KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A landslide triggered by heavy rain buried large sections of a remote northeastern Afghan village on Friday, killing at least 350 people and leaving more than 2,000 missing. Villagers looked on helplessly and the governor appealed for shovels to help dig through the mass of mud that flattened every home in its path.

The mountainous area in Badakhshan province has experienced days of heavy rain and flooding, and the side of a cliff collapsed onto the village of Hobo Barik around midday. Landslides and avalanches are frequent in Afghanistan, but Friday's was one of the deadliest.

Gov. Shah Waliullah Adeeb said more than 2,000 people were missing after the landslide buried some 300 homes — about a third of all the houses in the area.

At least 350 people were confirmed dead, according to Ari Gaitanis, a spokesman from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. He said the U.N. was working with authorities on the ground to rescue people still trapped.

The governor said rescue crews were working but didn't have enough equipment.

"It's physically impossible right now," Adeeb said. "We don't have enough shovels; we need more machinery."

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Map locates Badakhshan, Afghanistan.

Badakhshan provincial police chief, Maj. Gen. Faziluddin Hayar said rescuers had pulled seven survivors and three bodies from the mounds of mud and earth but held out little hope that more survivors would be found.

"Now we can only help the displaced people. Those trapped under the landslide and who have lost lives, it is impossible to do anything for them," Hayar said.

Video footage of the scene showed a large section of the mountain collapsed, sending mud and earth tumbling onto the village below.

The landslide was likely caused by heavy rain, said Abdullah Homayun Dehqan, the province's director for National Disaster Department. He said floods last week in different districts of the province killed four people and eight more were still missing.

Landslides occur frequently in the province, but they generally happen in remote areas and produce far fewer casualties, said Mohammad Usman Abu Zar from the Meteorology Department of Badakhshan province.

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Afghan villagers gather at the site of a landslide at the Argo district in Badakhshan province, May …

Authorities evacuated a nearby village over concerns about further landslides, the governor said. Dehqan said blankets and tents had been sent and about 400 people from nearby villages had gathered to help with the rescue effort.

Hayar said the landslide happened about 1 p.m. Friday, a day of worship in Afghanistan when many families would have been at home instead of at work.

President Barack Obama, speaking at a White House news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, expressed his sympathy for the Afghan people.

"Just as the United States has stood with the people of Afghanistan through a difficult decade, we stand ready to help our Afghan partners as they respond to this disaster, for even as our war there comes to an end this year, our commitment to Afghanistan and its people will endure," he said.

Badakhshan province, nestled in the Hindu Kush and Pamir mountain ranges and bordering China, is one of the most remote in the country. The area has seen few attacks from insurgents following the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Afghans living in the rugged mountains of northern Afghanistan are used to natural disasters. A landslide in Baghlan province, also in northeastern Afghanistan, killed 71 people in 2012. After days of digging unearthed only five bodies, authorities decided to halt the recovery effort and turn the area into a memorial for the dead.

Avalanches are also a factor. In February 2010, when more than 170 people were killed at the 12,700-foot-high (3,800-meter) Salang Pass, which is the major route through the Hindu Kush mountains that connects the capital to the north.

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Associated Press Writer Rebecca Santana contributed to this report.

Hundreds dead after landslide in Afghanistan

At least 350 are killed and 2,000 missing after a rain-soaked village is buried by debris, officials say.
'We don't have enough shovels'

Quote:
Miguel,
Our President, send him more light.

Gordon Duff 5-2-14… “The Obama ‘Un-Presidency’” by kauilapele

This article I feel presents a very likely picture of what this particular person who occupies the "Office of the President" (aka, Barack Obama) has had to deal with. Prior to his entering the White House, I remember many of the "Galactic sites" (and "gurus") stating that he had come in via leadership roles in several past lifetimes, including Egypt. And that now he had come in to help take the planet out of prison, and into "the Golden Age".

Although he has indeed been blocked all along the way, there are a number of issues he has indeed addressed and passed through the "US CoC" (UNITED STATES Congress of Crooks (not all of them, of course)). We are (officially) out of Iraq, And we are not at war in either Syria or Ukraine (although the dark ones are trying). And I'm sure there are others. And many being accomplished behind the scenes, and in concert with the non-cabal-aligned countries.

My own sense is that he is trying to just allow the world to hold together, without "blowing up" (whatever that may mean), and keep the United States people from being eliminated, as much as he can.

So here's a few highlights that hit me from this...

• During the last months of the Bush administration, a Secret Shadow Government (SSG) was created to sabotage President Obama, politically, economically and, in particular, on issues of foreign policy.
• In many departments... new positions were created giving not only broad and unaccountable authority to minor officials but new regulations protect them from oversight or even detection.
• In some cases, State Department officials overseeing intelligence and policy functions report, not to Secretary of State Kerry but to private “think tanks,” many tied to extremist elements of the opposition party.
• If Obama administration policies make no sense... there is a reason... the previous administration... had embedded its most venomous acolytes into key strategic positions.
• The rationale for “not letting go of power,” for failing to hand over the reins as it were is, ostensibly financial in nature.
• In one of the rare successes of the Obama administration, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, has in a series of lightning strikes removed the entire nuclear command of the US Air Force.
• Obama inherited a government “infected” by the secret societies John F. Kennedy warned about only hours before his assassination... a virtual army of “moles” were planted at every strategic juncture in America’s bureaucratic and judicial apparatus.
• ...one thing is clear. Whatever legacy the Obama presidency wished to have has been destroyed by the debacle in the Ukraine.
• There is a clear agenda, one intended to “burn” Russia, China and the United States “to the ground.” Inside Washington and other capitols around the world, “SSG” moles, working in concert, are pushing the world to “August 1914.”

[PS any negative or slandering type comments about this post on FB will be removed.]

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The Obama "Un-Presidency"

By Gordon Duff for New Eastern Outlook, Russia

During the last months of the Bush administration, a Secret Shadow Government (SSG) was created to sabotage President Obama, politically, economically and, in particular, on issues of foreign policy. “Transition conferences” were held, procedures enacted, roadblocks created.

In every aspect of government, parallel command structures answerable to former officials and special interest groups were created. In many departments such as those tasked with enforcing laws, regulating financial institutions or even commanding nuclear forces, new positions were created giving not only broad and unaccountable authority to minor officials but new regulations protect them from oversight or even detection.

In some cases, State Department officials overseeing intelligence and policy functions report, not to Secretary of State Kerry but to private “think tanks,” many tied to extremist elements of the opposition party.

“SSG” moles forge language on intercepts, distribute misleading analysis and photoshopped “evidence” and, most recently, have altered translated statements from the Russian government over the Ukraine to be full scale ultimatums where, in reality, such language has never been used.
Read more...

HOMS, Syria (AP) — Syria's government and rebels agreed to a ceasefire Friday in the battleground city of Homs aimed at allowing hundreds of fighters holed up in its old quarters to evacuate, a move that would surrender almost total control of the city once known as the "capital of the revolution" to President Bashar Assad's forces.

If rebel fighters do leave, the capture of Homs, Syria's third largest city, would be a significant victory for Assad, weeks before presidential elections set for June 3.

The 48-hour cease-fire deal, reported by opposition activists and a pro-government TV station, came after weeks of unprecedented pounding of rebel-held districts by government forces. In a sign the truce came into effect, an Associated Press team in Homs on Friday said it was unusually quiet, with no shots fired from either side.

Still, the deal could potentially collapse if there are last-minute disputes over the terms of evacuation and some rebels decide to hold out.

One Homs-based opposition activist said it was a bitter moment for the rebels who have been barricaded in 13 neighborhoods around Homs' historic center.

"This isn't what we wanted, but it's all we could get," Beibars Tilawi told The Associated Press in a Skype interview. "The regime wanted to take control of the heart of the revolution." Evacuations may start on Saturday, he said.

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This file photo released on Thursday Nov. 29, 2012 by the anti-government activist group Homs …

Residents of Homs, in the central western plains of Syria, were among the first to rise fiercely against Assad's rule three years ago, earning it the nickname of the "capital of the revolution." After waves of anti-Assad protests by its residents, rebels seized control of much of the city and Homs quickly became the focus of the worst violence of the uprising, now in its fourth year.

Homs, 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of Damascus with a pre-war population of around 1.2 million, is particularly important for its centrality. It links the capital with Aleppo in the north — the country's largest city and another key battleground.

Blocks of Homs have been blasted to rubble in the grueling battles as Assad's forces fought to wrest it back. For more than a year, government troops have blockaded rebels inside a string of districts spread over some eight miles (13 kilometers), causing widespread hunger and weakening the fighters.

Heavy airstrikes and artillery bombardment of rebel-held areas intensified in past weeks, as government troops won other victories further south near Damascus and the Lebanon border, hurting supply lines. Rebels outside Homs did not come to the aid of the fighters within, and the past few months hundreds of fighters surrendered to Assad-loyal forces, activists said.

But a hardcore group remained fighting, dispatching explosive-rigged cars into government-controlled districts of Homs, killing dozens of people, mostly civilians. Most recently, a double car bombing on Tuesday killed over 50 people.

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FILE - This file photo released on Monday, June 18, 2012 by the anti-government activist group Rebel …

Some rebels and activists in Homs have negotiating over a truce for at least two months, but the bulk of the rebels refused to agree until the final, violent push of fighting, activists said. United Nations officials oversaw the agreement, according to Tilawi.

U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq official said the organization had officials on the ground trying to work with the parties to make sure that there could be an agreement on Homs. He said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon supports the cease-fire negotiations and has been pushing for an agreement.

The U.N. helped oversee the evacuation of hundreds of civilians from Homs' rebel-held neighborhoods in February.

There was no immediate comment by Syrian officials.

On Friday, Syrian army soldiers with machine guns at the multiple checkpoints inside the city appeared relaxed. The facades of buildings close to them were battered by shrapnel from mortar fire in recent days.

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In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian people gather at the site of …

At the checkpoints, posters of Assad — many with him smiling confidently — hung off sandbags and makeshift barriers made of truck tires, with the Syrian national flag fluttering overhead.

The 48-hour truce began Friday, said Tilawi and another activist who goes by the nickname Thaer Khalidiya, who is based in countryside north of Homs. The deal was also reported by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict, and the Al-Manar TV channel, owned by Assad's Lebanese Hezbollah allies, as well as by Lebanese channel Al-Mayadeen.

It wasn't immediately clear how the rebels would leave Homs — or if all rebel districts in the city had agreed to the deal.

Tilawi said the fighters would leave in groups, beginning from Saturday. They will be taken to rebel-held provincial towns north of Homs. He estimated at least 1,000 rebels and activists had to be evacuated. The rebels belonged to all factions, including the al-Qaida based Nusra Front, he said.

He and other activists cautioned that the deal was extremely fragile.

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In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, a Syrian boy who was injured by a ca …

"We don't trust the regime. If there's any shooting or traps set, the whole thing will fall apart," he said. "We are going to try get out the first group of fighters and see."

Also Friday, two car bombs struck two small pro-government villages in the central Syrian province of Hama, killing 18 people, including 11 children, state-run television said. The two villages, Jadreen and Humayri, are about a 20-minute drive apart, but it wasn't immediately clear if the two attacks were coordinated.

More than 150,000 people have been killed in Syria's conflict since it began in March 2011.

Pro-government forces are trying to push back rebels ahead of presidential elections set for June 3.

In recent weeks, Assad's forces largely cleared rebels from a broad swath of territory south of Homs between the capital, Damascus, and the Lebanese border, breaking important rebel supply lines there. Rebels have also capitulated in several towns around Damascus after blockades that caused widespread hunger and suffering.

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Hadid reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer contributed to this report from New York.

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A cease-fire is reached in Homs to allow rebels to leave the city and return it to government control.
'Capital of the revolution'