Antananarivo

A cyclone that hit Madagascar earlier this month has killed at least 44 people and left nearly 145 000 homeless, according to updated figures released by authorities on Sunday. The numbers are almost twice estimates released on Friday of 29 people dead and 70 000 homeless from the category-three cyclone.

Several dozen children were hospitalised after a rampaging zebu bull escaped from an abattoir on the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar and ran amok in a nearby school ground, reports said on Monday. The bull, described as completely crazed by onlookers, fled his captors into the school, trampling everything in its path.

Malagasy authorities have destroyed 137 houses and expect to knock down more ahead of next month’s Indian Ocean Games, an official said on Tuesday. The structures were built illegally on land set aside for the August 9 to 19 competition, said Elyse Razafimahefa, a senior official in the capital, Antananarivo’s, city council.

Madagascar’s President Marc Ravalomanana has dissolved his country’s National Assembly ahead of elections he said would be held by the end of September. In a letter dated July 17 and addressed to the Constitutional Court, but only made public on Tuesday, Ravalomanana said Parliament no longer reflected national representation.

The Indian Ocean island of Madagascar has been gripped by a wave of political and social unrest that is sweeping across the country from south to north. Several people were reportedly injured in May Day riots in the northern city of Antsiranana, reports said on Wednesday.