Also, a pivotal showdown looms in Eastern Ukraine and China squeezes Taiwan’s economy.
We’re covering a deadly earthquake in Afghanistan and the effects of China’s ban of a Taiwanese fish. An earthquake struck a remote and mountainous part of Afghanistan yesterday, killing more than 1,000 people and injuring at least 1,600 others. The quake, which had a magnitude of 5.9, struck about 28 miles southwest of the city of Khost, but the worst damage was in the neighboring Paktika province, which lies along the border with Pakistan and where some residents live in houses made of clay and straw. It was the deadliest earthquake to hit Afghanistan in more than two decades, and the number of casualties was expected to rise, a U.N. agency said. Search-and-rescue efforts, led by the Afghan Ministry of Defense, were hampered by wind and heavy rain, which prevented helicopters from landing safely. A U.N. representative for Afghanistan reported that nearly 2,000 homes were destroyed. Afghan families are typically large, and families sometimes live together, the representative said, and the earthquake will most likely displace many people. Eyewitness: Sarhadi Khosti, 26, who lives in the Sperah district of Khost Province, said that he had been awoken by the earthquake after 1 a.m. and that a number of houses — especially those made of earth or wood — had been destroyed. “For now, we still are busy pulling the dead or injured from under the rubble,” he said. Pakistan: The earthquake was felt in several parts of Pakistan, but the country was spared the kind of damage seen in neighboring Afghanistan. Government: The earthquake is just the latest challenge to confront the fledgling Taliban government. Russian forces in recent days have captured three additional villages in eastern Ukraine, allowing them to advance their artillery in range of Lysychansk, a key city where Ukrainian forces are digging in on high ground for what is expected to be a pitched battle.
