]
Vaccinations debates continue over cost, now that mercury’s resolved
January 25, 2013 by
WHO calls Pakistan measles outbreak, with 100 children’s deaths in 3 weeks, “alarming” GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A decades-long debate that raged over whether or not vaccinations cause harm has drawn to a quiet close, but that doesn’t mean the world’s children will now easily be vaccinated, with rapidly rising costs and unnecessarily complicated vaccines as [...]
Tensions rise in Pakistan, in capital and north of country
January 17, 2013 by
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A series of events in Pakistan this week underscore the growing power struggles that are taking a toll in the months before national elections. The Supreme Court Tuesday ordered the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on charges of corruption, but aides say the court is allied with the military against the elected [...]
Women health workers killed in Taliban anti-polio raid
December 19, 2012 by
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Five women who were part of a national polio eradication campaign were killed in Pakistan Tuesday 18 December and a 17-year-old girl was killed Monday, prompting the government to shut down vaccination centres in two cities, according to several sources. Three separate killings in 24 hours took the six lives and while [...]
Pakistan waits as school girl lies in hospital, ministry says attackers identified
October 11, 2012 by
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Malala Yousufzai,, already well known as a 14-year-old girl who dared to speak publicly about the problems, particularly for girls who wanted an education, under the Taliban, is recovering in a hospital in Peshawar from gunshot wounds and is expected to be taken out of an induced coma Friday. Interior Minister Rehman [...]
Pakistan factory blasts take 200-plus lives
September 12, 2012 by
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Blasts at two factories in Pakistan have killed more than 200 people and the numbers appear to be rising rapidly. Reuters notes that the fires that ensued are “raising familiar questions about industrial safety in the nuclear-armed South Asian nation.” It says 236 people died in a garment factory in Karachi, although [...]
ICRC scales down what was its largest operation: Pakistan
August 29, 2012 by
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The International Red Cross (ICRC) statement 28 August was startling in its simplicity: “Most of our relief and protection activities in Pakistan, including visits to detainees, come to an end.” The organization says it is making the decision to dramatically scale down what was, in 2011, one of the largest ICRC operations [...]
UK provides additional funds for flood-hit Pakistan
August 7, 2012 by
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Geneva-based International Organization for Migration, IOM, announced today 7 August, that the UK has donated an additional five million pounds to the organization to provide shelter to residents of the Sindh province in Pakistan which was severely affected by the 2010 floods. “The project extension will help an additional 10,000 vulnerable [...]
Attack on WHO polio doctor in Pakistan
July 17, 2012 by
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Gunmen in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi attacked a UN vehicle, injuring a World Health Organization doctor working on a polio immunization drive Tuesday 17 July. The attack on a Ghanian doctor and his driver came a day after the Taliban reiterated a ban on the polio immunization campaign in the tribal [...]
UN polio vaccination workers attacked in Afghanistan
July 9, 2012 by
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – One aid worker was reported by local media to have been hospitalized with injuries in northern Afghanistan after a car in which a group of workers was traveling was attacked. No one has claimed parliamentarians reportedly blamed the Taliban. Ria Novosti in Russia reports that “a car carrying the UN staff, including [...]
