Earthquake in Afghanistan Kills at Least 13, Nine of Them in Pakistan

People come out of a restaurant after a tremor was felt in Lahore, Pakistan March 21, 2023. (Reuters)
People come out of a restaurant after a tremor was felt in Lahore, Pakistan March 21, 2023. (Reuters)
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Earthquake in Afghanistan Kills at Least 13, Nine of Them in Pakistan

People come out of a restaurant after a tremor was felt in Lahore, Pakistan March 21, 2023. (Reuters)
People come out of a restaurant after a tremor was felt in Lahore, Pakistan March 21, 2023. (Reuters)

At least 13 people were killed and more than 90 injured in Pakistan and Afghanistan after a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck late on Tuesday, government officials said.

At least nine people were killed and 44 injured in northwest Pakistan, a Pakistani government official said, and hospitals in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province were put into a state of emergency overnight.

At least four people were killed and 50 injured in Afghanistan, a health ministry official there said.

Houses and buildings in both countries were also damaged, authorities said.

The quake was felt over an area more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) wide by some 285 million people in Pakistan, India, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Center said.

The epicenter was in the Hindu Kush mountains, in the sparsely populated northeastern Afghan province of Badakhshan, 40km southeast of Jurm village, at the considerable depth of 187km, the US Geological Survey said.

In Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province senior provincial official Abdul Basit said that addition to the dead and injured, at least 19 houses were damaged.

Shafiullah Rahimi, a spokesperson for Afghanistan's disaster mitigation ministry, said late on Tuesday that two people had been killed in the eastern province of Laghman.

Large parts of South Asia are seismically active because a tectonic plate known as the Indian plate is pushing north into the Eurasian plate.

A 6.1 magnitude earthquake in eastern Afghanistan killed more than 1,000 people last year.

In 2005, at least 73,000 people were killed by a 7.6 magnitude quake that struck northern Pakistan.



Russia to Resume Direct Passenger Trains to North Korea in July

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un drive a Russian Aurus limousine during their meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Wednesday, June 19, 2024. (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un drive a Russian Aurus limousine during their meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Wednesday, June 19, 2024. (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Photo via AP)
TT

Russia to Resume Direct Passenger Trains to North Korea in July

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un drive a Russian Aurus limousine during their meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Wednesday, June 19, 2024. (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un drive a Russian Aurus limousine during their meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Wednesday, June 19, 2024. (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Photo via AP)

Russia will resume direct passenger rail service with North Korea in July after a four-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the news agency Interfax reported on Wednesday.
Citing the governor of the Russian far eastern region of Primorsky Krai bordering North Korea, Oleg Kozhemyako, Interfax reported that the trains will run from the city of Vladivostok to the North Korean port of Rason.
"Having boarded in Vladivostok, (people) will come straight to the DPRK, enjoy the beauty, nature, culture there, get acquainted with the customs and traditions," the agency cited Kozhemyako as saying at the opening of a festival of goods in Vladivostok from North Korea.
After Russia launched its full-scale invasion on Ukraine in 2022 and subsequent sanctions on Moscow by Kyiv's allies, Russia tilted toward Asia and Africa, seeking economic, security and diplomatic ties.
President Vladimir Putin visited North Korea last week for the first time since 2000, deepening Moscow's ties with Pyongyang and signing a bilateral deal that included a mutual defense pledge.