GlOBE TROTTING

14 killed in B’desh due to landslides

Dhaka: At least 14 people were killed and over 35 others injured in a series of landslides and flashfloods triggered by torrential rains in southeastern Bangladesh, officials said on Saturday. The incessant rains, caused by a virtually persistent low in the Bay of Bengal, in the past two days and resulting in the swelling of rivers have also marooned millions of people in several hundred villages in the region.

Heatwave toll touches 1,242 in Karachi

Islamabad: The devastating heat wave that struck Pakistan’s Sindh province is slowly subsiding but the toll has climbed to 1,242 with 32 deaths reported in Karachi on Saturday.Various Government-run hospitals in Karachi confirmed that at least 32 people died of heatstroke on Saturday, reports Dawn. At least 13 people died in Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), 11 in Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH), two in Qatar Hospital, three in hospitals owned by Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) and three in other hospitals in the city. The crisis in Karachi was worsened by poor service delivery, including a faulty power grid and shortage of potable water.

Obama praises Haley on Confederate flag

Washington: US President Barack Obama has praised South Carolina’s Indian-American Governor Nikki Haley after she called for the removal of the controversial slavery- era Confederate flag from the State capitol 150 years after the end of the American Civil War.

Haley, 43, had called for the removal of the battle flag from the State capitol, days after nine people were killed inside a historic black church by a white shooter, who was seen holding the flag, a symbol of white supremacy. “For too long, we were blind to the pain that the Confederate flag stirred in too many of our citizens,” Obama said. as he eulogised the slain at the Charleston church.