Philippines defends aid response..[ 3176 ]

Typhoon Haiyan: Philippines defends aid response

Typhoon Haiyan has presented huge logistical challenges for aid distribution, as Jon Donnison reports

 
BBC 13 November 2013 Last updated at 18:42 GMT
 

The Philippine government says it is facing its biggest ever logistical challenge after Typhoon Haiyan, which affected as many as 11 million people.

Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras said the government had been overwhelmed by the impact of Haiyan, one of the most powerful storms on record.
The official death toll stands at more than 2,300, but local officials and aid workers say it could rise much higher.
Mr Almendras said the government had responded to the disaster "quite well".
Some residents have expressed anger at the slow speed of the government relief effort.

Aid at a glance

Asian Development Bank: $500m emergency loans and $23m in grants
Australia: $9.3m (£5.8m) package, including medical staff, shelter materials, water containers and hygiene kits
European Commission: $11m
Japan: $10m, including tents and blankets. 25-person medical team already sent
South Korea: $5m plus a 40-strong medical team
Indonesia: Logistical aid including aircraft, food, generators and medicine
UAE: $10m in humanitarian aid
US: $20m in humanitarian aid, 90 marines, aircraft carrier plus logistics support
UK: $16m (£10m) package including emergency shelter, water and household items
Donate to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC)

But the BBC's Jonathan Head in Tacloban, a devastated city of 220,000 on Leyte island, says Wednesday brought the first signs of an organised response.

US military planes have been arriving at Tacloban's ruined airport, delivering World Food Programme supplies, which can be carried by helicopter to outlying regions, and a French-Belgian field hospital has been set up.
Many people have left Tacloban, says our correspondent, but among those left behind there is a growing sense of panic and fear, not just of food running out but of law and order breaking down.
On Tuesday, eight people died when a wall collapsed as thousands of desperate survivors mobbed a food warehouse.
And on Wednesday there were reports of shots being fired in the street and of a teenaged boy being stabbed in the stomach.
With warehouses empty, the main concern for people still in Tacloban was food and water. Some survivors resorted to digging up water pipes for supplies.
On a visit to the city, UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said aid was coming in but "the priority has got to be, let's get the food in, let's get the water in".
Health officials warn the worst-affected areas are entering a peak danger period for the spread of infectious diseases.

'Like never before'

Mr Almendras told the BBC he believed the administration was "doing quite well" in handling the crisis, especially as it came weeks after a major earthquake in the same region.

"We have never done anything like this before," he said.
Police spokesman Reuben Sindac denied there was a breakdown in law and order in Tacloban, telling the BBC there was a lot of rumour and misinformation spreading among people who were "in a state of shock".
He said security forces were now in control of key installations, preventing looting and ensuring the safety of aid deliveries.

Bodies are still in the streets of Tacloban on Leyte island, and many people have received no aid.

People in the city have been living in the open.

Harrowing scenes were witnessed at Tacloban airport as people were evacuated.

Hundreds of hungry and exhausted people gathered at the airport in the hope of getting aid, or a flight out.

Most of the damage has been concentrated on Leyte and the neighbouring island of Samar, above.

'More bodies' Typhoon Haiyan - one of the most powerful storms ever recorded on land - hit the coastal Philippine provinces of Leyte and Samar on Friday.
It swept through six central Philippine islands before going on to kill several people in Vietnam and southern China.
Disaster management officials in the Philippines have put the confirmed death toll there at 2,344, with another 3,804 injured as of 20:00 local time (12:00 GMT). They said 79 people were still missing.
However, a congressman in Leyte told the BBC he believed the government was giving conservative estimates of the death toll "so as not to cause undue alarm".

Gen Paul Kennedy, commander of US Marine Taskforce: Larger aircraft "will completely change the pace of our build-up of supplies"

"Just viewing the disaster's scope - its magnitude and the areas affected - we believe that the 10,000 figure is more probable," said Martin Romualdez.
The head of the Philippines Red Cross, Gwendolyn Pang, also said she expected the official death toll to rise.
Christine Atillo-Villero, a doctor from Cebu, managed to board a flight on a military plane to Tacloban, to reach her family home in San Jose, on the outskirts of the city.
"There were dead people lying around. In our backyard we have, I think, six corpses just lying there," she told Newsday on the BBC World Service.
"People are walking around like zombies just looking for food and water.
"My hometown will never be the same again. About 90% of the city is destroyed - nothing left."

Sara Pantuliano from the ODI says such an "immense" disaster would test the most seasoned governments in the developed world

The mayor of Tacloban, Alfred Romualdez said a mass grave had been dug on Tuesday. Bodies were still being processed by the authorities on Wednesday but he was hopeful they could be buried soon.
'No climate debate' The Philippines now puts the number affected at just over 8 million, but the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says 11.3 million people are in need of vital goods and services, because of factors such as lack of food, healthcare and access to education and livelihoods.
On Tuesday the UN launched an appeal for $301m (£190m) to help survivors. The UK's Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) has also launched its own appeal., raising £13m ($20m) in its first 24 hours.
US and British navy vessels have been sent to the Philippines and several nations have pledged millions of dollars in aid.
Speaking to CNN on Tuesday, Philippine President Benigno Aquino warned that storms like Haiyan were becoming more frequent, and there should be "no debate" that climate change was happening.
He said either the world was committed to action on climate change "or let us be prepared to meet disasters".
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has said record sea levels this year combined with rising temperatures mean that coastal devastation such as that caused by Haiyan is likely to occur more frequently.
Interim figures released by the WMO show this year is heading towards being among the top ten warmest on record.

Saturn's View of Earth ...[ 3175 ]

NASA Reveals Saturn's View of Earth

Posted by Dan Vergano in StarStruck on November 13, 2013

A July 19, 2013 view of Saturn, its rings and moons, as well as Earth, Venus and Mars. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI.

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NASA has unveiled a gorgeous Cassini spacecraft look at the Earth, Mars and Venus, as seen from behind Saturn.
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In orbit around the ringed planet since 2004, Cassini set up the image when it passed into Saturn’s shadow on July 19, 2013. That allowed the spacecraft to capture the arrangement of rings, moons and worlds seen in the image.
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It is a mosaic of 141 natural-color photos stitched together, spanning some 404,880 miles (651,591 kilometers) of Saturn and its rings.
The view captures a complete look at Saturn’s rings and seven of its moons, as well as all of the planets in the inner solar system, except for tiny Mercury, according to NASA.
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“This mosaic provides a remarkable amount of high-quality data on Saturn’s diffuse rings, revealing all sorts of intriguing structures we are currently trying to understand,” said Cassini scientist Matt Hedman of the University of Idaho in Moscow, in a statement. 
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The view shows the solar system as it looks from Saturn, just as it would be seen by the human eye.
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The mosaic resulted from NASA’s “Wave at Saturn” campaign on July 19, where the space agency asked the public to wave back at the ringed planet as Cassini was taking their picture from across the solar system.

US Marines on ground in Philippines ...[ 3174 ]

US Marines on ground in Philippines after typhoon

Published on Nov 11, 2013
Published on Nov 11, 2013US aid and military personnel arrived in the Philippines on Monday, after the country was hit by one of the most powerful typhoons ever to make landfal.

Greek riot police end occupation of state TV building...[ 3173 ]

Greek police end five-month occupation of former national TV building

euronews  /  07/11 16:17 CET

Overnight the Greek government moved against some 50 former ERT journalists who had been holed up in their headquarters since June, broadcasting against the administration’s austerity policies. ERT stands for Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi), Greece’s former state broadcaster.
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Riot police moved in to evict the journalists and close down the channel for good. Since June they had been effectively unemployed, squatting in government property. Four journalists were briefly detained, then released. No one was hurt.
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President of the ERT worker’s union Panagiotis Kalfagiannis said: “Today they had to muddy the waters because the troika members are in Athens and the government is to take new measures. They had to find a way to do this, and are now acting like fascists. They want to shut everyone’s mouth, and they have partially achieved this by using fear and a variety of different methods. We are the only ones left standing.”
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[The ‘troika’ means the tripartite committee led by the European Commission with the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, that organises loans to the Greek government and to other governments.]
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Journalist Nikos Ioannidis said: “We, the employees of ERT, are outside the premises and as we speak we are planning to start broadcasting from here; this is our immediate goal.”
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While some employees at the bloated broadcaster were certainly ‘dead weight’ and ‘enjoying easy street’, others were not, and they have considerable sympathy, from public and unions alike.
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Thanasis Pafilis with the Greek Communist party said: “There has to be an answer to that. This is our message. All workers must be accountable, not only for what happened today, but because there are a lot of things happening and going wrong.”
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Syriza opposition MP Zoe Konstantopoulou said: “What is taking place at this moment will be a black page in the country’s history. The government should be ashamed and will have to apologise forever.”
The government has set up a new public broadcaster but it has failed to gain much of an audience and Greeks know it is no substitute for the original.
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Fay Doulgkeri with the euronews bureau in Athens said: “Last June 11, Greece’s national television stopped broadcasting. Almost five months later, police forces accompanied by a public prosecutor invaded the building in order to empty it. ERT employees have said that they will not give up the fight and are looking for new ways to keep on broadcasting.”

 2013 euronews

Greek Islands..[ 3172 ]

Greek Islands for 2014 Tourism