the capital, new delhi and across in bangladesh in dhaka, they felt this.e will start off with this report from nicole johnston. >> reporter: a powerful 7.9 magnitude earthquake has rocked kathmandu valley being felt as far away as india and bangladesh. buildings collapsed, homes lost under tons of concrete, steel and power lines. temples were also damaged and destroyed. >> it went on forever. it just went on forever. even the building stood by not one jolt. it was a continuous wave. >> reporter: the city's 19th century tower has been knocked down. only a stump remains. it's believed some tour wrists climbing the tower when the earthquake struck. dozens of people are trapped there. the wounded are being pulled from the rubble. hospital beds have been set up. around two and a half million people live in kathmandu valley. it's a depositionly-populated area. there are reports whole villages have been destroyed. getting help to them will be even more difficult than in the capital. over the next few hours, the scale of the devastation in nepal will become cleare

the 7.9 earthquake shook dhaka. we have three reporters covering the story from all of these locations. first, let's go to nicole johnston. she has the latest in this report report. >> reporter: it's the most powerful earth wake in nepal in decades. people describe wave after wave of tremors. the army is sifting the rubble brick by brick looking for signs of life as well as bodies. the number of people killed is increasing. hundreds of people have been recovered. >> people are trapped in the rubble and the infrastructure is mobilizing so that people who are trapped under rubble could be dug out of it. >> hospital beds have been set up in the streets. in the wards, treatment is basic. nepal is asking india to send mobile medical teams. the worst damage is in old kathmandu, if you will of narrow winding lanes. many are blocked with rubble making it difficult for rescuers to get in. a 19th century tower has been knocked down. only a stump remains. tourists were climbing the tower when the earthquake struck. at least 16

the 7.9 earthquake shook bangladesh's capital of dhaka. we have reporters covering the story from katmandu and new delhi, but first nicole johnston has the latest from this report. >> it's the most powerful earthquake in nepal in decades. people describe wave after wave of tremors. the army is sifting through the republic brick by brick looking for signs of life as well as bodies. the number of people killed is rapidly increasing. hundreds of bodies have been recovered. >> people have been trapped in the republic. people are trapped in the republicrubble rubble. >> hospitals have been set up in the streets and treatment is basic. nepal is asking for mobile teams, the worst is in old katmandu. it's full of narrow winding lanes full of republic, making it differ formaking it difficult for people to get in. tourists were climbing the power when the earthquake struck. 16 bodies have been pulled out. >> there were reports that whole villages were destroyed. at base camp at mt. everest there have been deadly avalanches killing eight people. one

dhaka has been without a mayor since 2011. the problems have been piling up and people want a strong group of leaders to fix them. we have this report. >> reporter: in bangladesh's crowded capital, this is a rare oasis. one of the few places where this man and his friends can take a break from the chaos. but not all is perfect here. something is rotten in the city of dakar. >> it smells awful here me and my friends come all the time to hang out. the smell ruins everything. it's not just here, it's like this all over dakar. >> reporter: but they don't know who they can complain to. they don't have representatives in city hall. >> tackar has not had a mayor in years city hall continues to function run by a team of appointed administration, but they say the capital needs elected officials in charge. >> unlike in other places city hall here is not in charge of services like water and electricity. but many here say elected officials are best suited to deal with the community. >> if there's a problem in the community, an elected rep

and if you take a city like dhaka that is located right on the coast and has a huge informal settlement population, with people that already don't have good access to sanitation and water systems, don't have good sewage systems so when the city flooded in 2005, there were massive deaths. when you think about floods becoming more frequent it's a real problem. narrator: balk's team started their studies by collecting census data created in countries across the world. on this map of the dominican republic, irregular red lines surround subnational administrative units for which census data is available. one problem for balk's team is how to reconcile these data with precise grid-format satellite data shown here in blue. to obtain boundaries of urban areas a third source of information was used -- nighttime images of the earth from space. balk: noaa produces a nighttime lights data set that was measured in 1994 and 1995 and it's a globally consistent data set. that means they use the same measures everywhere. it measures brightness of places. we combined the lights data with the population d

it also shook bangladesh's capital dhaka. we have reporters covering the story from kathmandu in new delhi, but first nicole johnston has the latest from this report. >> it's the most powerful earthquake in nepal in decades. people describe waves after waves of tremors. the army is sifting through the rubble brick by brick looking for signs of life as well bodies. the number of people killed is rapidly increasing. hundreds of bodies have been recovered. >> people are trap in the rubles in the ministry the destruction. >> kathmandu is full of narrow winding lanes. and 19th center tower has been knocked down. at least 16 bodies have been pulled out. around 2.5 million people live in kathmandu valley. there are reports that whole villages have been destroyed. india has also been hit. tremors from the quake cause buildings to collapse in the three states. nepal is facing a major disaster, and it is asking its neighbors for help. nicole johnston, al jazeera. >> just a short time ago the minister of information and communication ga

, as well and 26 voted not to overturn dhaka. i just wonder, that experience that he is -- that he is representing is very different than most of his colleagues each in colorado. you think about republicans at the federal level andmore rural areas and dominant there. do you find a gap in discussion perception about what this issue is? >> i think there probably is a gap, but again i don't have time to worry about it. >> i'm busy with trying to deal with what's going on on a daily basis on the ground, and i'm going to do what i think is right for my city and the residents of my city, and i'll worry about the nicetyies of the political philosophy later. >> you're in the opposite situation. you're kind of the island in a very different statewide. >> beautiful island. >> statewide politics. talk about the difference between your community where some of this is more immediate and perhaps other places where it's more a matter of belief principle, ideology? >> i think it's what we've all been talking about as mayors and we deal on the gr

i see other people here, roberto, who's done some research on dhaka students their outcomes barriers for , those who haven't accessed the daca program to come forward, so i know you all will have a really wonderful discussion. i'm here to talk about what the administration is up to and, you know, hopefully we can all work together to continue to help individuals get that access to temporary relief and work authorization. so for those of you who don't know what daca is, it's the deferred action for childhood arrivals process program. it was implemented in -- it was announced in june of 2012 and then implemented in august of 2012. we had 60 days to work with dhs to get the program up online so that young people who know this country, know this is their only country grew up pledging , allegiance to our flag, want to contribute to our country could come out of the shadows and get access to temporary status call deferred action and also be eligible to apply for work authorization. so since the program was launched in august of 2012 several hundred thousand -- about 650,000, actually -- in