NAPLES, Fla. (Oct. 24) - Hurricane Wilma crashed ashore early Monday as a strong Category 3 storm, battering southwest Florida with 125 mph winds and pounding waves as it began a dash across the peninsula.
The storm flooded low-lying areas and knocked out power to more than 300,000 homes and busine

"President Karzai has arrived," Pakistani foreign office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said on Monday.
His office in Kabul said he had brought five tonnes (tons) of medicine and a 30-strong medical team to Islamabad, as well as his foreign, defence and health ministers.
Karzai was expected to discuss r

Hours after the 4.9-magnitude tremors, US Central Command chief General John Abizaid toured devastated areas of Pakistan-administered Kashmir and promised more US military assistance in the relief effort.
His visit came ahead of a meeting of aid donors in Geneva on Wednesday where the United St

"At the moment, the emphasis is on the need for road engineers. If we can open the roads, that would solve everything," World Food Programme spokeswoman Mia Turner said.
"We're thinking more than 2,000 villages have to be reached and they have to be reached by roads," she said two weeks after the s

United Nations aid official was so incensed by what he saw as a woefully inadequate international response to the most difficult relief operation the world has ever seen he called on NATO to stage a massive airlift to get survivors to safety.
That would mean helicopters, the only means of gett

The new numbers come as two strong aftershocks jolted the devastated region, unleashing landslides and setting off another wave of panic among survivors who lost loved ones and homes in the Oct. 8 disaster.
Asif Iqbal Daudzai, information minister for Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, said

The effort to feed and shelter more than three million people made homeless 10 days ago was also marred by a row between Pakistan and rival India, which turned down a request for helicopters without crews for relief operations.
As choppers soared into blue skies and trucks and mules shifted supplie

ISLAMABAD. President General Pervez Musharraf Saturday said Pakistan requires massive financial assistance from the international community in carrying out rehabilitation and reconstruction in the earthquake-afflicted areas.
"We require colossal finances for reconstruction efforts, we need intern

LUCKNOW: Clashes between Hindu and Muslim residents in a northern Indian town continued for a third day on Sunday, with two more people killed despite a 24-hour curfew, officials said.
Authorities clamped the curfew on the town of Mau after clashes erupted on Friday, but sporadic violence continued

Five people were injured in an attack Saturday on a Hindu temple in the farming town of Peergacha some 380 km north of here, the national daily Bangladesh Observer said.
Police arrested seven people after they were found to be involved in attack during which a portion of the Haribashair temple was

Frantic efforts to reach remote mountain villages, cut off by landslides and still in dire need of help one week after the quake, were dealt another blow with the crash of one of the helicopters flying relief missions.
"It's absolutely urgent right now to send tents to give people shelter. If nothi

MUZAFFARABAD. (AFP) - The search for survivors in quake-hit Pakistan was being abandoned as rescuers battling blocked roads and a shortage of helicopters focused on getting aid to remote mountain villages.
In Muzaffarabad, the devastated capital of Pakistani Kashmir, army spokesman Major Faroo

The U.N. agency said the international relief effort must focus on keeping children alive in the weeks ahead. It said it was sending high protein biscuits, boots and sweaters for children, blankets, water containers, plastic tarpaulins, tents, medical supplies and blankets to affected areas.
"With

People are wondering as to where all the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have vanished after the earthquake disaster that hit the country on October 8.
In different gatherings here in the capital city, people are talking about the missing NGOs which, they say, have been seen very active until

for World Jewry spokesman: . American Jewish organizations including the American Jewish Congress-Council for World Jewry, the Joint Distribution Committee, and the American Jewish World Service are already raising funds for Pakistan relief. The decision to accept financial support and equipment fro