[face=arial] Plane carrying 270 people crashes in Iran
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A plane carrying 270 passengers, mostly military personnel, has crashed in southern Iran.
The plane was on a domestic route from Zahedan, on the Pakistan border, to Kerman, south-east of Tehran.
It crashed about 80 kilometres from its destination, apparently killing all on board.
State-run television says the Russian-built Antonov plane had lost contact with the control tower and came down in a mountainous area near the city of Shahdad.
The 270 passengers were members of the elite Revolutionary Guards, according to local television reports.
An official says the force had been visiting the impoverished Sistan-Baluchestan province, of which Zahedan is the capital, for an "important duty".
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[face=arial]Hundreds killed in China earthquake
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At least 242 people have been killed by a powerful earthquake that struck China's west.
More than 1,000 people were injured in the tremor described by the official Chinese news agency as "the most serious since 1949" when China's communist government was founded.
More than 1,000 homes have been destroyed in just one town.
The 6.8 magnitude quake struck Bachu County on the western edge of Xinjiang, near China's mountainous border with Kyrgyzstan.
Most of the people who died were killed in Bachu County, said Zhang Yong, director of disaster prevention for the Xinjiang Seismology Bureau. The area is about 1,750 miles west of the capital Beijing.
More than 1,000 houses and school buildings collapsed in one town in Bachu County, near the centre of the earthquake, state media said.
The quake also shook neighbouring Jiashi County, but less damage was reported there, Zhang said. He said buildings in Bachu were older and weaker, while Jiashi suffered a series of severe quakes in the late 1990s and damaged houses and shops were rebuilt using more solid construction methods.
Most of the dead in Bachu were in collapsed houses where the quake caught them eating breakfast, police said.
The highest earthquake death toll in modern times hit Tangshan, China, in 1976 and is estimated to have killed 242,000 people, although this figure is disputed by Chinese officials.
Earthquakes are common in Xinjiang, especially in its west, which covers the eastern foothills of the soaring Pamir and Tianshan mountains of Central Asia. But they usually cause few injuries and little property damage because the area is so sparsely populated.
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At least 242 people have been killed by a powerful earthquake that struck China's west.
More than 1,000 people were injured in the tremor described by the official Chinese news agency as "the most serious since 1949" when China's communist government was founded.
More than 1,000 homes have been destroyed in just one town.
The 6.8 magnitude quake struck Bachu County on the western edge of Xinjiang, near China's mountainous border with Kyrgyzstan.
Most of the people who died were killed in Bachu County, said Zhang Yong, director of disaster prevention for the Xinjiang Seismology Bureau. The area is about 1,750 miles west of the capital Beijing.
More than 1,000 houses and school buildings collapsed in one town in Bachu County, near the centre of the earthquake, state media said.
The quake also shook neighbouring Jiashi County, but less damage was reported there, Zhang said. He said buildings in Bachu were older and weaker, while Jiashi suffered a series of severe quakes in the late 1990s and damaged houses and shops were rebuilt using more solid construction methods.
Most of the dead in Bachu were in collapsed houses where the quake caught them eating breakfast, police said.
The highest earthquake death toll in modern times hit Tangshan, China, in 1976 and is estimated to have killed 242,000 people, although this figure is disputed by Chinese officials.
Earthquakes are common in Xinjiang, especially in its west, which covers the eastern foothills of the soaring Pamir and Tianshan mountains of Central Asia. But they usually cause few injuries and little property damage because the area is so sparsely populated.
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