Earthquakes kill at least 22

Two earthquakes have hit eastern Afghanistan, killing at least 22 people and destroying more than 200 homes. The tremors struck two hours apart during the night, local authorities said on Friday.Two earthquakes killed at least 22 people and destroyed several hundred homes when they struck two hours apart in eastern Afghanistan, local authorities said Friday.The quakes hit overnight the district of Khogyani in Nangarhar province near the Pakistan border and where police launched rescue efforts searching for more dead and injured under the rubble of pancaked homes."Four villages were seriously damaged by the two earthquakes. Twenty-two people have been killed and 30 injured. More than 200 homes have been destroyed," Khogyani district chief Haji Said Rahman told AFP.The interior ministry in Kabul confirmed an initial death toll of 19 and said police were in charge of the rescue effort."The police started work early this morning. All the 19 dead bodies were picked up by police," interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashari told AFP."The work is going on and the rubble is being removed to try to find more dead bodies or injured people," he added.The US Geological Survey said two moderate earthquakes rattled the Hindu Kush border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan in the early hours of Friday.A 5.5-magnitude quake struck at 1:57 am Afghan time (2127 GMT Thursday) 85 kilometres (55 miles) southeast of Kabul and 140 kilometres west of the Pakistani city of Peshawar, according to the US agency.