Death toll of children in Afghanistan quake rises to 155

By SIDDIQULLAH ALIZAI
Associated Press

GAYAN, Afghanistan (AP) — The United Nations says that the death toll of children in last week’s devastating earthquake in southeastern Afghanistan has risen to 155 as the scope of the deadliest quake to hit the impoverished country in two decades comes into focus. The U.N.’s humanitarian coordination organization said on Sunday that another 250 children were injured in the magnitude 6 temblor that struck the mountainous villages in the Paktika and Khost provinces near the country’s border with Pakistan, flattening homes and triggering landslides. The disaster — the latest to convulse Afghanistan after decades of war, hunger, poverty and an economic crash — has become a test of the Taliban’s capacity to govern and the international community’s willingness to help.