World News Iran hit by major earthquake

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SARBAGH, Iran (AP) - Under a cold, driving rain, surviｖors wailed over the bodies of the dead and dug through the ruins of mud-brick houses searching for their loved ones after a powerful earthquake flattened villages in central Iran on Feb. 22, killing at least 420 people.

The toll is expected to rise, because rescue teams did not have a final count from the three most isolated villages in the mountainous region. Heavy rain and bad visibility hampered relief efforts.

About 30,000 people were affected, many left homeless when some 40 villages were reduced to piles of dirt and stone by the magnitude-6.4 earthquake.

Meanwhile, U.S. quake experts told the American Association for the Advancement of Science on Feb. 20 that although it is easy to say where big quakes will happen, pinning one down to a day, or even a decade, is impossible.

"Most seismologists, including myself, are pessimistic that in the next five years or 10 years that we will ever be able to come up with a silver-bullet earthquake solution," one of them said.

イランで大規模地震

イラン中部で2月22日、マグニチュード6.4の地震が発生し、少なくとも420人が死亡した。

Shukan ST: March 4, 2005

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