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Snow and heavy rain have killed 61 people in Afghanistan in the past three days, disaster officials said Saturday, with a major road and power also cut in several provinces.The deaths occurred mainly in central and northern provinces between Wednesday and Friday, according to a map released by Afghanistan's disaster management authority ANDMA.The "initial figures of casualties and destruction" include 110 injured people and 458 houses that were either partially or fully destroyed, the ANDMA said on social media platform X.A total of 360 families were affected, said a spokesman who asked people in a video message to avoid unnecessary travel on snowy roads.The spokesman also told AFP that most of the casualties were caused by roof collapses and avalanches, while many also died from frostbite in sub-zero temperatures.The emergency department in the southern province of Kandahar said six children were killed when the roof of their home collapsed in strong wind and heavy rain on Wednesday.Houses were also damaged in other districts.The Salang highway, one of Afghanistan's main roads, has been closed, authorities in Parwan province north of Kabul said.The highway is a vital connection to Afghanistan's northern provinces.Food supplies were also distributed to travellers stuck on a mountain pass in central Bamyan province, west of the capital.A transmission line importing electricity from Uzbekistan was also damaged on Thursday, leaving households in almost 12 provinces without power."The technical teams are ready but cannot reach the area because of the blockage of Salang pass," said Mohammad Sadiq, the spokesman for Afghanistan's national power utility DABS.The heavy snow and rain also destroyed shops and killed livestock in different parts of the predominantly rural country."Snow and rain, when managed properly, contribute positively to Afghanistan's environment and livelihoods," the *Kabul Times daily wrote in an editorial. "However, without sufficient preparation and timely intervention, these natural phenomena can quickly turn into sources of tragedy."Around half of Afghanistan's population of more than 40mn people will need humanitarian assistance this year, according to the United Nations, after a sharp drop in foreign assistance in recent years.Natural disasters such as earthquakes and drought also often compound the daily struggle to survive. 

Heavy rain, severe flooding and landslides in Vietnam have killed at least 90 people in the last week, authorities said Sunday, leaving others stranded on rooftops and mountain roadways blocked. Relentless rain has lashed south-central Vietnam since late October and popular holiday destinations have been hit by several rounds of flooding, with economic losses estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars.Whole sections of coastal Nha Trang city were inundated last week, while deadly landslides struck highland passes around the Da Lat tourist hub. In the hard-hit mountainous province of Dak Lak, 61-year-old farmer Mach Van Si said the floodwaters left him and his wife stranded on their sheet-metal rooftop for two nights."Our neighborhood was completely destroyed. Nothing was left. Everything was covered in mud," he told AFP on Sunday. By the time they climbed a ladder to their roof, Si said he was no longer scared. "I just thought we were going to die because there was no way out," he said. More than 60 deaths, of the 90 recorded since November 16, were in Dak Lak, where tens of thousands of homes were inundated, the environment ministry said in a statement.At the Tuy Hoa market in the province, the floodwaters have receded but Vo Huu Du, 40, said some of the hats, bags and shoes she sells were still soaked or lying in mud. "My goods look like one big soggy mess," she told AFP. "I don't even know where to start." She and other vendors once considered five centimetres (two inches) off the ground a safe level to raise their merchandise to avoid flood damage -- but no more."All these years, the highest water level back in 1993 only reached our ankles," said Du. "But now the water has come in over one metre (three feet) high." "All the vendors are devastated, not just me," she added. Ceramics seller Nguyen Van Thoai, 60, gestured to piles of damaged goods to be cleared from paths between vendor stalls, calling it "a real loss"."I don't even know where to put all this market stock," he said. "We might need to clean it for a month and still won't be done." More than 80,000 hectares (200,000 acres) of rice and other crops across Dak Lak and four other provinces were damaged in the last week, with over 3.2 million livestock or poultry killed or washed away by floodwaters.Authorities have used helicopters to airdrop aid to communities cut off by flooding and landslides, with the government deploying tens of thousands of personnel to deliver clothing, water-purification tablets, instant noodles and other supplies to affected areas, state outlet Tuoi Tre News said.Several locations on national highways remained blocked on Sunday due to flooding or landslides, according to the environment ministry, and some railway sections were still suspended. The ministry estimated economic losses of $343mn across five provinces due to the floods.Natural disasters have left 279 people dead or missing in Vietnam and caused more than $2bn in damage between January and October, according to the national statistics office. The Southeast Asian nation is prone to heavy rain between June and September, but scientists have identified a pattern of human-driven climate change making extreme weather more frequent and destructive.

Parts of Delhi and Kashmir were flooded Thursday after two rivers breached the danger mark following heavy rain in several northern areas, but weather officials forecast some respite from downpours.A fierce monsoon season has brought immense destruction in the region this year, killing at least 130 people in August.Torrential rain in the hilly areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh has swollen many rivers, which have crossed danger levels.Residential areas were flooded in the key city of Srinagar after a breach of the Jhelum river embankment, and authorities urged people to evacuate homes."The Jhelum is climbing, but at a much slower rate than was feared," Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, said in a post on X. "The administration is not going to lower its guard. We continue to monitor the situation very closely."Rescuers searched for any people trapped under debris after the rain triggered a landslide at the Ratle hydroelectric power project on the Chenab river in Drabshalla, officials said.Weather officials have forecast showers to ease off with moderate rain expected in Jammu and Kashmir and the state of Uttarkhand.In Delhi, the capital, the Yamuna river passed the danger mark on Tuesday, in a flow the Central Water Commission described as a 'severe' situation.Muddy water Thursday poured into many homes in low-lying areas, from which thousands had already been evacuated to safer places as a precaution.Authorities shut the historic Loha Pul, or Iron Bridge, spanning the Yamuna in the older part of the city.Crops across tens of thousands of hectares have been destroyed by the rains in the breadbasket state of Punjab where 37 have died since August began.The deluge spurred authorities to release water pent up in dams, further flooding areas in both India and neighbouring Pakistan.