A senior Pakistani disaster management official says the death toll from heavy rains that caused flash floods and collapsed houses has risen to 53 over the past three days. The deaths reported by Brig. Kamran Zia on Monday spanned the entire country. He says 12 were in the northwest's semiautonomous tribal region, eight in neighboring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and three in the Pakistan-held part of the disputed Kashmir region. Zia, a member of the National Disaster Management Authority, said 12 people died in central Punjab province, 10 in southwestern Baluchistan, and eight in southern Sindh. He said flooding was especially bad in Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, because of the southern city's faulty drainage system. The same storm system hit Afghanistan, killing at least 58, AP reported.
