 Oxfam International's staff in Indonesia's Aceh province knew something was amiss last March when they started seeing inflated bills for construction supplies. The British-based agency shut operations in the city of Aceh Besar for a month, and an internal investigation led to misconduct charges against 10 staffers over the loss of $22,000. "It was like pulling a string on a scarf. It might be one incident, but it was linked to something else that was linked to something else," Melinda Young, program manager for Oxfam's Aceh office, told The Associated Press. Aid agencies say corruption is a constant threat in the tsunami disaster zones because of the size of the relief effort, a lack of local oversight and a history of corruption in many affected countries. A government audit in Indonesia found as much as $5 million was lost to corruption in the weeks after the Dec. 26, 2004, disaster. ...
http://abcnews.go.com
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Editor - 09:52:00 09-23-06
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 FEMA Trailers Will Stay In New Orleans Slow Recovery, Lack Of Housing Will Keep Trailers Beyond February Deadline |
A February deadline to get residents out of thousands of travel trailers in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina will not be kept, the Federal Emergency Management Agency says. That month marks the 18-month deadline set for FEMA relief following President Bush's disaster declaration. But since the city's recovery has been slow, officials now say there will not be enough housing. "We're going to go beyond 18 months," said Darryl Madden, spokesman for FEMA's Gulf Coast recovery office. The private sector must step up the pace of getting new housing units to market, Madden said. "We doubt seriously whether there will be enough private investment in housing to supplant the need for the trailers by next February," he said. "And when you look at the landscape right now, and then you look forward, how much housing stock is going to come on line in the next three months? The next six months?" ...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/23/katrina/main2035772.shtml?source=RSSattr=U.S._2035772
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Editor - 09:46:00 09-23-06
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| U.S. cannot confirm bin Laden death report |
The U.S. government is unable to confirm a French newspaper report that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is believed to have died last month in Pakistan, the U.S. State Department said on Saturday. "We don't have any confirmation of those reports," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack."We have no confirmation of that report," echoed White House spokesman Blair Jones.A U.S. intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, came closer to an outright denial, saying Washington had no evidence to suggest the French report was true...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060923/ts_nm/security_binladen_france_dc
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Editor - 09:44:00 09-23-06
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| WWF workers, U.S. aid employee among missing in Nepal copter disappearance |
A helicopter with 24 people aboard, including an American aid worker and foreign conservationists, went missing Saturday in Nepal's mountainous east, officials said. The Russian-built MI-17 helicopter took off from Ghunsa village in Taplejung district, about 310 miles east of Nepal's capital, Katmandu, on Saturday morning but never arrived at Suketar village, its intended destination, the rescue coordination unit at Katmandu airport said in a statement. It was to have been a 20-minute flight. The World Wildlife Fund said the 20 passengers were on their way back from a conservation site at Ghunsa and seven staff members from the organization were among the missing, including Australian Jill Bowling, Canadian Jennifer Headley and American Matthew Preece. It said other passengers included the deputy director of the U.S. Agency for International Development in Nepal, Margaret Alexander, as well as Nepalese government officials and representatives of other ...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-09-23-nepal-copter_x.htm?csp=34
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Editor - 09:42:00 09-23-06
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| Pakistanis React To 'Stone Age' Claim Allegation That Armitage Threatened Pakistan After 9/11 Hits Home |
Leaders of Pakistan’s Islamic political parties are threatening to launch fresh protests against the country’s military ruler General Pervez Musharraf following his claim in a "60 Minutes" interview that former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage threatened to bomb Pakistan "back to the Stone Age." On Friday, U.S. President George W. Bush said that he was taken aback when he heard the claim, while Mr. Armitage denied he had ever threatened the use of military action against Pakistan if it refused to join the U.S.-led war on terror after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. On Monday, General Musharraf’s book will be launched in New York. The memoir reviews his experiences over the past five years and is expected to include his version of the exchange between Mr Armitage and Lieutenant General Mahmood Ahmed, the former chief of Pakistani intelligence. ...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/23/world/main2035759.shtml?source=RSSattr=World_2035759
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Editor - 09:34:00 09-23-06
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| Rice seeks Sudan's consent |
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed Sudan to accept a United Nations force in Darfur yesterday, saying that Khartoum's consent would be welcome but is not necessary. "It is now time for the Sudanese government to accept the will of the United Nations, to work with us fully in implementing Resolution 1706," Miss Rice told reporters after a meeting of European Union foreign ministers and others. She was referring to the U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing a U.N. peacekeeping mission of up to 20,000 to halt what the United States and other nations have called a "genocide." The new force would replace about 7,000 African Union peacekeepers, whose mission was extended this week until the end of the year. Miss Rice said there are "other measures available to the international community" to send the troops into Darfur, should the Sudanese government continue to refuse...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20060922-115009-5120r.htm
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Editor - 09:31:00 09-23-06
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