Pak flooding death toll tops 1,300

Engineers breached Pakistan's biggest freshwater lake to drain water threatening nearby towns, officials said yesterday, as heavy rain poured misery on millions affected by the country's worst floods in history.

Nearly a third of Pakistan is under water -- an area the size of the United Kingdom -- following months of record monsoon rains that have killed more than 1,300 people and washed away homes, businesses, roads and bridges.

Officials say the repair bill will top $10 billion for a country already in the grip of economic crisis, with hundreds of thousands homeless as the monsoon draws to an end and winter approaches.

"There is nowhere to shower or go to the bathroom," said Zebunnisa Bibi, sheltering near Fazilpur, in Punjab province, where 65 tents are now home to more than 500 people who fled their inundated villages for higher land. Similar tent camps have mushroomed across much of the south and west of Pakistan.