DHAKA

A government ban on public gatherings was quickly forgotten in Bangladesh as thousands of jubilant fans partied into the night after their cricket team’s shock World Cup victory over India. Thousands roared and waved flags in Dhaka to celebrate the country’s success over cricketing giants India.

<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=cwc_home"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/300732/Icon_CWC.gif" align=left border=0></a>A Bangladeshi firm has sent what it says is the world’s biggest cricket bat on a signature tour to drum up support for the national team at the Caribbean World Cup, a company official said on Thursday. The 22m-long bat has been signed by thousands since its began its nationwide journey from the northern city of Rangpur.

Tired of trying to get a bit of peace and quiet in one of the world’s most densely populated countries, a Bangladeshi man with a head for heights has hit on the perfect solution. Each day carpenter and aspiring writer Salim Hossen Gaus, aged 25, winches himself 30m in a precarious home-made pulley to a small wooden platform he has built at the top of a palm tree.

Bangladeshi President Iajuddin Ahmed on Thursday declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew in the country ahead of disputed elections on January 22, state television reported. ”The President, Professor Iajuddin Ahmed, has declared a state of emergency in the country,” the state-owned BTV said.

At least 20 people died from cold weather in northern Bangladesh in the past 24 hours, taking the confirmed death toll from the frigid conditions to 110 in the past week, officials said on Monday. The victims, most of them beggars and the homeless, died as the mercury dropped to five degrees Celsius.

Thousands of security personnel patrolled Bangladesh’s capital on Sunday as opposition parties began a nationwide transport blockade to try and force electoral reform ahead of polls this month. Dhaka’s usually bustling streets were empty of cars and buses on Sunday, a working day in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, and schools and colleges were shut.

Bangladesh moved to within one win of a series sweep over Zimbabwe after they eased to an eight-wicket victory over the tourists in the fourth match at Mirpur Stadium on Friday. An unbeaten half century (58) by man-of-the-match Aftab Ahmed helped Bangladesh reach 147-2 in 32.2 overs, with Saqibul Hasan hitting the winning run for the hosts to end the contest not out on 31.

At least 20 people were wounded in gun battles between rival activists as a transport blockade to force the removal of controversial election officials paralysed Bangladesh on Monday, police and witnesses said. The wounded, including a police officer caught in crossfire, were taken to hospitals following battles in western Natore, 230km from the capital Dhaka.

A storm in the Bay of Bengal sank seven fishing boats and at least 60 Bangladeshi fishermen were missing, police said on Sunday. The storm on Saturday also triggered a metre-high water surge, washing away some houses and shops on the island of Saint Martin, about 500km south-east of the capital Dhaka.

Bangladesh are confident of picking up a first overseas victory when they embark on a back-to-back one-day international series in Zimbabwe and Kenya later this month. ”We have displayed a lot of improvement in recent times, so it is fair to say we are favourites for both series,” said Bangladesh skipper Habibul Bashar.

Hundreds of fishermen along Bangladesh’s southern coast returned to shore on Saturday as a cyclone packing winds of up to 160kph churned its way across the Bay of Bengal, officials said. Cyclone Mala, which in Bengali language means ”a garland of flowers”, was centred about 650km south-southwest of the seaport of Chittagong.

Rescuers recovered another body from a collapsed building in the Bangladeshi capital on Monday, raising the death toll to 19, as Parliament passed a law imposing jail terms for building code violators. Firefighters and soldiers found the body of 25-year-old construction worker Humayun while searching for survivors in the debris for the third consecutive day.

Hopes faded on Sunday for survivors trapped inside a six-storey building a day after it collapsed in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, killing at least 16 people, an official said. Rescuers with search lights and crowbars sifted overnight through the rubble of the building, but no bodies or survivors were found.

A lovelorn Bangladeshi chopped off one of his fingertips, wrapped it in gift paper and gave it to the girl he wanted to marry as a token of his love, officials said on Monday. But the gesture failed to impress 18-year-old Sahera Khatun, whose horrified father complained to village elders in the north-western district of Gaibandha.

An earthquake measuring 5,4 on the Richter scale jolted southern and central Bangladesh on Saturday, whipping up high waves in the Bay of Bengal, officials said. The quake came the same day that a major earthquake struck northern Pakistan, about 2 000km north-west of Bangladesh, early on Saturday.

Nearly 3 500 fishermen were missing in the Bay of Bengal on Wednesday as more than 200 fishing trawlers capsized in turbulent waves after setting sail from the southern Bangladesh coast three days ago, officials said.

Filmmakers in Muslim-majority Bangladesh who fail to heed government calls to ”cleanse obscenity” from the nation’s film industry will face up to three years in jail. Abu Abdullah, vice-chairperson of the Bangladesh Film Censor Board, said a law placed before Parliament earlier this month would plug holes in existing legislation and leave filmmakers facing prison sentences of between one and three years.

High walls of water stirred up by tropical gales in the Bay of Bengal have submerged southern Bangladeshi coastal districts, forcing thousands to flee their homes and farms, officials said on Monday. At least 40 fishing trawlers with an estimated 300 fishermen aboard have gone missing.

Relief operations continued in northern and central Bangladesh on Monday where tens of thousands were left homeless last week after torrential rains sparked floods that killed at least 23 people and left a dozen others missing. The death toll is expected to rise as the monsoon rains are set to continue for several more days.

About one million people have been displaced from rain-swept villages in heavy monsoon flooding in northern and central Bangladesh, officials said on Monday. Earlier, disaster management officials said about 100 000 people were fighting the elements in villages isolated by flood waters.

A Bangladeshi man and four accomplices broke down in tears as a court sentenced them to hang for the murder of a 14-year-old girl who rejected an offer of marriage, officials said on Tuesday. Spurned suitor Imarul, who uses one name, and the four men were convicted on Monday for killing the girl whose family spurned his offer of marriage.

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.