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Executive Summary

1. Bangladesh - Tropical Storm Mahasen struck southern districts on 16 May. The Joint Needs Assessment (JNA) is ongoing and preliminary findings are due to be presented tomorrow (21 May). 17 people have reportedly lost their lives, JNA results will provide a better understand of the impact of the cyclone on shelter and livelihoods.
   Source: PDC, OCHA Flash Update No. 7

(Extract)

Wheat and rice prices mostly fall around the region

Strong production generally kept domestic prices around the region stable or drove them slightly down for wheat, wheat flour and rice, except in India and Myanmar where government procurement programmes pushed prices higher. Overall, however, prices were mostly higher than at the same time last year, according to FAO’s Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS).

Some deaths have been reported in Bangladesh, where over a million people were evacuated. The caution was justified: in 1970, Cyclone Bhola killed some 400,000 people, in 2007, Cyclone Sidr killed nearly 4,000.

The region’s urban population is set to double by 2030, with India alone adding 90 million city dwellers to its metropolises since 2000.

16/05/2013 - Improving the quality of care for vulnerable children is a global issue. Delegates at a conference at the SOS Children’s Villages International headquarters in Innsbruck, Austria, have today highlighted how this can be addressed through a campaign that boldly sets out to achieve quality care for every child.

05/16/2013 09:39 GMT

SYDNEY, May 16, 2013 (AFP) - Australia on Thursday extended tough refugee policies to any asylum-seeker who lands on its mainland, allowing them to be banished to remote Nauru or Papua New Guinea for detention.

Until now, the government only had powers to send boatpeople for indefinite detention in the Pacific when they reached its remote offshore territories such as Christmas Island.

The change, which was passed in parliament Thursday, strips away any advantage asylum-seekers get from reaching the mainland.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Tropical Cyclone Mahasen is due to make landfall in Bangladesh, near the Burma border, on May 16 with winds of up to 63 miles per hour

• The storm has already caused 7 deaths and displaced 115,000 people in Sri Lanka as it tracked near the country

• Humanitarian preparedness activities are underway in Bangladesh and Burma, including pre-positioning of relief supplies and evacuation of populations residing in areas at high risk of severe storm impact