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/ 27 April 2008

Fire in Casablanca kills up to 55

A fire roared through a mattress factory in a poor section of Casablanca, killing up to 55 workers and injuring at least 12 others. A rescue chief said firefighters arrived hours late and that the emergency exit of the building was blocked. The fire broke out midmorning Saturday in an industrial neighborhood outside of sprawling Casablanca, the economic centre of this North African country.

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/ 18 November 2007

Bangladesh cyclone toll nears 1 900

Grieving relatives and rescuers picked through the rubble left in the wake of a super cyclone that battered Bangladesh as the death toll neared 1 900 on Sunday. Military ships and helicopters were trying to reach thousands of people believed stranded on islands in the Bay of Bengal and in coastal areas still cut off by the devastating storm.

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/ 17 November 2007

Bangladesh cyclone toll nears 1 100

Military ships and helicopters were trying on Saturday to reach thousands of survivors of a super cyclone that killed nearly 1 100 people and pummelled impoverished Bangladesh with mighty winds and waves. Cyclone Sidr smashed into the country’s southern coastline late on Thursday night with 250km/h winds that whipped up a 5m tidal surge.

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/ 4 September 2007

Red Cross: Nearly 90 dead in West Africa floods

Severe floods across West Africa have killed at least 87 people, most of them in Nigeria, over the past two months, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Tuesday. Weather conditions worsened considerably in August, with areas of hard-hit northern Togo difficult to reach because bridges were swept away by heavy rains.