The Associated Press reports that:
"A devastating earthquake triggered landslides, toppled an apartment building and flattened villages of mud-brick homes Saturday, killing more than 18,000 people across a mountainous swath touching Pakistan, India and Afghanistan."
The casualty toll from the 7.6-magnitude tremor rose sharply Sunday as rescuers struggled to dig people from the wreckage, their work made more difficult as rain and hail turned dirt and debris into sticky muck. Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, Pakistan's chief army spokesman, told Pakistan's Geo TV network early Sunday that more than 18,000 had been killed _ 17,000 of them in Pakistani Kashmir, where the quake was centered. Some 41,000 people were injured, he said.
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Writer Michael Brown says our new pope is right on target as he proclaims that the problem with the Church is a lack of Biblical spirituality.
National Respect Life Sunday was this past Sunday, October 2, which signals the start of Respec Life October and a good time to brush up on the latest -- and unfortunately many -- issues confronting the pro-life faithful. For your convenience we have posted the statement of Cardinal William H. Keeler, Archbishop of Baltimore and chairman of the USCCB Committee for Pro Life Activities HERE.
A well-done exposition of life issues as they affect Oklahomans headlines the online edition this week of The Sooner Catholic, which you can find HERE.
This is National Respect Life Month
ROME - An Italian man who spent two years supposedly unconscious in a deep coma, written off by doctors as nearly-dead, awoke saying he heard and understood everything happening around him during the long ordeal, his family said.
Hurricane + quake beget mudslides;
Guatemalans face heavy losses
URGENT PRAYER NEED ...
18,000+ feared dead in India-Pakistan quake
Official toll at 218; Santiago Atitlan blocked
SOLOLA, Guatemala, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Rescuers fought through crumbling mountains and waterlogged plains on Friday to try to reach survivors of landslides and floods that have killed at least 218 people in Central America and Southern Mexico.
An elite emergency team worked through a night of fog and rain, amid multiple landslides, in their effort to get to the Maya Indian village of Santiago Atitlan, where 40 people died in one of hundreds of mudslides in the wake of Hurricane Stan.
However, the winding Pan-American highway that is Guatemala's lifeline to the rest of the world was impassable in parts. As one torrent of debris was cleared, more earth tumbled from sodden mountainsides, blocking the way.
"Whatever happens, we have to reach them," rescuer Jose Victor Chavez said, picking his way through rubble-strewn roads flanked by walls of soggy dirt 10 feet (three-metres) high.
The rescue team planned to make a fresh attempt on Friday morning to reach Santiago Atitlan, a tourist destination which sits on Lake Atitlan, a picturesque collapsed volcanic cone filled with turquoise water.
Stranded victims of the mudslides were desperate to reach their family members in the village.
"I've tried to call 20 times but there's no signal. I'm going with a heavy heart because my family's there," said Juan Mateo, 55, who walked for hours on Thursday night to reach Solola and hoped to get to Santiago Atitlan on Friday.
See DEATH TOLL story here.
Guatemalan man and son carefully tread their way of escape from rising waters.
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