Wednesday, January 2, 2013

world

augustachronicle.com/3B

pakistan

syria

Gunmen kill 7 aid workers

By rebecca santana
Associated Press

Clashes shut down airport

By Bassem Mroue
Associated Press

ISLAMABAD Gunmen on motorcycles sprayed a van carrying employees from a community center with bullets Tuesday, killing five female teachers and two aid workers, but sparing a child they took out of the vehicle before opening fire. The director of the group that the seven worked for says he suspects the attack might have been the latest in a series of attacks targeting anti-polio efforts in Pakistan. Some militants oppose the vaccination campaigns, accusing health workers of acting as spies for the U.S. and alleging the vaccine is intended to make Muslim children sterile. Last month, nine people working on an anti-polio vaccination campaign were shot and killed. Tuesdays attack was another reminder of the risks to female educators and aid workers from Islamic militants who oppose their work. It was in the same conservative province where militants shot and seriously wounded 15-year-old Malala Yousufzai, an outspoken activist for girls education, in October. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest shootings.

The teachers and health workers one man and one woman were killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on their way home from a community center in Swabi, where they were employed at a medical clinic and primary school. Their driver was injured. Javed Akhtar, the director of Support With Working Solution, said the medical clinic vaccinated children against polio, and many of the NGOs staff had taken part in immunization campaigns. Militants in the province have blown up schools and killed female educators. They have kidnapped and killed aid workers, viewing them as promoting a foreign, liberal agenda. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, formerly called the Northwest Frontier province, borders the tribal areas of Pakistan along the frontier with Afghanistan to the west. Militant groups such as the Taliban have used the tribal areas as a stronghold from which to wage war. The injured driver told investigators that the gunmen stopped the vehicle and removed a boy the son of one of the women before opening fire, police officer Fazal Malik said. The womans husband rushed to the scene after receiving a phone call alert-

A man mourns the death of his daughter in Swabi, Pakistan. She was one of seven teachers and aid workers killed Tuesday by militants.

mohammad SaJJad/aSSoCiatEd PRESS

ing him to the shooting. I left everything and rushed towards the spot. As I reached there I saw their dead bodies were inside the vehicle and (my son) was sitting with someone, said Zain ul Hadi. Swabi Police Chief Abdur Rasheed said most of the women killed were between the ages of 20 and 22. He said four gunmen on two motorcycles fled the scene and have not been caught. Many aid groups that work in the region are already familiar with the persistent threat militant groups pose, but the scale and viciousness of Tuesdays attack worried even veteran campaigners. The NGO director said all projects will be suspended as security measures are reviewed but he vowed that they would resume their work soon. He said the NGO had not received any threats before the attack.

Child deaths from measles surge

By adil Jawad
Associated Press

KARACHI, Pakistan Measles cases surged in Pakistan in 2012, and hundreds of children died from the disease, an international health body said Tuesday. In recent days Pakistani officials said they launched an immunization campaign to reach children in the worst-hit areas. But the country still struggles with a beleaguered health care system, unsanitary conditions in many regions and a lack of education about how to prevent disease. All those factors make it difficult to combat infectious diseases such as measles and polio. Also, many oppose vaccinations, suspecting they are meant to harm their people. A spokeswoman for the World Health Organization,

A Pakistani mother tends to her child, who is suffering from measles, at a hospital in Sukkar, Pakistan.

faREEd Khan/aSSoCiatEd PRESS

Maryam Yunus, said that 306 children died in Pakistan of measles in 2012, compared to 64 the year before. She said the jump was most pronounced in southern Sindh province, where measles killed 210 children in 2012. She said 28 children

died there in 2011. The World Health Organization did not give a reason for the increase in deaths, but a provincial health official in Sindh said that the disease hit areas where poor families did not vaccinate their children.

Provincial health minister Saghir Ahmed said officials recently launched a campaign to vaccinate 2.9 million children in the affected areas of the province and urged parents to get their children vaccinated. Many Pakistanis, especially in rural areas, view vaccinations campaigns with suspicion as a Western plot to sterilize Muslims. Sindh province, the area hardest hit by the measles outbreak, has also been battered by repeated floods in recent years that have damaged hospitals and clinics. Measles is an extremely infectious disease spread by coughing and sneezing or personal contact. It causes a fever, cough and a rash all over the body. Most people who contract the disease recover, but it can be fatal for malnourished children.

BEIRUT Clashes between government troops and rebels on Tuesday forced the international airport in Aleppo to stop all flights in and out of Syrias largest city, while fierce battles also raged in the suburbs of the capital Damascus. The rebels have been making inroads in the civil war recently, capturing a string of military bases and posing a stiff challenge to the regime in Syrias two major cities Damascus and Aleppo. The opposition trying to overthrow authoritarian President Bashar Assad has been fighting for control of Aleppo since the summer, and they have captured large swathes of territory in Aleppo province west and north of the city up to the Turkish border. In the past few weeks, the rebels have stepped up their attacks on airports around Aleppo province, trying to chip away at the governments air power, which poses the biggest obstacle to their advances.

The air force has been bombing and strafing rebel positions and attacking towns under opposition control for months. But the rebels have no planes or effective antiaircraft weapons to counter the attacks. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-regime activist group, said the fighting around the base of Syrian army Brigade 80, part of a force protecting Aleppo International Airport, led to the closure of the airport late Monday. The Syrian government had no comment on the closing of the airport. On Saturday, Syrias national airline canceled a flight to Aleppo because of fighting nearby. Rebels have warned that they would target civilian and military planes using the Aleppo airport, saying the regime is using civilian planes to bring in supplies and weapons. The rebels have been attacking three other airports in the Aleppo area, including a military helicopter base near the Turkish border.

food
send your recipe
Were looking for your best kitchen creation, whether its a simple chili or an elaborate continental concoction. our food writer, Karin Calloway, will re-create your dish, and well feature it on the Wednesday food page of The Augusta Chronicle. Send your recipe and contact information to karin. calloway@gmail.com, or write to Recipe favorites, newsroom, the augusta Chronicle, P.o. Box 1928, augusta, Ga 30903-1928.

Emily RoSE BEnnEtt/Staff

Chowder makes hearty lunch

f one of your resolutions for 2013 is to save money by packing lunch, this weeks recipe for Slow Cooker Cheesy Corn Chowder will make you look forward to your homemade lunch with a chowder that rivals one youd enjoy in a restaurant. All you need to do is toss everything in the slow cooker on a Sunday afternoon and set it on low. Youll have a weeks worth of lunches that are hot, hearty and homemade. The liquids for the chowder include chicken broth, evaporated milk and some cream-style corn. You can use reducedsodium prepared chicken broth or four cups of water and a pod of regular or reduced-sodium Knorr Homestyle Stock. The chowder has two types of cheese. First, two blocks of reduced-fat cream cheese serve as the thickener.

Serve with a side of crusty bread.

whats cooking?
Watch Karin prepare the recipe on tuesdays on WJBf-tV 6 (aBC) at noon and Wednesdays during Good Morning Augusta.

Second, some shredded sharp cheddar cheese is stirred into the hot chowder during the last few minutes in the slow cooker. If you dont like having the same thing every day for lunch, you can freeze the soup in individual portions, defrost them in the refrigerator overnight and then reheat in the microwave at the office.

4 cups reduced sodium chicken broth 1 12-ounce can fat free evaporated milk 2 14.75-ounce cans creamstyle corn 2 8-ounce blocks reducedfat cream cheese 1 16-ounce bag frozen corn 2-3 cups frozen shredded hash brown potatoes 1 cup sliced green onion 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste 2 cups shredded reducedfat sharp cheddar cheese (one 8-ounce package)

Slow Cooker CheeSy Corn Chowder

Combine all ingredients except the shredded cheese in a slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours. Stir in the shredded cheese and serve. Makes 8-10 servings.