A magnitude 6.3 earthquake shook western Afghanistan yesterday, killing two and injuring dozens more in the same region where more than 1,000 people died in tremors last week.
After days of sleeping outside fearing aftershocks from last week’s tremors, residents in the city of Herat had just begun returning to their homes again when the quake hit just after 8am.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said two new fatalities and 154 injuries were registered at Herat Regional Hospital, where patients were being ferried on stretchers and treated outside under gazebos.
Photo: Doctors Without Borders in Afghanistan via AP
“The situation is very critical,” said Yahya Kalila, head of MSF’s Afghanistan program. “In terms of psychology, people are panicked and traumatised.”
“People are not feeling safe. I will assure you 100 percent, no one will sleep in their house,” Kalila said.
The epicenter of yesterday’s quake was 33km northwest of Herat City. It was followed by aftershocks of magnitudes 5.4 and 4.2, the US Geological Survey said.
National disaster management officials said they were still investigating the scale of destruction.
Another magnitude 6.3 quake and eight powerful aftershocks jolted the same part of Herat on Oct. 7, toppling swathes of rural homes.
The Taliban government said more than 1,000 people were killed in last week’s tremors, while the WHO put the figure at nearly 1,400 late on Saturday.
The quakes were followed by dust storms, which damaged the tents survivors were living in.
“Many of our countrymen don’t have any place to live and nights are getting colder,” shopkeeper Nizami said.
Officials yesterday said that more than 528 prisoners had been released from Herat and Badghis provinces because jails “were in danger of collapsing” from quake damage.
The Afghan Prisons Administration Authority said the freed included those who had served large portions of their sentences and showed signs of reform.
The WHO says nearly 20,000 people have been affected by the string of disasters, with women and children making up most of the fatalities.
Forty-year-old Mohammad Naeem said he had lost 12 relatives, including his mother, after last week’s quakes.
“We can’t live here anymore. You can see, our family got martyred here. How could we live here?” he asked.
Taiwan aims to open 18 representative offices and seven Taiwan Tourism Information Centers worldwide by next year to attract international visitors, the Tourism Administration said on Saturday. The agency has so far opened three representative offices abroad this year and would open two more before the end of the year, it said. It has also already opened information centers in Jakarta, Mumbai and Paris, and is to open one in Vancouver next month and in Manila in December, it said. Next year, it would also open offices in Amsterdam, Dubai and Sydney, it added. While the Cabinet did not mention international tourists in its
EYES AT SEA: Many marine enthusiasts have expressed interest in volunteering for coastal patrols, which would help identify stowaways and illegal fishing, the CGA said Six thousand coastal patrol volunteers are to be recruited for 159 inspection offices to enhance the nation’s response to “gray zone” conflicts, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sources said yesterday. Volunteer teams would be established to increase the resilience of coastal defense systems in the wake of two unlawful entries attempted by Chinese over the past three months, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. A former Chinese navy captain drove a motorboat into the Tamsui River (淡水河) in Taipei on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, while another Chinese man sailed in a rubber boat into the Houkeng
NEXT LEVEL: The defense ministry confirmed that a video released last month featured personnel piloting new FPV drone systems being developed by the Armaments Bureau Taipei and Washington are pushing for their drone companies to work together to establish a China-free supply chain, the Financial Times reported on Friday. A delegation of high-level executives and US government officials were yesterday to arrive in Taipei to discuss with their Taiwanese counterparts collaboration on drone technology procurement and development, the report said. The executives represent 26 US manufacturers of drone and counter-drone systems, while the officials are from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, along with Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
‘ANONYMOUS 64’: A national security official said that it is an attempt by China to increase domestic anti-Taiwanese sentiment and inflame cross-strait tensions The Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM) yesterday denied accusations by China that it had undermined regional security by carrying out cyberattacks against targets in China, adding instead that Beijing was responsible for raising tensions and undermining regional peace. The Chinese Ministry of State Security on WeChat accused a hacker group called “Anonymous 64” of targeting China, Hong Kong and Macau starting earlier this year through frequent cyberattacks. The group carried out cyberattacks to seize control of Web sites, outdoor electronic billboards and video-on-demand platforms in China, Hong Kong and Macau, it said, adding the hackers’