Reports

Drought, forest fire, and frost have reportedly killed some 250 persons in several remote villages across the Jayawijaya highlands in Indonesia's Irian Jaya province. Several villages served by World Vision are among those most hit by the disaster. World Vision…

A World Vision relief assessment team is slated to arrive in Papua New Guinea on 1October to help investigate the impact of an El Ni=A4o-related drought. At the invitation of World Vision Papua New Guinea, former Australia relief manager…

Islamabad, 30 September 1997 (RFE/RL) -- Afghanistan's Taliban militia says its forces are fighting today around the besieged northern capital of Mazar-i-Sharif, the last major city in opposition hands. A Taliban spokesman told the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press that Taliban…

(2:40pm AEST) The Indonesian military will conduct cloud seeding operations over Singapore and Malaysia to induce rain and help clear the smoke haze from forest and ground fires in Indonesia. The official Antara news agency quotes Brigadier-General Abdul Wahab Mokodongan…

In Papua New Guinea, the calamitous El Nino has so far robbed the country of rain vital for the growing season, caused extreme heat and drought in the last three months, and generated killer frosts in the highlands. As a…

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS Members of the Security Council have welcomed the initiative of the Secretary-General to convene a meeting of concerned countries on 1 October to re-assess the situation in Afghanistan. Speaking on behalf of the Security Council, its President, Ambassador Bill Richardson…

DHAGVA - 97/0520 South-East Asia - Environmental Emergency DHA-Geneva Situation Report No. 3 30 September 1997 DISASTER SITUATION 1. Fires continue to burn out of control in the islands of Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi, and Irian Jaya, causing heavy air pollution…

By Elif Kaban GENEVA (Reuter) - U.N. climatologists predicted Monday that monsoon rains desperately needed to quell raging bush fires that have blanketed Southeast Asia with a choking, health-threatening smog, would be delayed this year because of the El Nino…

DATE=9/29/97 TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT NUMBER=2-220531 TITLE=AFGHAN FIGHTING / S BYLINE=MEREDITH BUEL DATELINE=ISLAMABAD CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: FIERCE FIGHTING IS REPORTED CONTINUING IN NORTHERN AFGHANISTAN, AROUND THE OPPOSITION STRONGHOLD, MAZAR-I-SHARIF. AS V-O-A CORRESPONDENT MEREDITH BUEL REPORTS, RESIDENTS ARE BRACING FOR A MAJOR ASSAULT ON THE CITY. TEXT: INDEPENDENT SOURCES SAY THE…

(9:42am AEST) The supreme commander of Afghanistan's Islamic Taliban militia has announced a general amnesty for all opposition soldiers and officers in the north of the country. Mulla Mohammad Omar says the Taliban will guarantee their safety and provide full security…