- Nobel-winning physicist 'unnerved' by AI technology he helped create
- Mexico president rules out new 'war on drugs'
- Israeli defense minister postpones trip to Washington: Pentagon
- Europe skipper Donald in talks with Garcia over Ryder return
- Kenya MPs vote to impeach deputy president in historic move
- Former US coach Berhalter named Chicago Fire head coach
- New York Jets fire head coach Saleh: team
- Australia crush New Zealand in Women's T20 World Cup
- US states accuse TikTok of harming young users
- 'Evacuate now, now, now': Florida braces for next hurricane
- US Supreme Court skeptical of challenge to 'ghost guns' regulation
- Sparks fly as Orban berates EU 'elites' in parliament trip
- US finalizes rule to remove lead pipes within a decade
- Solanke hungry for second England cap after seven-year wait
- Gilded canopy restored at Vatican basilica
- Zverev scrapes through, Djokovic cruises to Shanghai Masters last 16
- Trump secretly sent Covid tests to Putin: Bob Woodward book
- Gauff answers critics: 'It's hard to win all the time'
- Neural networks, machine learning? Nobel-winning AI science explained
- China says raised 'serious concerns' with US over trade curbs
- Boeing delivers 27 MAX jets in September despite strike
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free in 2025 after cleared of other sex crimes
- Italy seek Nations League consistency as Germany continue rebuild
- From boom to budgeting as reality bites for Saudi football
- Stock markets diverge as Hong Kong sinks, oil prices fall
- US trade gap narrowest in five months as imports slip
- Stay and 'you are going to die': Florida braces for next hurricane
- England 96-1 after Salman's century lifts Pakistan to 556
- Hollywood star Idris Elba champions African cinema in Ghana
- Djokovic rolls Cobolli to make Shanghai Masters last 16
- Milan's Hernandez receives two-game suspension after referee rant
- Geoffrey Hinton, soft-spoken godfather of AI
- Ex-Barcelona and Spain great Iniesta retires aged 40
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for 'foundational' AI breakthroughs
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free in 2025 after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China slaps provisional tariffs on EU brandy imports
- Ex-skipper Skelton eyes Wallabies November return
- Spanish great Iniesta leaves indelible legacy after retirement
- Indian Kashmir elects first regional government in a decade
- Hong Kong stocks crash, oil prices retreat on fading China boost
- Man City accuse Premier League of 'misleading' claims after legal case
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for key breakthroughs in AI
- Agha defies England as Pakistan post 515-8 in first Test
- September second-warmest on record: EU climate monitor
- Pastor wanted by US for sex trafficking to run for Philippine senate
- Mozambican writer Mia Couto dreams future leaders set an 'example'
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free soon after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China says to take anti-dumping measures against EU brandy imports
- German suspect in 'Maddie' case cleared in separate sex crimes trial
- Israel expands offensive against Hezbollah in south Lebanon
RBGPF | -0.46% | 60.52 | $ | |
RYCEF | 1.29% | 6.97 | $ | |
CMSC | 0.29% | 24.641 | $ | |
RIO | -4.42% | 66.675 | $ | |
SCS | -1.33% | 12.78 | $ | |
GSK | -1.59% | 38.026 | $ | |
NGG | 0.61% | 65.88 | $ | |
BTI | 0.04% | 35.215 | $ | |
CMSD | 0.25% | 24.851 | $ | |
AZN | 0% | 76.87 | $ | |
RELX | 1.27% | 46.63 | $ | |
JRI | -0.15% | 13.16 | $ | |
BCC | 0.56% | 142.06 | $ | |
VOD | -0.31% | 9.66 | $ | |
BCE | -0.03% | 33.52 | $ | |
BP | -3.5% | 32.02 | $ |
Two dead as cyclone batters Bangladesh and India
Fierce gales and crashing waves smashed into the low-lying coast of Bangladesh and India on Monday, as an intense cyclone started to weaken as it progressed deeper inland.
Two people have been killed since Cyclone Remal made landfall on Sunday night, Kamrul Hasan, secretary of Bangladesh's disaster management ministry, told AFP.
Communications are limited by the storm, with recorded wind speeds hitting 111 kilometres (69 miles) per hour, said Muhammad Abul Kalam Mallik, senior weather forecaster at the state-run Bangladesh Meteorological Department.
"The severe cyclone will continue to pound Bangladesh coast until 10:00 am (0400 GMT)," Mallik told AFP.
"The cyclone has unleashed heavy rains in many parts of Bangladesh. After more rains, the severe cyclone will weaken and turn into a storm."
Cyclones have killed hundreds of thousands of people in Bangladesh in recent decades, but the number of superstorms hitting its densely populated coast has increased sharply, from one a year to as many as three, due to the impact of climate change.
An AFP reporter in the affected area said there had been continuous heavy rain with extreme wind since Sunday evening, battering tall buildings, with trees uprooted and the tin roofs of homes torn off and blown away.
Around a million people in Bangladesh and neighbouring India took shelter, fleeing inland for concrete storm shelters away from the dangerous waves.
Most of Bangladesh's coastal areas are just a metre or two (three to six feet) above sea level and high storm surges can devastate villages.
- 'Villages are flooded' -
Authorities have raised the danger signal to its highest level.
Hasan, from the disaster management ministry, told AFP, said there were no immediate reports of damages, but said "embankments in several places have been breached or submerged, inundating some coastal areas".
But in India's West Bengal, the "cyclone has blown off the roofs of hundreds of houses", and also "uprooted thousands of mangrove trees and electricity poles", senior state government minister Bankim Chandra Hazra told AFP.
Electricity was off across large parts of the affected areas.
"Storm surges and rising sea levels have breached a number of embankments," Hazra added. "Some island villages are flooded."
At least 800,000 Bangladeshis fled their coastal villages, while more than 150,000 people in India also moved inland from the vast Sundarbans mangrove forest, where the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers meet the sea, government ministers and disaster officials said.
Mallik, the Bangladeshi weather expert, said the vast mangrove forests of the Sundarbans helped dissipate the worst of the storm.
"Like in the past, the Sundarbans acted as a natural shield to the cyclone," he said.
While scientists say climate change is fuelling more storms, better forecasting and more effective evacuation planning have dramatically reduced the death toll.
F.Bennett--AMWN