Rush to shelter quake victims before snow falls

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.

Temperatures were expected to dip to about 7ºC in the shattered city of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and to -12ºC in the highest mountain villages, the Pakistan meteorological department reported. Snow was expected in villages at about 11,000 feet, it said.

Pakistan's top army spokesman claimed yesterday that a 26-year-old man has been pulled alive from the rubble of his home in northern Pakistan more than three weeks after South Asia's massive earthquake, but a doctor treating the man said he doubted the story could be possible.