Explosives planted in a taxi detonated in a Damascus suburb near a Shiite Muslim shrine Thursday, killing at least five people and wounding dozens a day before the solemn holy day of Ashura, state media reported. All pictures: AFP

The catastrophic earthquake that razed thousands of buildings in Turkiye and Syria became one of the deadliest quakes worldwide in more than a decade and the death toll kept rising, crossing16000. A magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Nepal in 2015 killed more than 8,800 people. Rescue crews braved freezing overnight temperatures in quake-hit areas in both countries in the hope of reaching survivors and pulling more bodies from the rubble