Afghanistan: Landslides Leave 350 People Dead in Remote Afghanistan Province --- As many as 350 people were killed as landslides, triggered by heavy rains, buried homes in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province bordering Tajikistan, the United Nations said. -- About 700 families lived in the affected area, Ari Gaitanis spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said in an e-mail yesterday. As many as 120 homes have been completely destroyed, Gaitanis said. President Hamid Karzai dispatched teams to rescue and help people in the area, according to a statement from his office. --A “significant” number will have been displaced following the landslides, Gaitanis said. Heavy rains caused floods in the nation’s northern provinces killing more than 100 people last week. As many as 2,000 are missing following the latest disaster, the Associated Press reported. -- “There have now been more Afghans killed through natural disasters in the past seven days than all of 2013,” Mark Bowden, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Afghanistan, said in a statement yesterday. “The foremost priority at the moment is saving as many lives as possible of those still beneath the rubble.” -- The landslides occurred in Ab-e-Khoshk village, Karzai’s office said. Authorities evacuated nearby villages following the disaster, which occurred around 1 p.m. local time yesterday, AP reported. -- “Humanitarian entities are on the ground, although road access to the affected area is secondary but good,” Gaitanis said. Still, the roads “cannot take heavy machinery,” he said. -- Seasonal rains and melting snow makes northern Afghanistan susceptible to recurring natural disasters, according to the UN statement.