- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Bagnaia sets 'example' with Japan MotoGP win to cut gap on Martin
- Intense Israeli bombing rocks Beirut ahead of war anniversary
- Mozambique vote: no suspense but some disillusion
- Austrian rapper channels anti-racist rage in Romani hip-hop songs
- Ohtani magic powers Dodgers over Padres in MLB playoff thriller
- Five of the best: Pakistan-England Test thrillers
- Man sets arm on fire as marches across US mark Gaza war anniversary
- Vietnam's young coffee entrepreneurs brew up a revolution
- Trump rallies at site of failed assassination: 'Never quit'
- Too hot by day, Dubai's floodlit beaches are packed at night
- Is music finally reckoning with #MeToo?
- Fans hail Trump's 'guts' as he returns to site of rally shooting
- Lebanon state media says 'very violent' Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Guardians maul Tigers, miracle Mets rally in MLB series openers
- Lebanon state media says Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Miami on track for MLS record points after win in Toronto
- Madrid beat Villarreal but Carvajal suffers knee injury
- Madrid beat Villarreal to move level with Liga leaders Barcelona
- Monaco take top spot in Ligue 1 with win at Rennes
- French rugby player on rape charge whistled but 'serene' on return
- Madrid beat Villarreal to level Liga leaders Barca
- Thuram treble fires Inter past Torino and up to second
- 'Fight': defiant Trump jets in to site of rally shooting
- Toddler among 3 dead in migrant Channel crossings
- Mexico City's new mayor sworn in with pledges on water, housing
- Israel on alert ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Guardians maul Tigers in MLB playoff series opener
- Macron criticises Israel on Gaza, Lebanon operations
- French rugby player whistled but 'serene' on return amid ongoing rape case
- Kovacic stars as Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- Retegui hat-trick fires five-star Atalanta to hammering of Genoa
- Heavyweights Australia, England off to World Cup winning starts
- Visiting UN refugee agency chief decries 'terrible crisis' in Lebanon
- Spinners come to party as England defeat Bangladesh at T20 World Cup
- Search continues for missing in deadly Bosnia floods
- Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- France's Auradou whistled on Pau return in Perpignan loss amid ongoing rape case
- A 'forgotten' valley in storm-hit North Carolina, desperate for help
- Arsenal hit back in style after Southampton scare
- Thousands march for Palestinians ahead of Oct 7 anniversary
- Hezbollah heir apparent Safieddine out of contact after strikes
- Liverpool stay top of Premier League as Arsenal, Man City win
- In dank Tour of Emilia, Pogacar shines in rainbow jersey
- DR Congo launches mpox vaccination drive, hoping to curb outbreak
- Trump returns to site of failed assassination
- Careless Leverkusen held to Bundesliga draw
- O'Brien's 'superstar' Kyprios posts landmark win on Arc weekend
- Toddler crushed to death in migrant Channel crossing
- Liverpool suffer Alisson injury blow
April temperatures in Bangladesh hottest on record
Bangladesh's weather bureau said Wednesday that last month was the hottest April on record, with the South Asian nation and much of the region still enduring a suffocating heatwave.
Extensive scientific research has found climate change is causing heatwaves to become longer, more frequent and more intense.
Punishing heat last month prompted Bangladesh's government to close schools across the country, keeping an estimated 32 million students at home.
"This year the heatwave covered around 80 percent of the country. We've not seen such unbroken and expansive heatwaves before," Bangladesh Meteorological Department senior forecaster Muhammad Abul Kalam Mallik told AFP.
He said last month was the hottest April in Bangladesh since records began in 1948 "in terms of hot days and area coverage in the country".
Weather stations around Bangladesh had recorded temperatures between two and eight degrees higher than the 33.2 degrees Celsius (91.8 degrees Fahrenheit) average daily temperature for April between 1981 and 2010, he added.
Health department spokesman Selim Raihan told AFP the government had confirmed at least 11 heat stroke-related deaths in the past 10 days.
Rains are expected to bring some relief to Bangladesh from Thursday after a week of sweltering temperatures, with the capital Dhaka recording several days over 40C (104F).
Mallik said the severity of the heat had been worsened by the absence of the usual pre-monsoon April thunderstorms which normally cool the South Asian nation ahead of summer.
"Bangladesh gets an average of 130.2 millimetres of rain in April. But this April we got an average of one millimetre of rain," he said.
Mallik said the bureau was checking data to confirm whether this year marked record low rainfalls for April.
Schools in Bangladesh will remain closed until Sunday.
The government ordered classrooms reopened last weekend, but a top Bangladeshi court directed them to be shut them again on Monday after taking into consideration reports that several teachers had died in the heatwave.
- 'Life has become unbearable' -
Thousands gathered at mosques and in open fields around the Muslim-majority nation last week to pray for rain.
"Life has become unbearable due to lack of rains," Muhammad Abu Yusuf, an Islamic cleric who led one such service, told AFP last week.
"Poor people are suffering immensely."
Large swaths of South and Southeast Asia are sweltering through a heatwave that has topped temperature records from Myanmar to the Philippines, with the El Nino phenomenon also driving this year's exceptionally warm weather.
Weather bureaus in Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam and India have also all forecast temperatures above 40C (104F).
The months preceding the region's monsoon, or rainy season, are usually hot but temperatures this year are well above average in many countries.
Asia is also warming faster than the global average, according to the World Meteorological Organization, a UN agency.
A.Rodriguezv--AMWN