Killer floods

KABUL (AFP) - At least 3,000 people are feared dead after flash floods caused by heavy rain devastated numerous Afghan villages, say mine-clearance workers. The floods, early on Wednesday, destroyed hundreds of homes in three valleys in the southern foothills of the Hindu Kush near Gulbahar, about 55 miles north of Kabul.

Distances of up to 20 miles in each of the small valleys are said to have been swept clean of human existence. Most of the wasted villages were populated by returned refugees, who had just finished rebuilding what was destroyed in 14 years of war.