Powerful Uzbekistan quake kills at least 14

A powerful earthquake early yesterday killed at least 14 people in a heavily populated valley in Central Asia. Almost all the casualties were in Uzbekistan, where officials confirmed 13 deaths.

The magnitude-6.1 quake centred in Kyrgyzstan hit shortly after midnight in a mountainous area some 20 miles from the eastern Uzbek city of Ferghana, which has a population of more than 200,000. So far, no deaths have been reported in Kyrgyzstan itself. Quakes are a relatively frequent occurrence in this region of former Soviet Central Asia.