Twenty children from families displaced by a massive earthquake have died of pneumonia and dysentery during a burst of cold weather in the mountains of northwestern Pakistan, an official said Thursday. The victims, aged from 2 months to 7 years, died in the past week, suffering coughing, chest congestion and dysentery, in eight villages in the district of Mansehra, said Sardar Shah Khan, a mayor in the affected area. U.N. and government health officials could not immediately confirm Khan's report. Munir Ahmed, a senior government official in Mansehra, in North West Frontier Province, said he has not heard of cold-related deaths in the region. Khan provided The Associated Press with a list of the names of the fathers of all the dead children. A magnitude-7.6 quake on Oct. 8, 2005, killed more than 80,000 people in northwestern Pakistan and its portion of disputed Kashmir, and left more than 3 million homeless. Most still live in temporary shelters and tents.
