Afghanistan Quake Affects Neighboring Chinese Region

The strong earthquake that hit Afghanistan Sunday was also felt in Kashi Prefecture of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region that is neighboring on Afghanistan, but no casualty or property loss was reported, according to Yao Yongfeng, Party secretary of Kashi Prefecture.

Yao, who is here attending the annual session of the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC), said the local people are trying to mitigate the effect of the earthquake and bring life to normal.

"As a neighbor of Afghanistan, we wish to extend our sympathy to Afghan people and hope that they would reduce casualties and losses to the minimum," the official said.

(China Daily March 5, 2002)