Highlights of costs of war research

Major findings from the "Costs of War" study on the financial and human costs of US wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan since 2001 by the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University.










FINANCIAL TOLL:

* Congressional war appropriations to Pentagon since 2001: $1.3 trillion

* Additions to Pentagon base budget: $362 billion to $652 billion

* Interest on Pentagon war appropriations: $185 billion

* Veterans' medical claims and disability: $33 billion

* War-related international aid: $74 billion

* Additions to Homeland Security base spending: $401 billion

* Projected obligations for veterans care to 2050: $589 billion to $934 billion

* Social costs to veterans and military families to date: $295 billion to $400 billion

Future spending requests:

* 2012 Pentagon war spending: $118 billion

* 2012 foreign aid: $12 billion

* 2013-2015 projected war spending: $168 billion

* 2016-2020 projected war spending: $155 billion

ESTIMATED TOTAL: $3.7 trillion to $4.4 trillion

ADDITIONAL interest payments to 2020: $1 trillion

CONSERVATIVE DEATH TOLL ESTIMATES BY WAR ZONE:

Afghanistan: 33,877

Iraq: 151,471

Pakistan: 39,127

CONSERVATIVE DEATH TOLL ESTIMATES BY CATEGORY:

US military: 6,051

US contractors: 2,300

Iraqi security forces: 9,922

Afghan security forces: 8,756

Pakistani security forces: 3,520

Other allied troops: 1,192

Afghan civilians: 11,700

Iraqi civilians: 125,000

Pakistani civilians and insurgents: 35,600

Afghan insurgents: 10,000

Iraqi army during US invasion: 10,000

Journalists and media workers: 168

Humanitarian workers: 266

TOTAL: 224,475

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E coli death toll reaches 36 in Germany

The death toll from a killer bacteria outbreak rose to 36 yesterday, German health officials said, one day after warning that more fatalities cannot be ruled out.


The Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany's national disease agency, said 3,228 people had fallen sick from the virulent EHEC (enterohaemorrhagic E. coli) or the linked kidney ailment haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS).


On Sunday, German officials said 34 people had died in the country, but upped that figure to 35 yesterday.
"For many days the number of new infections from EHEC or HUS communicated to the RKI has declined in the country," the agency said in a statement that confirmed the new toll.


German Health Minister Daniel Bahr told Sunday's Bild am Sonntag newspaper that he was encouraged by the decline in new infections, but warned that more deaths were still possible.


Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment said Sunday the outbreak is the most serious of its kind recorded in the world to date.


After several frantic weeks of searching, German authorities on Friday said they had identified the contamination source as being vegetable sprouts from an organic farm in Lower Saxony, northern Germany.
The farm has been closed and all its products recalled. The farm cultivated sprouts from a variety of products including lettuce, azuki beans, mung beans, fenugreek, alfalfa and lentils.


Authorities have said though that the farm in the northern village of Bienenbuettel had done nothing wrong.
With German authorities only late last week dropping advice, particularly in northern Germany, to avoid uncooked tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce, the scare has cost European farmers hundreds of millions of euros (dollars).

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Death toll now 94, missing 78

Flooding caused by torrential downpours in central and southern China has killed 94 people and left 78 others missing, the government said .

Flooding on the southern reaches of the Yangtze river and in southwest China's Guangxi region in recent days has affected 13 provinces or regions and destroyed 465,000 hectares of cropland, it said.


The figures were announced by the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.
Provinces such as Hubei, Anhui and Hunan along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze river -- China's longest -- had recently been suffering a severe drought.


China is hit by heavy summer rainfalls every year. In 2010, torrential downpours across large swathes of the country triggered the nation's worst floods in a decade, leaving more than 4,300 people dead or missing.
One devastating mudslide in the northwestern province of Gansu killed 1,500 people in August.


The flood control and drought relief headquarters said last week the recent downpours had helped ease the Yangtze drought but that many areas were still bone-dry and suffering from acute shortages of water for crops and drinking.


The China Meteorological Administration said yesterday further heavy rainstorms were expected along the Yangtze over the next few days.

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Death toll in Haiti's floods, mudslides rises to 23

Overturned furniture covered in mud is seen in a home damaged by severe rainstorms the night before in Port-au-Prince, June 7, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Swoan Parker

The death toll from days of heavy rains that triggered flooding and mudslides in earthquake-ravaged Haiti has climbed to 23.
 The deaths and damage caused by the first major rainfall of the Atlantic hurricane season have raised concerns about the ability of Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest country, to respond to a major storm as it works to stem an eight-month-old cholera outbreak that has killed about 5,400 people.
Emergency crews cleared rocks, trees and downed power lines from roads in the Haitian capital on Wednesday and aid groups fanned out to further assess the damage.
The rains turned dirt roads in Port-au-Prince into muddy streams, flattened ramshackle homes and flooded tent encampments where hundreds of thousands of homeless survivors of Haiti's devastating 2010 earthquake still live.
At least six people were reported missing, said Nadia Louchard, a coordinator with Haiti's Civil Protection Department.
"We are asking the population to be vigilant and to leave areas at risk when it is raining," she added.
The rains eased in Port-au-Prince but weather forecasts showed more precipitation was likely in coming days. Torrential rains also set off flooding in the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.
Some Haitians wondered whether the government was adequately prepared to deal with a more powerful storm if one were to hit the impoverished country.

"If these rains can cause so much damage, what would happen if there was a real disaster?" asked Angeline Mauger, 38.

Last year, Haiti escaped a potential disaster when Hurricane Tomas skirted the country, flooding some coastal towns but largely sparing the crowded camps in Port-au-Prince.

Flooding set off by Tomas, however, is believed to have worsened Haiti's cholera outbreak, which started 10 months after the January 2010 earthquake killed more than 300,000 people.

A huge U.N.-led humanitarian operation has helped reduce the fatality rate from the cholera epidemic from peaks last year when dozens of victims were dying every day.
Still, humanitarian workers say flooding is causing fresh outbreaks of the deadly diarrheal disease spread by contaminated water and food.
"We can never say we are fully prepared," said Louchard. "The country has its structural problems. We are just trying to do our best."

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