Aid offer to victims of Asia quake
Greece pledged yesterday to join a growing number of countries offering to send help to parts of South Asia struck by a devastating earthquake on Saturday by sending a rescue team to assist with operations. The Foreign Ministry expressed its condolences to Pakistan and India on Saturday and offered to send a team of specialists including search and rescue experts from its highly skilled EMAK squad. More than 19,000 people have been killed by the huge quake measuring at least 7.6 on the Richter scale that struck northern Pakistan, India and Afghanistan on Saturday morning. The Public Order Ministry also said that it has postponed talks on immigration and organized crime with Pakistan and other countries because of the earthquake. A meeting of interior ministers of Greece, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey had been scheduled to take place in Athens today. The meeting has been put off until early November because Pakistani Minister Aftab Sherpao was unable to attend following the earthquake.
