June was the bloodist month NEWS CENTRAL/S. ASIA Troop deaths top 2000 in Afghan war

Watches this NEWS CENTRAL/S. ASIA Troop deaths top 2000 in Afghan war

More than 2,000 foreign troops have died in Afghanistan since the war began in late 2001, according to the independent icasualties.org website.

In all, 2,002 soldiers have been killed since the US-led invasion, including 1,226 Americans and 331 British.

In contrast to these deaths over a span of almost nine years, 1,271 civilians were killed in the first six months of 2010.

Last week, a UN mid-year report showed civilian casualties had risen by 31 per cent this year compared with the same period last year.

So far this year, 434 foreign troops have been killed, compared with a peak of 521 in 2009, icasualties.org reported on Sunday.

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June 2010 was the bloodiest month of the war with 102 killed as foreign forces pushed ahead with operations in southern Helmand and Kandahar provinces. Another 88 were killed in July.

There are currently more than 140,000 US and Nato-led troops in Afghanistan aiming to to flush out remnants of Taliban fighters, who went on the offensive after being toppled from government in the 2001 invasion.

Disputes over the Afghan war have already brought down a Dutch government in February and a German president in May.

The losses in Afghanistan are less than half of those in the Iraq war, where at least 4,723 foreign troops have been killed since 2003 - 4,405 of them Americans.

Civilian casualties

But, with the US government cutting troop numbers in Iraq before the formal end of combat operations on August 31, attention is certain to be focused back on the Afghan conflict.

Civilian casualties caused by US and other foreign forces have long been a source of friction between the Afghan government and its Western allies and led to a major falling-out between the two sides last year.

The UN report added that Taliban and armed groups were responsible for 76 per cent of casualties.

Deaths caused by "pro-government forces" fell to 12 per cent of the total from 30 per cent last year, due mainly to a 64 per cent fall in deaths caused by aerial attacks.
Coppied by http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/08/20108161532562124.html

Watches this Asia flooding plunges millions into misery

Watched being enjoy this Asia flooding plunges millions into misery
BEIJING – Floods and landslides across Asia plunged millions into misery Sunday as rubble-strewn waters killed at least 127 in northwestern China and 4 million Pakistanis faced food shortages amid their country's worst-ever flooding.
In Indian-controlled Kashmir, rescuers raced to find 500 people still missing in flash floods that have already killed 132, while North Korea's state media said high waters had destroyed thousands of homes and damaged crops.
Terrified residents fled to high ground or upper stories of apartment buildings in China's Gansu province after a debris-blocked river overflowed during the night, smashing buildings and overturning cars. An estimated 2,000 more people were missing in the latest deluge in a summer that has seen China's worst seasonal flooding in a decade.
Worst hit was the county seat of Zhouqu in the province's Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, where houses buckled and streets were smeared with a yard (meter) of mud and water.
The landslides struck after heavy rains lashed China late Saturday, causing the Bailong River to burst its banks, the official Xinhua News Agency quoted the head of Zhouqu county, Diemujiangteng, as saying.
The devastation was worsened by flotsam that blocked the river upstream, creating a 2-mile (3-kilometer) -long lake that overflowed and sent waves of mud, rocks and water crashing down on the town, ripping houses from their foundations and tearing six-story apartment buildings in half.
Explosives experts were flying to the scene by helicopter to demolish the blockage and safely release potential flood waters ahead of more rain forecast through Wednesday.
China Central Television said 45,000 people had been evacuated, but the region's remote, mountainous location was hampering the emergency response. Narrow roads prevented the movement of heavy equipment, forcing rescuers to rely on shovels, picks and buckets.
Around China, the country's worst flooding in a decade has killed more than 1,100 people this year, with more than 600 still missing. The floods have caused tens of billions of dollars in damage across 28 provinces and regions.
In Pakistan, 1,500 people have been killed and millions more left begging for help following the worst floods in the country's history. Prices of fruit and vegetable skyrocketed Sunday, with more than 1 million acres (405,000 hectares) of crops destroyed and at least 4 million people in need of food assistance in the coming months.
Pakistan has worked with international partners to rescue more than 100,000 people and provide food and shelter to thousands more. But the government has struggled to cope with the scale of a disaster that it estimates has affected 13 million people and could get worse as heavy rains lashed Pakistan again on Sunday.
At least 1.4 million acres (570,000 hectares) of crops were destroyed in the central province of Punjab, the breadbasket for the rest of Pakistan, the United Nations reported. Many more crops were devastated in the northwest, where destruction from the floods has been most severe and many residents are still trying to recover from intense battles between the Taliban and the army last year.

Coppied by http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100808/ap_on_re_as/as_asia_floods;_ylt=AgxqOF1A8347h6eWRNGk1yWs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTJmNGU1Z2drBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwODA4L2FzX2FzaWFfZmxvb2RzBGNwb3MDMgRwb3MDNQRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawNhc2lhZmxvb2Rpbmc-