Entertainment
At least 250 dead, 500 injured in Afghanistan earthquake: reports
- Early reports show 30 dead in single village: health ministry.
- Number of casualties and injuries is high, says ministry’s spox.
- Figures likely to rise as reports arrive from remote areas.
KABUL: Hundreds were feared dead and injured after an earthquake of magnitude-6 struck two rugged eastern provinces in Afghanistan, authorities said on Monday, as helicopters ferried the injured to safety from rubble being combed in a hunt for survivors.
Reports showed 250 dead and 500 injured, said Najibullah Hanif, the provincial information head of Kunar, adding that the tally could change.
The disaster will further stretch the resources of the South Asian nation already grappling with humanitarian crises, from a sharp drop in aid to a huge pushback of its citizens from neighbouring countries.
There was no confirmed death toll, health authorities said in Kabul, the capital, as rescuers raced to reach remote hamlets dotting an area with a long history of earthquakes and floods.
“Figures from just a few clinics show over 400 injured and dozens of fatalities,” ministry spokesperson Sharafat Zaman said in a statement that warned of higher casualties.
Images from Reuters Television showed helicopters ferrying out the affected, while residents helped soldiers and medics carry the wounded to ambulances.
Three villages were razed in the province of Kunar, with substantial damage in many others, the health ministry said.
Early reports showed 30 dead in a single village, with hundreds of injured taken to hospital, authorities said.
Rescuers were scrambling to find survivors in the area bordering Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, where homes of mud and stone were levelled by the midnight quake that hit at a depth of 10 kilometres (6 miles).
“So far, no foreign governments have reached out to provide support for rescue or relief work,” a foreign office spokesperson said.
Afghanistan is prone to deadly earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.
A series of earthquakes in its west killed more than 1,000 people last year, underscoring the vulnerability of one of the world’s poorest countries to natural disasters.
Google has introduced “Workspace intelligence” at its Cloud Next ‘26 conference on Wednesday, April 22.
This new feature aims at connecting emails, chats, files, and projects across Google Workspace for AI-powered context.
With this intelligence, Google will sync data across Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Drive, and Chat, enabling Gemini-powered agents to assess what a user is trying to accomplish.
“Ask Gemini in Google Chat” is one of the components, which functions as an integrated command line that facilitates work.
It enables users to ask for briefings for the day, create documents and presentations, get files from descriptions, and even book meetings, all through Chat itself. This feature works seamlessly with other applications such as Asana, Jira, and Salesforce.
Other significant updates are natural-language spreadsheet building in Sheets, infographic generation in Docs embedded with business data, and one-pass slide deck creation in Slides with the help of company templates.
While introducing the new sync system, Google also stressed data security. The officials confirmed that Workspace Intelligence operates using infrastructure that is compliant and does not use customer data for advertisements or machine learning without their consent.
The deployment includes administrative controls, client-side encryption, and sovereign data control capabilities for both the US and EU.
Additionally, the company also announced its eighth-generation TPU chips.
The new chips provide 2.8x better price-performance and the TPU 8i for inference, offering 80% better performance-per-dollar.
The series of new features is not completed yet, and the company is expected to roll out more in future.
Anne Hathaway is ready to wear her crown again as Queen Mia of Genovia.
The Oscar-winning actress has given a major update on Princess Diaries 3 in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, confirming that a new installment is actively in the works 22 years after Princess Diaries 2.
“One hundred percent, we’re constantly working on it,” she said, revealing that development briefly took a backseat while filming The Devil Wears Prada 2 — another of Hathaway’s highly-anticipated sequels, which hits theatres on May 1.
“[Devil Wears Prada 2] cropped up unexpectedly and took over the space,” Hathaway explained, adding that it became impossible to focus on both projects at once. But now, the plan is clearer.
“The intention is to make Princess Diaries hopefully next,” she declared, noting that the film “is not greenlit or confirmed yet.”
Still, the demand is undeniable. But Hathaway acknowledged that “everybody wants it,” she and her TDWP costar Meryl Streep emphasised that “you’ve got to wait for the right script.”
The original Princess Diaries released in 2001 introduces Mia Thermopolis, a regular teenager who discovers she’s heir to a kingdom — a role that turned Hathaway into a household name.
Looking back at the film, Hathaway tearfully told People magazine, “This is the role that changed my life. And I’m standing with Julie Andrews, which is just insane.”
Entertainment
Donnie Wahlberg shares emotional moments with “Boston Blue” cast after show was renewed
Southwest Airlines forecasts quarterly earnings below estimates on higher fuel
Google debuts ‘workspace intelligence’ to power AI agents across gmail, docs, chat
Trump family crypto firm sued over alleged ‘extortion’
-
Fashion6 days agoFrance’s LVMH Q1 revenue falls 6%, shows resilience amid Iran war
-
Entertainment1 week agoIs Claude down? Here’s why users are seeing errors
-
Tech1 week agoThe Deepfake Nudes Crisis in Schools Is Much Worse Than You Thought
-
Sports1 week agoPSL 11: Peshawar Zalmi win toss, opt to field first against Quetta Gladiators
-
Tech1 week agoBremont Is Sending a Watch to the Moon’s Surface
-
Tech1 week agoHuman-machine teaming dives underwater
-
Business1 week agoBP sees ‘exceptional’ oil trading result as Iran war sends crude costs soaring
-
Fashion1 week agoWhat no one is saying about the 2026 apparel slowdown