These entries are from my independent self-funded project of late last year in the earthquake-hit regions of Pakistan. On October 8th 2005, at 8:50am (local Pakistan time), an earthquake of 7.6 magnitude hit the Northern areas of Pakistan.

Please see
http://tahmenabokhari.blogspot.com/

International aid agencies say hundreds of thousands of people in northern Pakistan are facing a difficult winter, one year after a devastating earthquake killed more than 73,000 people and made over 3.5 million homeless.

On October 8, 2005, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake, centered 95 kilometers northeast of Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, struck in the early hours of the morning. Tremors were felt across the region from the Afghan capital, Kabul, to the Indian capital of New Delhi.

MUZAFFARABAD: More tears will be shed on Sunday but there were also signs of hope one year after the earthquake that killed so many people in Azad Kashmir and the North West Frontier Province.

While survivors remain without proper homes, destined to spend a second — and predictably harsher — winter in temporary shelters, the government insists it has done well to tackle the disaster with international help.

Sunday’s first anniversary of the October 8, 2005 earthly blow will be a day of mourning for more than 73,000 people who died and also serve as a day of reckoning for what was done for the rescue, relief and rehabilitation of 3.5 million people made homeless in four districts each of Azad Kashmir and the NWFP.

Despite a widely acclaimed job done by foreign and domestic governmental and non-governmental agencies to lessen the pain of Pakistan’s worst earthquake, government agencies face a storm of complaints ranging from a meagre compensation to delayed payments, costly construction materials, lack of trained work force, corruption and repeated changes of designs of earthquake- resistant dwellings.

Government functionaries, sometimes angered even by well- meaning criticism, have engaged in a lot of self-praise to defend the performance of their agencies.

DADAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - The United States will train 30,000 teachers and build 50 schools in quake affected areas of Pakistan, the U.S ambassador said on Sunday, the first anniversary of an earthquake that killed 73,000 people.

Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker made the announcement during the inauguration by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz of the first school built by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Dadar village in North West Frontier Province.

SPRINGFIELD - Thousands of expired flu vaccines that had become a political albatross for Gov. Rod Blagojevich and remain a financial liability for taxpayers were sent to Pakistan to inoculate earthquake victims.

Blagojevich announced Friday the 256,000 doses his administration obtained in Europe more than a year ago but was never able to import were donated and arrived in Pakistan to aid relief efforts. A massive earthquake in October caused widespread devastation throughout Pakistan and India, killing more than 80,000 and leaving nearly 3 million homeless.

A Vanderbilt University flu expert said the donation, with the help of some sheer luck, should help even though the medicine is past its expiration date.

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - Rain and snow fell across Pakistan's earthquake zone for a second straight day on Monday, grounding relief flights and adding to the misery of millions of survivors camped out in tents and crude shelters.

Heavy snow fell across high ground and rain drenched valleys overnight, triggering some tent collapses and landslides but the military, coordinating a huge relief effort with aid groups, said there had been no reports of major incidents.

"There has been no unpleasant news regarding any accidents," said Major Farooq Nasir, a military spokesman in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir.

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan - Aid officials warned on Friday that almost all of the hundreds of thousands of tents distributed to quake survivors in Pakistan will not protect against the harsh Himalayan winter.

Pakistan's army said it was constructing 5,000 shelters a day out of corrugated metal for the 3.5 million left homeless amid fears of a second wave of deaths as conditions worsen in the coming weeks.

An estimated 87,000 died in the Oct. 8 temblor, which caused devastation across a vast swath of Pakistan and India, mostly in Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan region divided between them. Winter started last month, and hundreds stream into hospitals every day for cold-related ailments such as pneumonia.

BHERI, Pakistan (Reuters) - With winter starting to set in, some survivors of Pakistan's earthquake are without shelter, sufficient food or warm clothing nearly eight weeks after the disaster struck, aid officials said on Wednesday.

The first heavy snow fell across the region at the weekend but while there has been no spike in the mortality rate, more deaths were inevitable unless aid reaches victims soon, aid officials said.

The focus of the relief effort was shifting toward food, even though shelters were still needed, said Jean-Philipe Bourgeois, a field coordinator for the International Organization for Migration (IOM). "It's a combined problem. Not only food, not only shelter, but both."

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (AFP) - Hollywood stars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are planning to travel to Pakistan to visit survivors of last month's massive earthquake, the United Nations said.

"She says they are coming in the next few days. We are still waiting for confirmation from headquarters," Vivian Tan, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Pakistan, told AFP.

Oscar-winner Jolie, a UNHCR goodwill ambassador, was quoted as saying by the BBC news website that she and Pitt would be travelling to Pakistan "within a matter of days."

The actors have been romantically linked since Pitt split from Friends star Jennifer Aniston and they starred together in the summer blockbuster movie "Mr. and Mrs. Smith."

Jolie last visited Pakistan in May this year to highlight the plight of millions of Afghan refugees living in the South Asian country.