A 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit a remote and mountainous area of northeast Afghanistan yesterday morning, shaking buildings in the capital and as far away as Pakistan, Tajikistan and India.
The earthquake in Badakhshan province was about 300km northeast of the capital, Kabul, where residents felt shaking buildings and ran outside their homes, and some windows were shattered. There were no immediate casualty reports.
"It was a very strong earthquake," said Agha Noor Kemtoz, the provincial police chief of Badakhshan, which shares a border with Pakistan, Tajikistan and China. "My room was shaking and the light was swinging back and forth."
The US Geological Survey said the 6.2-quake was centered 60km south of the provincial capital Faizabad and hit at 8:05am.
Damage reports from northeastern Afghanistan are often slow to trickle in because of the region's remoteness and a lack of communication facilities.
The quake was felt across northern Pakistan, including in the capital Islamabad, 450km away. It was also felt in Tajikistan and in the Indian and Pakistan-administered portions of Kashmir, where a severe earthquake in October 2005 left tens of thousands dead and caused widespread destruction.
In Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, residents dashed out of shops and homes when the temblor struck yesterday, and at least one boy was injured as he fell while running out of his school in the town of Dherkot.
In the town of Chakothi, on the Line of Control between Pakistani and Indian Kashmir, terrified residents recited verses from the Quran after evacuating buildings, local dentist Imtiaz Kazmi said.
Badakhshan -- the most remote area in Afghanistan -- is home to the towering mountains of the Hindu Kush, and is a region prone to earthquakes.
A 6.7-magnitude quake struck Badakhshan in December 2005, killing at least five children. That quake was centered about 100km southeast of Faizabad.
In 1998, a 6.9-magnitude quake hit near Faizabad, triggering massive mud slides and flooding that left more than 5,000 people dead.
FRENCH AID: Paris has sent a navy ship and aircraft from Reunion Island with some pollution control equipment, but rough seas are spreading the oil spill The operator of a Japanese bulk carrier which ran aground off Mauritius in the Indian Ocean yesterday apologized for a major oil spill, which officials and environmentalists say is creating an ecological disaster, as police prepared to board the ship. The MV Wakashio, operated by Mitsui OSK Lines, struck the reef on Mauritius’ southeast coast on July 25. “We apologize profusely and deeply for the great trouble we have caused,” Mitsui OSK Lines executive vice president Akihiko Ono said at a news conference in Tokyo. The company would “do everything in their power to resolve the issue,” he said. At least 1,000 tonnes of
They stand as eyesores to most passers-by and potential public health risks to authorities, decaying buildings wrapped in tangles of exposed wire, studded with protruding leaky plastic pipes, vegetation billowing from cracks and terraces where particulates from polluted air have accumulated over time. With skyscrapers and ultramodern developments on every side, some of these “nail houses” are also sitting on land worth millions of dollars in Shenzhen’s inferno of a property market, where new-unit and second-hand home prices rival London. In battles over land and development, the nail house phenomenon has become widespread throughout China over the past two decades, with owners
An Italian alpine resort on Friday remained on high alert over fears that a vast chunk of a glacier on the slopes of the Mont Blanc massif could plummet in high temperatures. “No one gets through! No cars, bikes or pedestrians,” was the message at a checkpoint where an automatic barrier and two guards blocked the small road snaking up into a lush valley below the Planpincieux glacier, near the town of Courmayeur and the Italian-French border. The blockade has largely been greeted with contempt by the locals, one of whom said: “It’s a joke.” The huge ice block measuring around 500,000 cubic
BEYOND CULTURE: The US State Department was expected to announce that the Chinese government-funded institutes would have to register as foreign missions US President Donald Trump’s administration is increasing scrutiny of a long-established Chinese-government funded program that is dedicated to teaching Chinese language and culture in the US and other nations, the latest escalation of tensions with Beijing. The US Department of State was expected to announce as soon as yesterday that Confucius Institutes in the US — many of which are based on college campuses — would have to register as “foreign missions,” according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified. The designation would amount to a conclusion that the institutes are “substantially owned or effectively controlled” by
RSS