Death of Pinochet shakes nation

Lorena Pizarro, president of an association of relatives of the dictatorship's victims, called Pinochet genocidal and said it was ironic he had died "on Dec. 10, the international day of human rights."

Typhoon roars out of Philippines, four killed

MANILA, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Typhoon Utor swept out of the Philippines killing four people, including three children, and stranding thousands on Monday after high winds and waves tore up power lines and communication links in the archipelago.

Utor, currently a category 1 typhoon with gusts of around 140 kph (93 mph), was forecast to weaken to a tropical storm by Friday on a path that peters out south of the Chinese island of Hainan by the weekend, according to www.tropicalstormrisk.com.

The National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) said three children were confirmed dead, including a one-year-old girl whose house was struck by a falling tree in central Capiz province. Four were listed as missing.

Around 50 passengers were rescued when their boat capsized in stormy waters off Batangas province about 120 kilometres (75 miles) south of Manila. They piled onto the vessel despite the bad weather after being stranded on Mindoro Island for two days.

"We were irked at some of the foreigners. They tried to save their baggage first," one passenger, Sheryl Nartates, told a local radio station after three coast guard boats picked all the passengers up.

On the resort island of Boracay, the famous white sands were littered with debris after high winds tore up roofs and trees.

"Some people are crying because they are afraid and in shock," said Roselle Gallano, a waitress at a coffee shop close to the beach front. "Many houses were damaged, some have been tilted."

The governor of nearby Aklan province said one person had been killed on Boracay and at least four were still missing.

BEREAVED

Authorities evacuated around 90,000 residents, most of them in Albay province, where more than 1,000 people are feared dead after Typhoon Durian wiped out villages in a torrent of landslides and flash flooding in late November.

Utor, the fifth typhoon to hit the Philippines since September, did not directly hit Albay but the bereaved remain stranded in schools and makeshift shelters and the province is still without power.

On Friday, the Philippines hastily postponed an annual summit of 16 Asian leaders until January, citing concerns the typhoon could wreak havoc at the venue on the central island of Cebu. Utor subsequently swept north of Cebu.

The NDCC said over 500 houses were destroyed and electricity was knocked out in wide areas in the Visayas region.

Storms regularly hit the Philippines. In one of the worst disasters in recent years, more than 5,000 people died on the central island of Leyte in 1991 in floods triggered by a typhoon.

Vietnam readies for typhoon Utor

HANOI (AFP) - Vietnam is readying for the possible arrival of typhoon Utor this week as the toll of those dead or missing from severe tropical storm Durian crept up to 94, officials have said.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has ordered ministries and authorities, especially along the central coast, to prepare for mass evacuations and to keep ships in port and tell those at sea to seek shelter.

Dung also deployed deputy premier Nguyen Sinh Hung to the central region to oversee the preparations, the state-run Vietnam News Agency said.

Typhoon Utor, packing maximum winds of 120 kilometres (74 miles) per hour early Monday, was barreling across the South China Sea after leaving at least seven people dead or missing in the Philippines.

Manila said Utor was the reason it postponed two summits on the central island of Cebu in the first half of the week, although other sources said the real reason may have been a terrorist threat.

Forecasters in Vietnam said Monday it was too early to tell whether the typhoon would make landfall in Vietnam, lose strength or hit elsewhere.

Severe tropical storm Durian had weakened from a supertyphoon that killed or left missing more than 1,000 people in the Philippines.

When it made landfall in southern Vietnam early last week it killed 83 people and left 11 people missing while damaging 240,000 buildings at a cost of more than 440 million dollars, officials said.

KENYA: Pastoralists caught between drought and flood

GARISSA, 11 December (IRIN) - Nathifa Janaa cradled her feverish son in the shade of an acacia tree, looking to the skies that for the last six weeks have brought driving rain and floods to the village of Kumahumato in remote northeastern Kenya.

"I have no food left in the house to feed my family. If my neighbours have nothing to offer then there is just water to drink," said Janaa, rubbing three-year-old Mohammed's malnourished stomach as she awaited the arrival of emergency food rations.

The United Nations World Food Programme began a massive air operation on 2 December to deliver desperately needed food and other humanitarian aid to villages isolated by the floods, which aid workers are describing as the worst for years.

Northeastern Kenya's low-lying, semi-arid terrain is an inhospitable environment for the region's pastoralist farmers. successive droughts over the last five years have decimated livestock herds, leaving villagers reliant on handouts from the international community.

The villagers in Kumahumato last received food aid in early August. Flooding then prevented the next scheduled delivery.

"You should not be mistaken by the green you see today," said Aden Musa, 25, as he helped carry a sack of pulses out of the helicopter. "Normally this is a dust-bowl," he added, pointing to the lush carpet of weeds growing out of the waterlogged sandy soil.

Villagers said they were at a loss as to how to cope with the vicious lurch from drought to floods. Some climate experts predict that sub-Saharan Africa will experience increasingly extreme weather conditions as the continent bears the brunt of global warming.

Lost wealth

Watching over the unloading, village elder Abdi Dubat, 57, reminisced about his lost wealth and pride. His once 500-strong herd of cattle, sheep and camels funded his 10 marriages, children's education, even a pilgrimage to Mecca, before consecutive droughts wiped out his herd.

"The women would see my wealth and shout 'Come and marry me Abdi Dubat'. Now they just run away," he said laughing at himself.

With virtually no grazing throughout the year, the few remaining cattle have not produced milk for months. Several mothers said their children were frequently sick because of poor nutrition.

More rain is needed to recover from the drought, villages say. But many are asking the aid agencies to provide seedlings as they give up livestock and turn to crops.

Omar Haret attempted to plant maize three times this year - twice his crop succumbed to the searing heat. His third crop was washed away by the floodwaters. But he remains defiant. "I am not proud to rely on outside help. I still have the energy to farm and I am still capable."

Emergency rations

Last month's torrential rain has affected more than a million people in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, as rising water levels destroyed crops and left hundreds of thousands without homes.

The region's poor infrastructure offered little resistance to the rains. Despite receding water levels, roads remain impassable, marooning villages and forcing the aid agencies to airlift humanitarian assistance.

"The emergency is to reach people by helicopter who haven't received food distributions for two months," said Stephanie Savariaud of the WFP.

"The food we can deliver by helicopter is far less than what we would usually give for a month but it is at least a little relief until we are able to deliver by truck," she added. So far, the two WFP-chartered helicopters operating from Garissa have delivered 100 tonnes of food.

During lulls in the rains, some roads dry out and trucks can move with full rations. WFP has delivered more than 4,270 tonnes of food by truck to more than 270,000 people affected by the floods since 10 November.

The UN says it expects to provide emergency food aid and other assistance to 2.7 million people in Kenya - an increase of 300,000 from the number planned before the floods - in a multi-million dollar special operation over the next three months.