Four soldiers were killed today when one of three helicopters escorting Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf crashed.

Pakistan’s president led a sombre memorial service today in Kashmir to mark the first anniversary of a massive earthquake that killed more than 80,000 people.

A 24-YEAR-OLD woman from quake-hit Kashmir has given birth to conjoined twin girls after a marathon journey from her mountain village to a hospital.

The United Nations said it has suspended aid missions to two areas in Pakistan’s quake-hit Kashmir region after dozens of survivors stormed two UN helicopters and forced an airlift.

Three months after South Asia’s monster earthquake, hundreds of thousands of survivors chilled by the first blast of the Himalayan winter face a fight for survival until spring, huddled in unheated tents and tin shacks erected by the ruins of their homes.

DOZENS of quake survivors forced their way onto two UN helicopters involved in the relief effort and demanded to be taken out of a Kashmir village.

HEAVY rain and snow buffeted Pakistan’s earthquake-hit areas for a second day yesterday, grounding helicopter aid flights and blocking roads as doctors reported increasing respiratory infections among survivors.

Heavy rain and snow buffeted Pakistan’s earthquake-hit areas for a second day today, grounding helicopter aid flights and blocking roads as doctors reported increasing respiratory infections among survivors.

THE heaviest rain and snow of the winter so far lashed Pakistan's earthquake-hit areas yesterday, grounding helicopters flying relief supplies and deepening the misery of survivors who huddled around camp fires.

The heaviest rain and snow of the winter so far lashed Pakistan’s earthquake-hit areas today, grounding helicopters flying relief supplies and deepening the misery of survivors who huddled around camp fires to keep warm as temperatures plummeted.

A moderate earthquake shook north-western Pakistan and the disputed region of Kashmir, but there were no reports of casualties, seismologists said.

A bus fell into a river today in the Pakistan-administered part of Kashmir, leaving at least 22 people dead and 24 more injured, an official said.

Cold, cloudy weather and weary survivors of the October 8 quake today greeted US Vice President Dick Cheney on his visit to Pakistan-administered Kashmir, where millions of homeless survivors braced themselves for the harsh winter.

The UN secretary-general has appointed former US President George Bush as his special envoy for rehabilitation and reconstruction in quake-hit areas of northwestern Pakistan and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, the Foreign Ministry said today.

The International community must pledge more aid to earthquake-hit Pakistan or more people will die, a Government minister warned tonight.

Already reeling from the earthquake that shattered their region, villagers in a scenic Kashmir village are now facing a new calamity – nearly half are suffering from skin disease, respiratory problems or other cold related-illness, health officials said today.

The World Food Programme chief has appealed for urgent funds to keep an airlift flying to quake-ravaged areas through the winter, calling it “the most difficult” logistical task the UN agency has ever faced.

Doctors struggling with a constant flow of patients in a quake-ravaged Pakistani city warned today that the number of sick could swell dramatically in the coming weeks, as harsh weather creates conditions for pneumonia and other illnesses to spread.

Hundreds more survivors of Pakistan’s huge earthquake sought treatment today for weather-related ailments following a cold snap, hospital officials said.

More than 700 people suffering from pneumonia, hypothermia and other illnesses are being treated at hospitals today as the onset of winter in Pakistani Kashmir took its toll on the 3.5 million people who lost their homes in last month’s devastating earthquake.

Actress and refugee advocate Angelina Jolie today appealed for the swift delivery of promised aid to Pakistan, saying a new disaster threatens earthquake survivors when harsh winter conditions settle on devastated mountain areas.

THE head of the UN refugee agency, stunned by the damage in earthquake-ravaged northern Pakistan, warned yesterday that urgent work is needed to avert further tragedy as troops race against time to get aid to the most vulnerable before the frigid Himalayan winter sets in.

The head of the UN refugee agency, stunned by the damage in earthquake-ravaged northern Pakistan, warned that urgent work is needed to avert further tragedy as troops race against time to get aid to the most vulnerable before the frigid Himalayan winter sets in.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan today warned of a “gigantic task” ahead for quake recovery efforts in northern Pakistan, while aid groups warned that emergency help was urgently needed even as donor nations gather to discuss long-term reconstruction.

NEARLY six weeks after Pakistan’s killer earthquake, people with untreated injuries are still being brought down from remote mountain settlements.

DOCTORS fanned out yesterday to immunise children in Pakistan’s earthquake zone against measles and other diseases ahead of winter, but they warned they may not have enough money to finish the job.

Nato forces were setting up winter shelters high in the mountains of Pakistan’s earthquake zone today, as doctors rushed to immunise children against measles and other diseases before snows cut off remote areas.

Two separate bus crashes killed at least 21 people in quake-stricken northern Pakistan today, a police official said, posing new difficulties for emergency workers in a region where more than 86,000 people died in last month’s disaster.

A bus with 50 people on board plunged from a bridge into a river gorge in quake-stricken north-eastern Pakistan today, killing at least three people, police said.

Health authorities today launched a two-week campaign to immunise 800,000 children among quake victims in divided Kashmir following concerns that infectious disease could thrive in the crowded and sometimes squalid tent camps for survivors.

Health workers rushed to contain an outbreak of acute diarrhoea among hundreds of earthquake survivors at a squalid tent camp, and the Pakistani army appealed to donors today for more blankets, clothes and food for the coming winter.

Several hundred cases of acute diarrhoea have been recorded among earthquake survivors at a makeshift tent camp in Pakistan’s portion of Kashmir, a World Health Organisation official said today.

The estimated death toll in South Asia’s earthquake jumped to more than 87,000 today, the one-month anniversary of the disaster, as survivors prepared for the region’s savage Himalayan winter.

About 200 supporters of Pakistan’s largest Islamic group, Jamaat-e-Islami, rallied in the capital of Pakistan’s portion of Kashmir today to protest against the detention of a group member in a police raid a day earlier.

A severe aftershock jolted northwestern Pakistan today, a day after India sharply curtailed plans to open its Kashmir border to help survivors of the region’s massive earthquake.

QUAKE survivors marked a normally joyous Muslim festival with sombre prayers in debris-strewn fields and visits to the graves of victims yesterday, as Pakistan’s president deferred a key purchase of US fighter jets to focus on reconstruction.

PAKISTAN yesterday dramatically increased the official death toll from the devastating earthquake that hit the north of the country last month to 73,276 and said it could rise further.

The US military resumed relief flights in northern Pakistan today but would stay a “safe distance” from where one of its choppers allegedly came under attack as it ferried supplies to victims of the massive earthquake in divided Kashmir, a spokesman said.

FORECASTS of rain showers and light snow on earthquake-hit regions of northern Pakistan are threatening to compound the misery of hundreds of thousands of people living with little or no shelter.

Forecasts of rain showers and light snow on earthquake-hit regions of northern Pakistan today threatened to compound the misery of hundreds of thousands of people living in the open with little or no shelter.

More tents were being flown today to people left homeless by the South Asian earthquake as survivors joined relief workers in hailing an agreement between India and Pakistan to open their disputed frontier to ease the delivery of assistance.

PAKISTAN and India made an unprecedented agreement yesterday to open their heavily militarised border in disputed Kashmir to aid the flow of relief goods and reunite divided families in the aftermath of South Asia’s colossal earthquake.

India and Pakistan agreed today to open the heavily militarised frontier in the disputed Kashmir region to help victims of the devastating South Asia earthquake, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said.

EFFORTS to reach stranded villagers in Pakistan’s northern mountains gathered pace yesterday after the country’s friends and foes both urged help for up to three million survivors rattled by fresh aftershocks.