Pakistan’s coastal areas at risk from both local and regional tsunamis

October 10th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The death toll of the Khyber Bazaar suicide blast in the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar has reached 52 while a large number of victims are still under treatment in various hospitals, a local TV channel reported Saturday. The authorities feared increase in the toll, the private TV GEO News reported.

September 15th, 2009 LONDON - Some of the world's top geologists have warned that if global temperatures continue to rise, Britain might see deadly tsunamis like those that have hit Asia, head towards it in the future. According to a report by Sky News, geologists have warned of tsunamis in Britain to huge avalanches in the Alps and volcanic eruptions in Germany, if global warming continues to rise.

July 17th, 2009 LONDON - Just half an hour after a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit the southwest coast of New Zealand on July 15, a scientist demonstrated a precise simulation of a tsunami that would generate as a result of the quake. Just as the quake struck at 21:22 local time, 90 leading tsunami researchers in Novosibirsk, Russia - six time zones west of New Zealand - were concluding a conference session.

July 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Expansion of coastal cities is accompanied by a decline in the quality of life of the people, says a new study. Many megacities such as Tokyo (population 36 million), New York (22 million) and London (12 million) are found in the coastal zone.

July 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of international experts has determined that governments have largely failed to seriously implement integrated management in coastal zones, placing people at risk of disasters such as hurricane Katrina and the Banda Aceh tsunami. This was the conclusion of 40 international experts from wide ranging disciplines including economics, social sciences and natural sciences who met for an intensive, 5 day workshop near Oslo, Norway.

July 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has ranked 'hotspots' among coastal marine ecosystems that are at risk worldwide as a result of human activities. The study, by scientists at UC (University of California) Santa Barbara, US, is the first integrated analysis of all coastal areas of the world.

July 9th, 2009 LONDON - A new study is going to determine the archaeological sites along the coast of England which are most at risk from the impacts of climate change. The effects of climate change, including rising sea level and coastal erosion, as well as other factors such as coastal development and shoreline management initiatives, constantly threaten archaeological sites along the coast of England.

June 30th, 2009 WASHINGTON - An international team of scientists has warned that accelerating losses of seagrasses across the globe threaten the immediate health and long-term sustainability of coastal ecosystems, with 58 percent of world's seagrass meadows currently declining. The assessment, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows an acceleration of annual seagrass loss from less than 1 percent per year before 1940 to 7 percent per year since 1990.

June 29th, 2009 Study: Coastal seagrass increasingly being lostWASHINGTON — Coastal development and declining water quality are threatening seagrasses worldwide, researchers report. A study of coastal grasses around the world shows that 58 percent of the seagrass meadows are in decline, according to a report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

June 25th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan wants the world at large and the US in particular to play a role in resolving its disputes with India, including that of Kashmir, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Thursday. The resolution of Pakistans core issues would help it focus on the war against extremism and terrorism on its western border to ensure peace and stability in South Asia, APP news agency quoted Gilani as saying when visiting US National Security Advisor James Jones called on him here.

June 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study by researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA), UK, has determined that coral reefs throughout the Caribbean have been comprehensively 'flattened' over the last 40 years. The collapse of reef structure has serious implications for biodiversity and coastal defences - a double whammy for fragile coastal communities in the region.

May 29th, 2009 ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI - Pakistan's nuclear weapons are the cornerstone of its deterrence and there is complete national consensus on this, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani maintained Friday. "We are determined to retain nuclear deterrence at all cost and no compromise will be made on our core security interest," APP news agency quoted him as saying while chairing a meeting of the Strategic Planning Division (SPD) at the PM House in Islamabad.

May 28th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - About 10,000 security personnel are guarding Pakistans nuclear arsenal and Western fears about the safety of the weapons are unfounded, a senior official has said. Air Commodore Khalid Banuri, director of arms control and disarmament affairs at the Strategic Plans Division (SPD), said that Pakistans command and control structure for the weapons was better than that of many other nuclear-armed states, and many countries had officially acknowledged this, DawnNews reported Thursday.

April 22nd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Taliban militants in Pakistan's north-western Swat valley extended their authority over another district after the government last week allowed Islamic sharia law to be imposed in the region, officials said Wednesday. President Asif Ali Zardari approved a regulation April 13 to impose Islamic sharia law in Malakand Division, which includes Swat and seven other districts, after a hardline cleric brokered a peace agreement between the regional government and the Taliban.

January 13th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan is responsible for only a small fraction of global warming but is among the countries that will be hit hardest by the effects of climate change, R.K. Pachauri of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change says.