Alexandra Perron's News Blog

Zimbabwe has declared a national health emergency due to a cholera epidemic during the country's economic crisis, the Associated Press has reported.

The Minister of Health, David Parirenyatwa, was quoted as saying, "Our hospitals are literally not functioning."

The emergency was declared at a meeting of government and international aid officials in Harare. Parirenyatwa appealed for money, drugs, food and equipment for the hospitals in Zimbabwe.

The United Nations has estimated the deaths from the cholera outbreak at over 500. A lack of water treatment and broken sewage pipes are to blame for the outbreak.

Walter Mzembi, the deputy water minister, said the country only had enough chemicals to treat the water for 12 more weeks.

Various agencies are pledging to help with the crisis in Zimbabwe. The European Commission said it was providing more than $12 million for drugs and clean water.

Zimbabwe has been paralyzed since disputed elections in March. The country is suffering from the world's highest inflation and daily shortages of food and basic goods.

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Pollution in parts of Asia is altering weather patterns, blotting out the sun and getting into the lungs of millions according to a report released Thursday by the United Nations, the New York Times reports.

Soot, smog and toxic chemicals are the byproduct of automobiles, slash-and-burn agriculture, cooking on dung and wood fires, and coal fired power plants.

Atmospheric brown clouds in Asia are dramatically reducing sunlight in China and leading to decreased crop yields in India. The problem has been studied since 2002.

The brown haze is sometimes more than a mile thick and stretches from the Arabian Peninsula to the Yellow Sea. In the spring it hits North and South Korea and Japan, sometimes even drifting towards California.

The U.N. report identified 13 cities as brown-cloud hot spots, including Bangkok, Cairo, New Delhi, Tehran and Seoul, South Korea.

According to the report, smog blocks from 10 percent to 25 percent of the sunlight that should be reaching city streets. Scientists working on the report believe that the blanket of haze might be temporarily offsetting some warming from the simultaneous buildup of greenhouse gases by reflecting solar energy away from the earth.

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A collapsed school in Haiti has claimed 75 lives Saturday, as crews continue to search for survivors The New York Times reports.

Rene Preval, Haiti's president, said that poor construction was to blame for the collapse on Friday of the concrete College La Promesse Evangelique in Petionville.

Around 500 children and teenagers typically crowd into the three-story building.

Preval said that structures throughout Haiti face similar risks because of poor construction and a lack of oversight.

More than 80 people were being treated by Doctors Without Borders, many with serious injuries.

CNN is reporting that rescue workers have pulled two uninjured children from the rubble of the collapse, said a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross.

CNN is also reporting that the death toll is now 82, with the discovery of bodies in a classroom.

It is thought that 100 to 200 students could still be trapped inside.

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CNN is reporting that various aid groups are expected to travel into rebel-held territory in the Democratic Republic of Congo to help the tens of thousands of people that have been displaced in the latest rebel fighting.

Western diplomats met with leaders in order to get a peace process moving.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned the international community that we cannot allow Congo to become "another Rwanda"- the spot of the genocide in 1994.

There has been a four-day cease fire, which appears to still be holding on Sunday yet residents are still fleeing as they are fearful of fresh violence.

The fighting in Congo is based on ethnic grievances.

The New York Times is reporting that the European Union is ready to send humanitarian aid to fleeing civilians, but is considering whether it will send European troops, according to France's foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner.

Last week France proposed that the EU send up to 1,500 troops to support United Nations peace keepers in Congo, said Kouchner.

A Foreign Office minister, Mark Malloch-Brown, said in an interview with the BBC that the EU would only send troops to Congo as a last resort if the existing United Nations force needed to be reinforced and diplomatic peace efforts failed.

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The Star Tribune and New York Times are both reporting an AP story on Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suffering from exhaustion.

Two of the presidents allies said he was suffering under the strain of his job. This was said to combat rumors that the leader was more seriously ill.

A parliament member said that opponents are using this to cast doubt on whether Ahmadinejad will run for a second term next year.

These next few months are very critical for the president to rebuild his image. Right now he is a very unpopular leader. Critics accuse him of having unfulfilled campaign promises.

Iran is approaching a budget squeeze with oil prices falling.

The U.N. has placed many sanctions against Iran since Ahmadinejad took office because of the refusal to halt uranium enrichment.

He appeared at a religious ceremony on Saturday, looking tired.

"Thank God, I do not have an illness. Exhaustion is possible but no illness," Ahmadinejad told a reporter.

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CNN and the New York Times are reporting on the violence in Afghanistan on Thursday.

Officials said Taliban militants kidnapped and killed between 30 and 40 bus passengers in southern Afghanistan Thursday.

Afghan officials said the victims were citizens, but a Taliban spokesman said the group arrested and killed 27 Afghan soldiers.

"They were all army soldiers from Laghman province and they wre going to Helmand province to support the governor," said Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammed Yousif Ahmadi.

The Afghan general said that no soldiers were killed in the attack, noting that they do not travel by road but always fly.

The NYT reports that as many as 30 of the passengers were beheaded after being accused of being soldiers traveling in civilian clothes.

The attack follows a pattern of brutality that Taliban insurgents have pursued, spreading terror in an effort to undermine support for the government.

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Officials have said that 900 Christian families have fled the city of Mosul after a series of killings and threats by Muslim extremists to convert or face death, reports CNN.

The attacks may have been prompted by Christian demonstrations coming ahead of provincial elections according to the deputy governor of the Nineveh province. Christians are seeking greater representation on provincial councils in the election.

13 Christians were slain in the last two weeks near Mosul. Those fleeing have sought safety in monasteries, churches and with other family members in other towns, officials say.

Duraid Mohammed Kashmoula estimated that some 3,000 people have fled reports MSNBC.

Kashmoula said that security officials are meeting with Christian leaders to work on how to protect them from "the terrorists, the killers."

Christians have been targeted since the beginning of the U.S. invasion in 2003, which has forced tens of thousands to flee the country.

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At least 20 have been killed by suicide bombers Thursday in attacks on Shiite mosques in Baghdad reports the New York Times.

The attacks occurred in different areas of Baghdad during early morning prayer, the Interior Ministry said. Muslims are currently celebrating the close of Ramadan.

The first attack occurred in the Zafraniya district in southeast Baghdad. A car bomber rammed a taxi into an armored vehicle guarding the entrance to a compound, killing eight. The neighborhood has a population that is heavily Shiite, the Interior Ministry said.

The second attack had a bomber trying to enter a prayer hall in the Shiite area of New Baghdad, killing 12 and wounding at least 25.

People in the crowd believe that Sunni extremists were responsible for the attacks, and other said they suspected American involvement.

The BBC also reported on this story, saying that at least 54 have been wounded according to Iraqi officials.

Police also said that six people from one family died north of Baghdad when a gunman opened fire on a minibus.

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Two men of Somali origin in their early 20s have been arrested on a plane getting read to take off from the Cologne-Bonn airport reports the BBC.

Both men have been under surveillance for months. They were said to be "possibly planning attacks" and left suicide notes at their homes expressing their wish to die in a "holy war", said police.

The airplane was bound for Amsterdam and eventually took off after a luggage search.

Police spokesman Frank Scheulen said the suspects were "under suspicion of participating in a jihad arction and of possibly planning attacks."

Walter Roemer, a press spokesman for the airport told CNN that the arrests were "very unspectacular" and that hte federal police boarded the plane and arrested the two suspects without resistance.

In 2007 German authorities arrested three suspected militants planning attacks on American targets in Germany.

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At least 40 are dead and a hundred injured in a suicide bombing Saturday at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan according to the Pioneer Press.

Many more are feared to be dead and wounded, as the Marriott is popular hotel for foreigners and Pakistani politicians in Islamabad. The attack is the largest terrorist attack in the country and comes following a wave of militant violence after army-led offensives against insurgents in border regions.

The blast happened around 8 p.m. when a large truck rammed the metal hotel gate according to officials. At this time the restaurants were packed with dinners. The blast left a crater in front of the main building, which was gutted by the flames.

The New York Times was also reporting this story, and focused on the fact that the bombing happened only a few hundred yards from the prime ministers home where he was dining with members of government.

The Marriott has been attacked before, but never to this degree and it has really upset the citizens of Pakistan.

“The Marriott is an icon,� said Abdullah Riar, a former aide to Benazir Bhutto. “It’s like the twin towers of Pakistan. It’s a symbolic place in the capital of the country, and now it has melted down.�

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has offered to help the Pakistani government in investigating the attack. The FBI has special interest in this event because it was "obviously an anti-American effort and a warning to the Pakistanis about the U.S. alliance," according to an official.

The F.B.I is currently waiting for approval from the Pakistani government to help. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks.

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Five explosions went off in crowded markets in New Dehli, India on Saturday the New York Times is reporting.

18 are dead and many are left wounded after these explosions- which are part of a string of terrorist attacks that have been happening across the country. According to Indian officials the attacks are trying to inflame tensions between Hindus and Muslims.

The BBC is reporting that a group called the "Indian Mujahideen" emailed a local TV channel before the attacks. The email reportedly said, " Do whatever you can. Stop us if you can." The group has claimed responsibility for other attacks.

The bombs went off in the shopping district Connaught Place, which is also a big draw for tourists.

The attacks have been condemned by the Indian government as well as the government of Pakistan.

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