Nepal hospitals overflowing, rural towns cut off: aid groups

Aid groups and governments worldwide intensified efforts Sunday to help earthquake-hit Nepal, but blocked roads, downed power lines and overcrowded hospitals posed formidable challenges in an already poor country. As the death toll in the Himalayan nation surpassed 2,500, the US together with European and Asian nations sent emergency crews to reinforce those scrambling to find survivors in the devastated capital Kathmandu and in cut-off rural areas. "Tragically, more bodies are being pulled from collapsed buildings every hour," the Australian Red Cross said in a statement. Mike Bruce, regional communications manager for the Plan International aid organisation, said many areas -- both rural and in some of the larger towns -- had suffered landslides and roads were blocked.

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