UN to withdraw staff from Pakistan

The United Nation is to withdraw a quarter of its international staff from Pakistan as the country descends further into violence.
At least 11 UN workers have been killed in Pakistan in the last year, and over 500 people have died in attacks since the army began an offensive against militants in the Taleban stronghold of South Waziristan in October.
In the latest deadly attack, 44 people were killed on Monday when a suicide bomber attacked a Shiite Muslim religious procession in the southern port city of Karachi.
UN security managers are seeking a reduction f up to 30 percent of its 250 international staff working in Pakistan, an official said, but the final number is expected t be lower
Ishrat Rizvi, a UN spokesman in Islamabad said around 20 percent of the organisation's expatriate workers would either leave Pakistan for six months or be relocated to safer areas within the country.
"We are not closing down any programs or projects, we are not scaling back," she said, adding that some long-term programs might be suspended.
The UN began reviewing its operations after an attack on the World Food Program office in Islamabad killed five people in October. The goal reportedly was to see how it could operate more effectively and safely in Pakistan without disrupting its humanitarian relief and development aid.
Since spring they have also handed out some $475 million in emergency humanitarian aid in northern Pakistan.
The Karachi bombing was the third on Ashura commemorations in the country in one week. Seven people were killed in a suicide bombing in Kashmir on Sunday and 17 wounded in Karachi on the same day.
It was the deadliest in Karachi since a suicide bomber targeted the homecoming of the former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated two months later. At least 139 people were killed in the assassination attempt in October 2007. (Times Online)