STORY: At least 43 people died and hundreds were still trapped in northern Afghanistan on Tuesday when a snow avalanche covered an entire village near the northern border with Tajikistan, Badakhshan governor Wali Ullah said.<br/> <br />Afghan army helicopters descended on the remote village in the north of Badakhshan province to try rescue families, the latest victims to Afghanistan's worse winter in 30 years.<br/> <br />Though avalanches are fairly common in the mountainous north, Tuesday's deaths were seen as particularly painful for a country that has experienced its worse winter in decades, killing dozens in the capital Kabul and creating further food shortages in one of the world's poorest countries.<br/> <br />Before Tuesday, freezing cold and avalanches had claimed the lives of 60 people in Badakhshan province this winter, officials said.
