Eleven more people found alive in quake debris
AFP - World News (via Yahoo)
Jan 1, 2004
BAM - Eleven more survivors were pulled from the devastation caused by the earthquake in southeastern Iran, state radio said, in a report apparently aimed at providing at least a glimmer of good news amid the devastation and death.
They included Yadollah Saadat, 26, who was rescued thanks to the persistance of his wife Fatemeh Asgari, relief workers said here.
Saadat had been protected by furniture which toppled over him as his house collapsed, forming a cavity.
His wife, who was knocked out, recovered consciousness in hospital and insisted on returning to their home to search for her husband. He was found, also unconscious and with a fractured pelvis, but had recovered enough to speak as he was being flown out Thursday to hospital in Tehran.
Rescue workers in the affected region, centred on the city of Bam, had however expressed pessimism at the chances of finding any more people alive five days after the quake killed an estimated 40,000 people.
Some estimates have put the number of dead as high as 50,000.
Earlier, citing Iran's "extraordinary humanitarian needs," the United States temporarily suspended restrictions on money and equipment meant to help the Islamic republic recover from last week's devastating earthquake.
"The Iranian people deserve and need the assistance of the international community to help them recover," White House spokesman Trent Duffy said in a statement. "The American people want to help."
The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a general license temporarily enabling US citizens and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to send money to aid activities in and around the stricken city of Bam.
Donations of items like food, certain medecines, clothing, and tents do not require a licence, Duffy said in a statement released here while US President George W. Bush ushered in the new year at his nearby ranch.
The US State Department said it was issuing additional licenses allowing the US government and US NGOs to export to Iran sensitive items like transportation equipment, satellite telephones, and radio and personal computing items.
"After consultation with Congress, the Secretary of State determined that, due to the extraordinary humanitarian needs created by the earthquake, it is in the national interest of the United States," to allow such exports, the State Department's number two spokesman, Adam Ereli, said in a statement.
The general license, valid for three months from last Saturday, allows US citizens to make direct contributions of US dollars to Iranian and other organizations for such relief.
The move, the latest in series of US outreach efforts to its longtime foe in the earthquake's aftermath, waives requirements that individual licenses be granted for such payments which are usually illegal without federal approval.
Applying for those permits can be an onerous process, with lengthy waits for approval. Violations are punishable by hefty fines.
The general license announced Wednesday streamlines that process and makes it easier for US citizens, aid groups and others to contribute to Bam relief efforts.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who this week hinted that new dialogue between the United States and Iran could emerge from the ruins of the earthquake, actively campaigned for the suspension of the sanctions which have been in place since the 1980s, US officials said.
So far, however, Iranian officials have, in public at least, snubbed the US overture. Iran's presidency and foreign ministry signaling that Tehran's aversion of what it brands the "Great Satan" remains intact.
But over the weekend, the United States offered -- and Iran accepted -- US humanitarian assistance to the victims of the December 26 Bam earthquake, which is believed to have taken some 40,000 lives.
Earlier Wednesday in Bam, US firefighters joined their Iranian counterparts for the first time to search ruins, where sniffer dogs and listening devices suggested people might have survived.
Powell's remarks came just days after the first US military planes carrying aid arrived in Iran for the first time since Washington and Tehran broke diplomatic relations over a hostage crisis in 1981 after the Islamic revolution.
Since the hostage-taking, the two countries have engaged in sporadic informal discussions, but have not held a formal dialogue.
The situation soured last year when Bush lumped Iran with Iraq and North Korea in an "axis of evil" bent on acquiring weapons of mass destruction and supporting terrorism.
http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_4349.shtmlLooks like the US is staying to help the Iranians continue their search for survivors. I heard that most of the rescue teams have given up and left. God, please let them find any survivors quickly.