Floods threaten more damage

Pakistan (AP):

Pakistani authorities began evacuating half a million people living along the swollen Indus River in the country's south yesterday, as floods caused by the worst monsoon rains in decades threatened new destruction.

The floods have already killed an estimated 1,500 people over the past week, most of them in the northwest, the centre of Pakistan's fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban. An estimated 4.2 million Pakistanis have been affected, including many in eastern Punjab province, which has seen numerous villages swallowed by rising water in recent days.

The flooding is one of several crises that has hit Pakistan since mid-July, including a suicide bombing in the northwest city of Peshawar, a plane crash that killed 152 people in the capital, and a spurt of politically motivated killings that have left dozens dead in the southern city of Karachi.