Rescuers race to find Turkey-Syria quake survivors, toll tops 22,000
The HinduRescuers scoured debris in a desperate search for survivors on Friday four days after a massive earthquake hit Turkey and Syria, killing nearly 22,000 people, as the United States offered an $85-million aid package. The U.S. Agency for International Development said its aid package will go to partners on the ground "to deliver urgently needed aid for millions of people", including through food, shelter and emergency health services. An aid convoy crossed the Turkish border into rebel-held northwestern Syria on Thursday, the first delivery into the area since the quake, an official at the Bab al-Hawa crossing told AFP. Four million people living in the rebel-held areas have had to rely on the Bab al-Hawa crossing as part of an aid operation authorised by the UN Security Council nearly a decade ago.