Wednesday, November 25, 2009

The European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza - Video# 1--Please Share

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Reuters AlertNet - ICRC suspends operations in Chad after kidnap of French worker

Reuters AlertNet - ICRC suspends operations in Chad after kidnap of French worker

Monday, November 9, 2009

Bikes in Sumatra

Just sharing with u guys.
i take pictures of bikes or same family group when i go for missions.
and all this are taxi or sort of,except the 1 with kerepek and sate.
enjoy









Friday, November 6, 2009

How strong is 7.9 Magnitude Earthquake? Part 3










Thursday, November 5, 2009

FACTBOX-The worsening security picture in Afghanistan

05 Nov 2009 12:47:52 GMT
Source: Reuters

KABUL, Nov 5 (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Thursday it would temporarily evacuate hundreds of its international staff from Afghanistan due to deteriorating security, a sharp blow for Western efforts to stabilise the country. Security has worsened in Afghanistan since the Taliban insurgency re-grouped in 2005. Following are key facts about the security situation in Afghanistan:

WORSENING SECURITY

* Between January and the end of July this year, 898 conflict-related incidents took place, compared with 677 for the same period in 2008, according to the U.N.

* An Afghan government security map seen by Reuters in August showed almost half of Afghanistan was at a high risk of attack by insurgents or was under "enemy control".

* Incidents involving home-made, insurgent-laid bombs, or Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), spiked sharply from January to July 2009, averaging more than eight each day, or an increase of 60 percent, compared with the same period in 2008.

* In a security report published in September, the United Nations said "insecurity continued to be the single greatest factor impeding progress in Afghanistan

". CIVILIANS *

According to the United Nations, there were 1,500 civilian casualties between January and August 2009, with August being the deadliest month.

* As well as being the biggest killer of foreign troops, IEDs, including suicide bombs, have also killed more civilians than any other weapon in the conflict.

* The commander of foreign forces in Afghanistan, U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal, said in his assessment of the war, the strategy's focus must be on protecting the population and prising them away from the insurgency.

HUMANITARIAN GROUPS

* There were 75 attacks against civilians working for NGOs, charities and humanitarian groups from January to June 2009, according to the Afghan National Safety Office.

* The International Committee of the Red Cross which has more than 1,000 staff, including Afghan employees, in Afghanistan has said it will not be removing workers from the country in response to escalating violence.

KABUL

* Nearly 130 Afghan and foreign civilians have been killed in major attacks in Kabul from January 2008 to the present.

* In January 2008, several Taliban gunmen stormed the luxury Serena hotel near the presidential palace, killing six people including a Norwegian journalist.

* Foreigners have also been targeted by gunmen in Kabul. In 2008 a British woman working for a charity and a South African man working for a courier company were shot in central Kabul.

* The worst attack on diplomats was a July 2008 suicide car bomb attack which killed 58 people, including three Indian diplomats, outside the Indian Embassy.

* Attacks outside the German embassy, NATO headquarters and on various foreign troop convoys in Kabul have all pushed up the death toll for foreigners working in Kabul over the past year.

THE PROVINCES

* The southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand are the most dangerous in Afghanistan. A total of 538 troops have been killed there since U.S. and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in 2001 according to www.icasualties.org, an independent website that monitors foreign troop deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq.

* Foreign and Afghan troops are also locked in daily gun battles with insurgents in the southeast of Afghanistan, where 530 foreign soldiers have been killed across 13 provinces.

* Security in the north and west of Afghanistan, long considered to be safe, has deteriorated significantly over the past year and a half.

* Kunduz and Badghis, which are the only Pashtun-majority provinces in the north, have seen a significant rise in violence and Taliban attacks.

* Herat province in the west, Afghanistan's commercial hub, has also seen rising violence and a strengthening of the Taliban. Attacks on officials and hangings of Afghans the Taliban accused of being government spies have significantly increased.


Sources: Reuters, United Nations, International Security Assistance Force, icasulaties.org, U.S. Forces. (Reporting by Golnar Motevalli; Editing by Alex Richardson)

U.N. pulls out foreign staff from Afghanistan

05 Nov 2009 13:45:29 GMT
Source: Reuters

* U.N. says relocation temporary until security improves
* About 600 of 1,100 international staff to be moved
* Decision blow to Western efforts to stabilise country


By Jonathon Burch and Yara Bayoumy

KABUL, Nov 5 (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Thursday it would evacuate hundreds of its international staff from Afghanistan for several weeks due to deteriorating security, a sharp blow for Western efforts to stabilise the country. Spokesman Aleem Siddique said the United Nations would relocate about 600 of its roughly 1,100 international staff, with some being moved to safer sites within Afghanistan and the rest withdrawn from the country temporarily.

[ID:nISL477219] The move, a week after five U.N. foreign staff were killed by militants in Kabul, complicates U.S. President Barack Obama's counter-insurgency war strategy, which foresees an influx of civilian assistance alongside extra troops. Obama is due to decide within weeks whether to approve a request from his commander in Afghanistan for tens of thousands of additional troops. U.S. forces in Afghanistan have already doubled in the nine months since Obama took office.

The United Nations said the evacuations would not disrupt its operations in the country. "We're doing everything we can to minimise disruption of our work during this period," U.N. special envoy to Afghanistan Kai Eide told reporters at a news conference in Kabul. "We are simply doing what we have to do following the tragic events of last week to look after our workers in a difficult moment while ensuring that our operations in Afghanistan can continue.

" SECURITY CHANGES

Eide said some staff would relocate to Dubai where the United Nations has a facility and where it is "inside the mission area". Siddique said the U.N. staff would return in three to four weeks after its security measures were changed. "At the moment we have 93 guest-houses across Kabul and there will be a consolidation of those guest-houses so that we can provide better security in fewer places," he said.

The United Nations mission played a critical role in organising elections in the country this year, and its agencies such as UNICEF run health, education and other programmes. In last week's attack, Taliban suicide bombers hiding explosive vests under police uniforms entered a guest-house used by U.N. staff, killing five foreigners and prompting a security review by many of the international agencies in the country.

Two other international aid organistions have evacuated some of their non-essential staff since the attack last week, said Hashim Mayar of ACBAR, an umbrella organisation for local and international NGOs operating in Afghanistan. A second round of the presidential election, which was to be held on Nov. 7, was cancelled after President Hamid Karzai's only opponent withdrew, citing insufficient safeguards against fraud.

Former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah's decision not to stand meant Karzai was declared the winner, even though more than a quarter of his votes from the Aug. 20 first round were thrown out after a fraud investigation. The tainted election has hurt Karzai's standing among Western nations with troops fighting in Afghanistan, making Obama's decision about whether to send more troops even more difficult.

"WARLORDS AND POWER-BROKERS

" Adding to the complexity of Obama's decision, is rising anger at civilian casualties caused by Western forces, which the commander of all foreign forces, U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal, says undermines the Western mission. On Thursday Afghan villagers protested against what they said was the killing of 11 civilians in an air strike by foreign troops, but local authorities said only fighters were killed.

The NATO-led force said it had fired a rocket from the ground at a group it believed to be planting a roadside bomb in Babaji, in Helmand province. It said it was not aware of any civilians in the area and was investigating the incident. Western nations have pressured Karzai to revamp his cabinet, removing cronies and distancing himself from warlords to gain some credibility.

"We can't afford any longer, a situation where warlords and power-brokers play their own games. We have to have a political landscape that draws the country in the same direction which is the direction of significant reform," Eide said. "I believe we are now at a critical juncture in the relationship between Afghanistan and the international community. The debate over the last few weeks has demonstrated that there are more question marks and more doubt with regard to the strength of the international commitment to Afghanistan."

(For a related TIMELINE, click on [ID:nISL268109]) (Writing by Peter Graff and Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Alex Richardson)

How strong is 7.9 Magnitude Earthquake? Part 2


This used to be the 2st floor


2 stories shoplots


lucky its just the kitchen wall

Living room



Tuesday, November 3, 2009

How strong is 7.9 Magnitude Earthquake?

Ppl have been asking me how strong is the jolt of an earthquake?
i cant really explain it in words.
Felt it many times during my missions.
above 6 magnitude few times in a day to smaller ones that u lost count.

This is some of example of how strong a 7.9 magnitude can do.















This is 37 Tonne Locomotive on display somewhere near Padang town.
You do the math.......
 

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