Aid reaches quake victims

THE FIRST helicopter with aid reached survivors of an earthquake in northern Afghanistan yesterday, a week after the first tremor struck.

Families walked miles, some barefoot, through the snow from villages where thousands of their relatives and neighbours were killed, to the regional centre of Rustaq, where aid is being co-ordinated. Relief agencies have put the death toll from the quake, and a smaller tremor at the weekend, as high as 4,200 and say thousands more are homeless.

- Reuters, Rustaq