DUBAI, 7 January 2008 (IRIN) - CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Multiple humanitarian challenges in 2008 – outgoing UN envoy AFGHANISTAN: Some schools more vulnerable to attack than others?

AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: Pakistanis seek refuge, relief in southeast BANGLADESH: Plight of cyclone missing continues INDONESIA: Disaster-preparedness drive in West Sumatra NEPAL: Challenges of reintegrating former child soldiers PAKISTAN: Country slowly returns to normal PHILIPPINES: Whatever happened to SARS? SRI LANKA: Monsoon flooding subsides, needs under review SRI LANKA: Renewed fighting delays reconstruction in north and east

AFGHANISTAN: Multiple humanitarian challenges in 2008 – outgoing UN envoy

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), returnees from Iran and Pakistan, food-insecurity, widespread poverty and conflict-related disasters are some of the main humanitarian challenges that millions of Afghans will face in 2008, Tom Koenigs, the UN Secretary-General's outgoing special representative for Afghanistan, told IRIN on 30 December.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76044

AFGHANISTAN: Some schools more vulnerable to attack than others?

Schools built and/or reconstructed by international forces are more vulnerable to attack by Taliban insurgents and other radical elements than those built by civilians, according to experts.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76067

AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: Pakistanis seek refuge, relief in southeast

Sectarian clashes between Shia and Sunni extremists in Kurram Agency, in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, have displaced hundreds of families to neighbouring Afghanistan, Afghan officials and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on 3 January.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76077

BANGLADESH: Plight of cyclone missing continues

Almost a month and a half after Cyclone Sidr devastated large parts of southwestern Bangladesh, Faridabegum Musulli is still waiting for her husband to return.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76047

INDONESIA: Disaster-preparedness drive in West Sumatra

There is no mincing words: "West Sumatra is a supermarket for disasters, earthquakes and tsunamis," Gamawan Fauzi, governor of the province, said as he opened a two-day National Exhibition of Disaster Preparedness in Padang, the capital city, in December. "Society must be provided the knowledge to minimise fear," Fauzi said, "and the system of disaster response must be perfect."

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76049

NEPAL: Challenges of reintegrating former child soldiers

Thousands of former child soldiers have returned to their communities in Nepal over the past year, but there are huge challenges facing their successful reintegration, local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) say.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76040

PAKISTAN: Country slowly returns to normal

An uneasy calm has returned to Pakistan one week after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. Nearly 60 people were killed in three days of nationwide riots, after Bhutto, a former prime minister and leader of the country's popular Pakistan People's Party, was killed on 27 December in the garrison town of Rawalpindi.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76079

PHILIPPINES: Whatever happened to SARS?

Clothes? Yes. Toiletries? Yes. N95 protective mask against highly infectious diseases? Simply unavailable! It was April 2003, the height of the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic, and a day before Johannes van Ommen and his family were to fly from the Philippines to Europe, with a stopover in Taiwan. He scoured drugstores in Manila for the masks but could not find any, so he just settled for air filter masks from a hardware store, hoping they were enough to protect them from the dreaded disease.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76060

SRI LANKA: Monsoon flooding subsides, needs under review

Eastern Sri Lanka is beginning to dry out from heavy flooding brought on by monsoon rain during much of December which at its height caused the displacement of 250,000 people, according to government officials.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76053

SRI LANKA: Renewed fighting delays reconstruction in north and east

Three years after the tsunami devastated Sri Lanka, the island's eastern and northern districts which were hardest hit, lag far behind southern areas in post-tsunami recovery.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76042

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