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NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — Torrential monsoon rains swept away homes and triggered landslides across South Asia, affecting millions of people and claiming at least 180 lives, officials said Tuesday. The monsoon is crucial for irrigation and groundwater supplies in the impoverished region — home to a fifth of the world’s population — and brings relief after the unforgiving summers. But the downpours — which stretch from June to September — can turn deadly and […]
by Sam JAHAN BALUKHALI, Bangladesh (AFP) — At least 10 people have died and thousands of shanty homes have been destroyed by monsoon rains in overcrowded Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh’s southeast, officials said Sunday. Bangladesh’s meteorological department said the Cox’s Bazar district — home to nearly one million Rohingya Muslims who have fled a military crackdown in Myanmar — has seen at least 58.5 centimeters (nearly two feet) of rain since July 2. An […]
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) — A train plunged into a canal when the bridge it was travelling across gave way, killing four people and injuring 100 more in Bangladesh on Monday. Officials said part of the bridge collapsed as the express train went over, sending five cars crashing to the ground, with one of them landing in the water. Scores of people were trapped in the accident at Kalaura, 300 kilometres (185 miles) from Dhaka. Local […]
Cyclone Fani, one of the biggest to hit India in years, barrelled into Bangladesh on Saturday after leaving a trail of deadly destruction in India. Thanks to mass evacuations well ahead of time though, a major human disaster of the kind seen in previous cyclones looked to have been averted. Bangladeshi police said nine people perished even before the eye of the storm crossed the border on Saturday morning. Eight others died in India, press […]
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) — A schoolgirl was burned to death in Bangladesh on the orders of her head teacher after she reported him for sexually harassing her, police said Friday. The death of 19-year-old Nusrat Jahan Rafi last week sparked protests across the South Asian nation, with the prime minister promising to prosecute all those involved. Rafi was lured to the rooftop of the Islamic seminary she attended where her attackers asked her to […]
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) — Firefighters were combing through the charred shell of a Bangladesh skyscraper Friday where at least 19 people died in a high-rise blaze, with many having jumped to their deaths. Flames tore through the 22-storey FR Tower in Dhaka on Thursday afternoon, trapping hundreds of office workers. Some made it to safety by sliding down cables on the side of the building, but others took their chances and jumped in a bid to […]
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — Bangladesh told the UN Security Council on Thursday that it will no longer be able to take in refugees from Myanmar. Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque told a council meeting that the crisis over the repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya sheltering in his country had gone from “bad to worse” and urged the council to take “decisive” action. Around 740,000 Muslim Rohingya are living in camps in Bangladesh […]
by Shafiqul Alam DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) — At least 69 people have died in a huge blaze that tore through apartment buildings also used as chemical warehouses in an old part of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, fire officials said Thursday. Dozens of people were trapped in the buildings, unable to escape onto narrow streets clogged with traffic, as the highly combustible stores of chemicals, body sprays and plastic granules erupted in flames. Fire control room […]
by Shafiqul ALAM Agence France Presse DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) — At least 56 people have died in a huge fire that tore through apartment buildings also used as chemical warehouses in an old part of the Bangladeshi capital, a fire official said Thursday. Dozens of people were trapped in the buildings, unable to escape onto narrow streets clogged with traffic, as the highly-combustible stores of chemicals, body sprays and plastic granules erupted in flames. Bangladesh’s […]
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) — Bangladesh will Wednesday file a lawsuit in New York against a Philippine bank over its involvement in one of the biggest-ever cyber heists, the country’s central bank governor said. Unidentified hackers stole $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank’s account with the US Federal Reserve in New York in February 2016. The money was then transferred to a Manila branch of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC), swiftly withdrawn and laundered […]
UNITED NATION, United States (AFP) — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday criticized as “too slow” Myanmar’s efforts to allow the return of Rohingya Muslim refugees, describing the lack of progress as a source of “enormous frustration.” More than 720,000 Rohingya are living in camps in Bangladesh after they were driven out of Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state during a military campaign in 2017 that the United Nations has described as ethnic cleansing. Myanmar has agreed […]
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) — To her supporters, Sheikh Hasina is Bangladesh’s “mother of humanity” for giving Rohingya refugees shelter, but to her detractors she’s a creeping autocrat who has jailed opponents and muzzled dissent. Hasina, the daughter of Bangladesh’s founder, won a historic fourth term as prime minister with a landslide victory in Sunday’s election that the opposition claimed was rigged. The 71-year-old is lauded by supporters for overseeing a decade of impressive economic growth […]
