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This is VOA News. Reporting by remote, I'm David Byrd.
The death toll is expected to continue climbing after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck southwestern Haiti Saturday. We get more from AP's Julie Walker.
Haitian Info Project capturing the scene as a woman and child trapped in the rubble in Cap-Haitian saved by people digging them out. The earthquake also did significant damage to the coastal town of Les Cayes where it leveled a popular hotel hosting a celebration where officials say many are feared trapped or dead.
U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Paul Caruso says it was a magnitude 7.2 earthquake.
"Our pager's estimating that we have significant fatalities and significant economic damage."
Caruso says Haiti could get some strong aftershocks. There's also a tropical storm expected to make landfall early in the week.
I'm Julie Walker.
U.S. President Joe Biden authorized on Saturday an additional 1,000 troops for deployment to Afghanistan, raising to roughly 5,000 the number of U.S. troops to ensure what Biden called an "orderly and safe drawdown" of American and allied personnel.
In a statement Saturday, Biden did not explain the breakdown of the 5,000 troops he said had been deployed. But a defense official said the president had approved Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's recommendation that the lead battalion of the 82nd Airborne Brigade Combat Team assist in the State Department's drawdown.
The decision came as the Taliban captured the strategic northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif and closed in on Kabul by taking the Logar province just to the south. The city fell after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani pledged in a televised address not to give up the achievements of the 20 years since the U.S. toppled the Taliban after the 9/11 attacks.
This is VOA News.
