Sydney — At least 67 people were killed by an earthquake that devastated Papua New Guinea’s remote highlands last week, the Red Cross said on Monday. Thousands more were left homeless and without food and clean water. The recovery effort has been slow as aid workers grapple with blocked roads and power outages to reach cut-off villages after the 7.5-magnitude quake struck on February 26 in the Pacific nation’s mountainous interior. Terrified locals in the Southern Highlands, Western, Enga and Hela provinces have also been hit by strong aftershocks, including two 6.0-magnitude tremors early on Monday. Compounding the fallout was an announcement on Monday that the impoverished country’s biggest development — the liquefied natural gas project operated by US energy giant ExxonMobil — would be offline for up to eight weeks as the quake-hit facilities are repaired. "The death toll reported by the National Disaster Centre and disaster management teams on Friday is 67," the Papua New Guinea...
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