KABUL - At least 80 were confirmed dead in a landslide triggered by two earthquakes in mountainous northern Afghanistan on Tuesday, officials confirmed to NBC News.

A search was continuing for more bodies in the rubble, but was hampered by lack of equipment, officials said.

The governor of Baghlan province told Reuters 22 homes were buried but the bodies of only two women had been recovered. Twenty people were in hospital with injuries.

"We don't think we will be able to take out the other bodies," Governor Abdul Majid said.

The United Nations told Reuters it was working with authorities in the area to determine what aid was needed.

Afghanistan's north is prone to earthquakes. A 2002 quake in the same province killed more than 2,000 people.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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The second U.S. drone attack in as many days killed 10 people in northwest Pakistan on Sunday, intelligence officials said, an incident likely to raise tensions in the standoff between Washington and Islamabad over NATO supply routes to Afghanistan.

The remotely-piloted aircraft fired four missiles at a suspected Islamist militant hideout in the Birmal area of the South Waziristan tribal region near the Afghanistan border, officials said.

Tribal sources told NBC News that two senior Taliban commanders, named as Malang and Yarullah, were among those killed in the attack.

A drone strike in the same area killed two suspected militants, including one of Malang’s brothers, on Saturday.

The United States and Pakistan are locked in difficult negotiations to re-open overland supply routes to NATO forces in Afghanistan, with no signs of a breakthrough.

Islamabad blocked the routes last November to protest the death of 24 Pakistani soldiers by cross-border friendly fire from NATO aircraft. The supply lines through Pakistan are considered vital to the planned withdrawal of most foreign combat troops from Afghanistan before the end of 2014.

The CIA drone campaign fuels anti-U.S. sentiment in Pakistan and is counterproductive because of collateral damage, Pakistani officials say. But U.S. officials say such strikes are highly effective against militants.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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KATMANDU, Nepal -- Police in Nepal have arrested a U.S. man who was allegedly a member of a smuggling ring that sent illegal drugs into the United States by concealing them in Buddhist prayer wheels.

The drugs, which were also put into metal bowls, were sent via Federal Express, authorities said.

Police official Navraj Silwal said Kristian Peter Stiegler, 45, was detained while trying to send 2.5 pounds of hashish, a form of cannabis, and 2 pounds of suspected opium.

If tests confirm the substance is opium, Stiegler could face up to 20 years in prison.

However, Silwal said Stiegler would likely get a lighter sentence because he was cooperating in the investigation into the alleged drug ring.

'Hefty sum'
Silwal said Stiegler has lived in Nepal and India for three years and was suspected of sending several drug shipments.

The Himalayan News Service said hashish was allegedly sent to Europe, as well as to the United States.

It reported the smuggling ring was discovered when police in Dubai intercepted two parcels of hashish that Steigler had allegedly sent to a New Orleans woman.

"Stiegler used to send hashish to the woman via airmail in the form of parcels and the woman used to distribute the drug in black market for a hefty sum," Yadav Raj Adhikari, chief of the Narcotic Drug Control Law Enforcement Unit, told the Himalayan News Service.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Aamir Qureshi / AFP - Getty Images

Pakistan's former ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani (center), exits the Supreme Court in Islamabad on Dec. 22, 2011.

Pakistan's former ambassador to the United States fears he will be murdered if he leaves the sanctuary of the prime minister's official residence after he was branded a "Washington lackey" and a "traitor," according to a new interview.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph newspaper, Husain Haqqani said that "certain powerful quarters" in Pakistan -- the paper said this was a reference to the country's ISI intelligence agency -- were behind the claims against him.

Haqqani is at the center of a scandal that threatens to topple Pakistan's government over an alleged request to the U.S. to help stop a coup by the army, following the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

In October, a U.S. businessman of Pakistani origin, Mansoor Ijaz, wrote an article for the Financial Times newspaper claiming Haqqani had written a memo to U.S. Admiral Mike Mullen, who was then chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, supposedly promising to replace Pakistan's national security hierarchy with people favorable to the U.S. in exchange for help in reining in the military.

• Pakistan memo crisis adds pressure to US ties

Ijaz, who claimed he had been asked to convey the message to Mullen, further alleged that Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari supported the move. The Financial Times operates behind a paywall, but Ijaz also wrote an article for Pakistan's The News in November describing his allegations.

'Hysteria'
Both Zardari and Haqqani denied Ijaz's claims, but Haqqani subsequently resigned.

"I'm a guest of the prime minister (Yousuf Raza Gilani) with whom I have had a long-standing political association. There are clear security concerns given the hysteria generated against me. Staying at the prime minister's house is the safest option," Haqqani told the Telegraph in an interview published Wednesday.

"My good friend Salman Taseer (the late governor of Punjab) was killed by a security guard because he heard in the media that the governor had blasphemed. I'm being called a traitor and an American lackey in the media with the clear encouragement of certain powerful quarters even though I've not been charged legally with anything," he added.

He said that he had left the prime minister's house twice, once to go to court and another time to visit the dentist because he had toothache.

"The president and prime minister are firmly standing behind me and the government is not going anywhere. This is psychological warfare against the government," he told the Telegraph.

In December, Zardari, who was married to former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in 2007, said people should pay tribute to her memory by guarding against anti-democratic conspiracies, an apparent reference to tensions over the memo scandal.

He said his wife's death was also a conspiracy against Pakistani democracy.

"I therefore urge all the democratic forces and the patriotic Pakistanis to foil all conspiracies against democracy and democratic institutions," said Zardari in a statement sent to reporters.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.