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Quake funds arrive

Countries help Pakistan victims

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan - Four days after her home crumbled on top of her, rescuers on Wednesday pulled a dust-covered 5-year-old out of the rubble, a shot of good news as hopes faded of finding other earthquake survivors. "I want to drink," the girl whispered.

Zarabe Shah's neighbors on Tuesday recovered the bodies of her father and two of her sisters. Her mother and another two sisters survived.

Helicopters flying in clear skies delivered aid to victims Wednesday, a day after rain and hail grounded efforts. Relief supplies poured into Pakistan from about 30 countries, including from longtime rival India

Many bodies were still buried beneath leveled buildings, and the United Nations warned of the threat of measles, cholera and diarrhea outbreaks among the millions of survivors.

The 7.6-magnitude quake on Saturday demolished whole communities, mostly in the Himalayan region of Kashmir. The U.N. estimated that some 4 million people have been affected, including 2 million who have lost their homes.

U.S., Pakistani, German and Afghan helicopters resumed aid flights suspended because of stormy weather. They brought food, medicines and other supplies to Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan's portion of divided Kashmir, and then ferried out the injured to hospitals. Some 50,000 Pakistani troops joined the relief effort.

Still, residents in Muzaffarabad were desperate, mobbing trucks with food and water and grabbing whatever they could. The weak were pushed aside.

Jan Vandemoortele, U.N. Resident Coordinator for Pakistan, said key roads into the quake zone that were blocked earlier have been opened up. U.S. military spokesman Col. James Yonts said that with the resumption of flights, helicopters had been able to unplug any backlog of aid.

About 30 countries- including the United States, France, Japan, Jordan, China, Russia, Iran, and Syria - have sent relief equipment, doctors, paramedics, tents, blankets, medicines, disaster relief teams. Many have also pledged financial assistance.

"Relief material is moving in," Vandemoortele said in Islamabad. "It is getting there. Roads are open now. They were blocked until very recently. We have several trucks that are all loaded and on the road now."

A transport plane bringing tents, medicines and other relief goods from India - also affected by the quake, but less severely than Pakistan - arrived at the air base, said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam.

More than 1,400 people have died in India's part of Kashmir, and the offer and receipt of the aid by Pakistan reflects warming relations between the nuclear-armed rivals, which embarked on a peace process early last year.

The Pakistani government's official death toll was about 23,000 people and 47,000 injured, but a senior army official who requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the figure publicly said an estimated 35,000 to 40,000 people had died.

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