BREAKING NEWS

Dozens dead, stranded after flash floods in Afghanistan, Pakistan

KABUL - Flash floods caused by unusually heavy rain across Afghanistan and Pakistan killed more than 160 people and stranded villagers in remote areas without shelter, food or power in one of South Asia's worst natural disasters this year, officials said on Monday.
Mountainous Afghanistan was the worst hit, with 61 people killed and about 500 traditional mud-brick homes washed away in more than a dozen villages in Sarobi, a rural district less than an hour from the national capital, Kabul, officials said.
In the remote eastern Afghan province of Nuristan at least 60 homes were destroyed across three districts, said provincial spokesman Mohammad Yusufi. No one was killed.
Authorities were unable to get aid to some badly affected villages by land as roads in the area are controlled by the Taliban, Yusufi added.
"We have asked the national government for help as have an overwhelming number of locals asking for assistance, but this is a Taliban-ridden area," Yusufi said.