By IANS,

Abu Dhabi : Abu Dhabi authority will begin a nationwide campaign Wednesday seeking donations from its people to help flood-affected people in Pakistan.

As per directives from President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Red Crescent Authority (RCA) will launch a campaign to raise funds in order to provide relief for the flood victims in Pakistan.

A meeting held Tuesday at the National Media Council was attended by the directors of television channels, who discussed a unified mechanism for conducting the three-day campaign.

By Ahmed J Versi,c The Muslim News,

London: International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell has denied that the decision by the British Government to double its aid to Pakistan’s flood disaster was to appease the anger of the country’s population to the slow international response.

The reason for the announcement he made in New York “was following my visit to Pakistan on Wednesday, seeing for myself the scale of the destructive nature of this crisis and the effect of the appalling flooding on Pakistan,” Mitchell said.

By DPA,

Baghdad : Seven employees of the Baiji oil refinery were shot dead and some 750 million dinars ($640,000) in salary payments were stolen from them, Iraqi media reported Tuesday.

According to al-Sumaria television, the seven were holding onto the large sum in order to pay employees at the refinery.

The gunmen managed to escape and were not captured following the incident Monday.

By DPA,

Islamabad : The Pakistani government Tuesday announced emergency measures aimed at averting major outbreaks of cholera and other epidemic diseases in the country's flooded areas.

A national steering committee, comprising top health official, was set up to monitor the situation on a regular basis, officials said after a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and attended by local and international health officials.

By DPA,

Tehran : Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was planning to visit Pakistan to see for himself the damage wrought by the floods, and to ensure Iranian aid was as effective as possible, state television reported Tuesday.

There was no fixed date yet for the visit, the report said.

The Iranian Red Crescent has already dispatched several consignments of aid to the flood-hit areas and said it plans to send more for as long as necessary.

Iranian television also made another appeal for donations.

By IANS,

Islamabad : Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari warned Tuesday the country could take three years or more to recover from the near month-long devastating floods as the authorities battled to protect cities from the rising waters.

"Your guess is as good as mine, but three years is a minimum," Zardari told reporters when asked how long it would take Pakistan to go through reconstruction and rehabilitation after the floods.

"I don't think Pakistan will ever fully recover but we will move on," the president was quoted as saying by Dawn News.

By IANS,

Dhaka : The high court in Bangladesh has reopened the case of a 1971 war hero who was tried and hanged after he fell out with the then military strongman Ziaur Rahman, husband of opposition leader Khaleda Zia.

The court directed the government to produce records of the trial under martial law regulations that saw Colonel Abu Taher condemned to death in 1976.

Taher, who was a Pakistan Army officer, escaped from the then west Pakistan and joined the freedom movement.

By IANS,

Islamabad : An earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale jolted northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of flood-hit Pakistan Tuesday afternoon, meteorology office said.

The tremors of the quake having epicentre near Afghanistan-Tajikistan border were felt in Swat, Dir, Mohmand tribal areas and the provincial capital Peshawar, Xinhua reported. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damages.

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province is the worst hit region in the catastrophic floods which have killed over 1,600 and affected some 20 million in Pakistan.

By Awais Saleem,IANS,

Islamabad : With the threat of floods to Hyderabad city in Pakistan's Sindh province increasing further, the army has rushed in to take protective measures fearing a breach in the Kotri barrage.

Hyderabad is the first major metropolitan city to come in the way of floods that started almost a month ago. The local population has started evacuating their houses because of the prevalent threat.

By DPA,

Kabul : A NATO soldier and 35 Taliban insurgents were killed in clashes in Afghanistan, the military alliance said Tuesday.

"A NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldier was killed following an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan Tuesday," a military statement said without revealing the deceased's nationality.

Over 450 international troops, most of them from the US, have been killed in the conflict this year.