Monday, September 21, 2009

Killer quake hits Bhutan, shakes India

Wasbir Hussain (AP)
GAUHATI, India – A 6.3-magni-tude earthquake shook the remote mountain nation of Bhutan on Monday, killing at least 11 people, damaging an ancient monastery and forcing hundreds to flee, officials said. At least 15 people were also injured.

The afternoon earthquake was initially reported in Gauhati, the capital of India's northeastern Assam state, but it was centered in a little-populated eastern region of the tiny nation of Bhutan. Much of Bhutan [the last Himalayan Buddhist kingdom], a nation sandwiched between India and [Tibet], is sparsely populated, reachable only by walking paths and without electricity or telephones.

"We're trying to piece together information to assess the damage," Ugyen Tenzing, the country's director of disaster management said from Thimphu, Bhutan's capital. More>>

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