Major quake crushes buildings in Vanuatu capital

The United States closed the mission until further notice because of “considerable damage”, the US embassy in Papua New Guinea said in a message on social media.”Our thoughts are with everyone affected by this earthquake,” the embassy said.New Zealand’s High Commission, which is in the same building as the US, French, British and Australian missions, also suffered “significant damage”, the government said.Earthquakes are common in Vanuatu, a low-lying archipelago of 320,000 people that straddles the seismic Ring of Fire, an arc of intense tectonic activity that stretches through Southeast…