Iran quake kills 40 in Pakistan

Pakistani troops scrambled Wednesday to aid the remote victims of an earthquake that hit nearby Iran. The epicenter of Tuesday’s 7.8 magnitude quake lay in southeast Iran but all 40 deaths reported so far have been across the border in Pakistan’s dirt-poor province of Baluchistan, where hundreds of mud-built homes suffered damage. The powerful tremor shook the ground and caused panic as far afield as Kuwait and the Indian capital New Delhi. Thousands of people evacuated towering residential and office buildings in Dubai. The quake came a week after another struck near Iran’s Gulf port city of Bushehr, killing at least 30 people. Putting aside America’s longstanding enmity with Iran, and its more recent strains in relations with Pakistan, US Secretary of State John Kerry offered “our deepest condolences” to the families of the dead and to the injured. “We stand ready to offer assistance in this difficult time,” he said. UN chief Ban Ki-moon also expressed condolences after Tuesday’s disaster and said the “United Nations stands ready to help as necessary if asked to do so.”

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