Bangladesh

At least 34 people were killed and more than 500 injured by a tropical storm that flattened more than 3 000 houses in northern Bangladesh. ”The death figures will go up as we cannot start full-scale search operations because of the rough weather,” police chief Bhanu Lal Das said on Monday.

Four Bangladeshi babies appeared in court in their parents’ arms accused of looting and causing criminal damage, officials said on Tuesday. The magistrate on Monday asked the parents to post bail of 3 000 taka (about R290) for each child. The children’s ages ranged from three months to two years.

Spinners Mohammad Rafique and Enamul Haque shared four wickets as Bangladesh restricted Zimbabwe to 198 in the fifth and final one-day international in Dhaka on Monday, despite a career-best 84 from Barney Rogers. Bangladesh’s decision to go into the decisive game with three left-arm spinners paid rich dividends.

Opener Nafis Iqbal hammered his maiden Test century on Tuesday to help Bangladesh draw the second test match against Zimbabwe and record their first-ever series triumph by 1-0. Chasing a target of 374 runs, Bangladesh posted 285 for five in the second innings to Iqbal’s match-saving knock of 121 off 354 balls, including 18 boundaries.

Tatenda Taibu completed his maiden Test century to put Zimbabwe in a strong position on the fourth day of the second and final Test against Bangladesh in Dhaka on Monday. The Zimbabwean captain (21) cracked a solid 153 not out as Zimbabwe reached 285-9 in their second innings at lunch for an overall lead of 372 runs.

A Bangladeshi court has built up an astonishing backlog of 44 457 cases, a news report said on Thursday. Eighteen of the 41 judges’ positions at Chittagong court in the country’s south-east have remained vacant for years, resulting in lengthy delays for those awaiting justice, the official BSS news agency said.

Traders staged a one-day strike after members of an elite police squad were deployed at markets in south-east Bangladesh to drive down the price of onions, a report said on Tuesday. Many garlic and potato sellers in the port city of Chittagong also shut up shop in a show of solidarity, official news agency BSS said.

The thunderstorms that pummelled Bangladesh over two days pushed the death toll to 43 on Saturday after rescuers dug out 27 more bodies from under the rubble of flattened homes and uprooted trees, officials said. Thursday’s tropical storms and twisters had wrecked more than 400 villages.

Tens of thousands joined a march in Dhaka on Thursday in honour of 20 people killed in a grenade attack on an opposition rally by suspected Islamic militants a week ago, officials said. About 30 000 opposition activists, barefoot and holding black flags, took part in the silent march held under tight security.

Soldiers and armed police patrolled the Bangladeshi capital on Sunday, a day after more than a dozen bombs were thrown at an opposition rally, killing at least 18 people and wounding more than 300, including senior opposition members. The main opposition leader, Sheikh Hasina, escaped injury when the bombs exploded.

The death toll in floods that have devastated Bangladesh has risen to more than 700, the official news agency BSS said on Tuesday as the United Nations prepared to launch an appeal for post-flood rehabilitation projects. The flooding had claimed 703 lives, including 64 deaths from severe diarrhoea.

Thousands of flood victims in Bangladesh could die of disease unless urgent precautions are taken, the official news agency BSS on Wednesday quoted relief workers as saying. Relief workers predicted a ”severe” health situation, ”likely to claim the lives of thousands unless urgent precautions were taken”, BSS said.

Bangladesh has called for international help to rebuild the flood-ravaged country as the country’s death toll from the monsoon deluge reached 500 on Thursday, officials said. Almost half of Bangladesh’s 130-million population has been displaced by one of the worst seasonal floods to hit the country in decades.

The death toll from flooding across South Asia that has left more than 42-million people stranded or homeless rose to 925 on Monday as India battled to get relief to its flood-hit areas and two-thirds of Bangladesh was submerged. Although flood waters were receding in northeastern India, the situation was worsening in parts of Bangladesh.

The Jamuna River burst its banks and surged through 25 villages while residents slept in northern Bangladesh, killing at least 13 people as homes, crops and trees were washed away. About 10 000 villagers were washed out of their flimsy homes. The toll from monsoon flooding in Bangladesh and its neighbours has reached 339.

Blazing flames raced through a coastal forest in southern Bangladesh leaving thousands of smouldering trees and threatening wildlife in the world’s biggest mangrove vegetation, forest officials said on Monday. The central forest department said the aftermath of the fire could exact a heavy toll on the tiger population.