■ BANGLADESH
Sixteen killed in floods
Sixteen people were killed and more than 20,000 marooned as heavy rains over the past week triggered landslides and floods in the southeast, an official said yesterday. Three landslides caused by torrential monsoon rains killed 10 people while six others drowned in swirling flood waters in southeastern Cox’s Bazar district, chief administrator Sajjadul Hasan said. Several rivers in the southeastern hill districts burst their banks and caused the floods, officials said. Bangladesh, which is crossed by over 200 rivers, was hit by major floods last year, when water fed by melting glaciers in the Himalayas and heavy rains inundated more than 40 percent of the land.
■ CHINA
Turbulence shakes up plane
More than 20 people were injured, one seriously, when an internal flight hit severe air turbulence, state press reported yesterday. Passengers and crew were slammed into the overhead luggage compartments when the Shanghai Air flight hit turbulence on the way to Beijing on Saturday, forcing the pilot to make an early landing, the Beijing News reported. One stewardess was hospitalized with a serious spinal injury while the others suffered head and neck injuries, it said. The plane was forced to land at the airport in Tianjin city.
■ BANGLADESH
Shrinks combat suicide
The country’s biggest university will appoint psychiatrists for students to counter a growing number of suicides by “betrayed” lovers, its acting chief said yesterday. At least four female students have taken their own lives in Dhaka University dormitories in recent months, prompting the authorities to seek professional help, vice chancellor Yusuf Haider said.
■ INDIA
Town pays for excrement
It pays to use a toilet in the southern town of Musiri, as residents are earning close to a dollar a month by using public urinals, a scheme launched by authorities to promote hygiene and research in rural areas. Dozens of people are lining up to use toilets the remote town in Tamil Nadu state, where authorities have succeeded in keeping street corners clean with the new scheme, the Times of India newspaper said yesterday. “In fact, many of us started using toilets for urination only after the ecosan [ecological sanitation] toilets were constructed in the area,” said S. Rajasekaran, a truck cleaner. The urine was also being collected and tested for its efficacy as a crop fertilizer, an official of the state’s agricultural university said.
■ SOUTH KOREA
Public workers told to walk
The government will limit vehicle use by public workers as part of an energy-saving campaign. Prime Minister Han Seung-soo said yesterday that officials in more than 800 public institutions are obligated to not drive their cars every other day beginning on July 15. The measure will be in effect until surging oil prices stabilize. The country imports virtually all of its oil and has been intensifying what it calls energy diplomacy to secure stable supplies amid rising prices.
■ INDIA
Monsoon kills 14 in north
Flooding, house collapses and lightening strikes caused by heavy rains killed at least 14 people in northern areas, taking the reported death toll in the annual monsoon season to 79, officials said yesterday. Heavy rains lashed the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh state, flooding all the major rivers in the region, Surendra Srivastava, a police spokesman said in Lucknow, the state capital. Fourteen people died on Saturday in a variety of rain-related incidents. Army and paramilitary forces were put on high alert and relief camps set up to evacuate people left homeless or trapped by the flood waters, Charanjeet Singh, a state government official said.
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