Tag Archives: Bangladesh

India and Bangladesh began evacuating hundreds of thousands of people today as a cyclone bore down on their coasts, officials said, while experts warned of coronavirus dangers in the cramped conditions. Indian forecasters said Cyclone Amphan would reach winds of up to 230 km/h at sea before hitting the coast …

The novel coronavirus has been detected in one of the camps in southern Bangladesh that are home to more than one million Rohingya refugees, officials said on Thursday. An ethnic Rohingya refugee and another person had tested positive for COVID-19, a senior Bangladeshi official and a U.N. spokeswoman said. It …

India has seen its highest jump in deaths related to the novel coronavirus in a 24-hour period following its highest daily increase, the Health Ministry says. A total of 73 people affected by the virus had died since Tuesday morning, taking the country-wide toll to 1,007. The Wednesday daily increase …

The United Nations’ top human rights official has called on the Bangladeshi authorities to allow the disembarking of two stranded boatloads of starving Rohingya Muslim refugees who have fled Myanmar by boats. In a letter to the Bangladesh government on Monday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet warned …

India is restricting the export of most diagnostic testing kits, as coronavirus cases in the South Asian nation topped 3,350 on Sunday despite a three-week nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the respiratory disease. India, which in recent weeks already banned the export of certain drugs, along with ventilators, …

At least 16 people drowned and dozens more were unaccounted for after a boat carrying Rohingya refugees sank off southern Bangladesh early Tuesday, officials say. Some 130 people were packed on the fishing trawler that was trying to get across the Bay of Bengal to Malaysia, coast guard spokesman Hamidul …

Seven men were sentenced to death Wednesday by a court in Bangladesh after being found guilty of helping to organize the country’s deadliest ever terrorist atrocity. One of the eight suspects charged was found not guilty, while the seven who face capital punishment can appeal. More than 20 people, including …

Two packed trains rammed into each other in Bangladesh on Tuesday, killing at least 16 people and injuring nearly 60 others, police said. Three coaches were sent crashing off the tracks at Mondobhag station in the town of Kasba when a Dhaka-bound train and a locomotive bound for Chittagong collided. …

At least 10 people have been killed and millions displaced after Cyclone Bulbul smashed into India and Bangladesh over the weekend. The storm hit Bangladesh late on Saturday night and led to severe flooding there and in neighboring India. The bad weather has since dissipated, but many are still waiting …

The authorities in Bangladesh have ordered the evacuation of some 100,000 people from coastal areas as Cyclone Bulbul is set to hit the country. The storm – which is due to make landfall on Saturday evening local time – is expected to unleash surges as high as 7ft (two meters). …

At least 640 Nigerians have signed up to take free flights home from South Africa after xenophobic attacks on foreigners, a spokeswoman for Nigeria’s president said on Tuesday. The flare-up in violence directed against mainly African foreigners has been widely condemned by South Africa’s neighbors and has caused a diplomatic …

Almost 2 million people in northeast India were left facing statelessness on Saturday after the state of Assam published a citizenship list aimed at weeding out “foreign infiltrators”, in a process the central government wants to replicate nationwide. A total of 31.1 million people were included in a final National …

More than 2,000 people have been forced to flee from their homes, and 19 have been killed since fighting broke out between government troops and ethnic insurgents in northern Myanmar last week, government officials said. The escalation in hostilities in Myanmar’s fractured north is another setback for civilian leader Aung …

A massive fire has swept through a slum in the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka, leaving 50,000 people homeless. About 15,000 homes were destroyed in the Chalantika slum late on Friday. Many homes had plastic roofs, which helped the flames to spread. No deaths have been reported, although several people were …

The death toll from severe flooding in parts of India, Nepal, and Bangladesh rose to more than 300 on Monday, even as heavy rains are starting to ebb and water levels started to recede in some of the worst-affected areas. Heavy rains and overflowing rivers swamped vast swathes of eastern …

A fishing boat carrying more than 60 Rohingya Muslims was found beached on an island in southern Thailand on Tuesday, officials said. The passengers – 28 men, 31 women, and five children – were stranded on Rawi island in Tarutao National Park in Thailand’s southern Satun province after the boat …

Hundreds of thousands of people were left homeless after a cyclone packing winds of about 200 km per hour slammed into eastern India, ripping out tin roofs and destroying power and telecom lines, officials said on Sunday. At least 33 people were killed after cyclone Fani struck the state of …

The strongest cyclone to hit India in five years killed at least 12 people in eastern Odisha state, before swinging north-eastwards into Bangladesh on Saturday where more than a million people have been moved to safety. Having hit land, tropical cyclone Fani had lost some of its power and was …

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are at risk from landslides in the coming monsoon season and should be relocated to a remote island, the country’s foreign minister said on Thursday, a move opposed by many refugees. Bangladesh wants to move 100,000 of the nearly 1 million Rohingya Muslims sheltered in cramped …

A Bangladeshi teenage girl has been burned to death for reporting that her headteacher sexually harassed her. Nusrat Jahan Rafi, a 19-year-old from a small town 100 miles south of Dhaka, was killed at her school less than two weeks after she filed the complaint. The saga has gripped Bangladesh …