A million people were evacuated and 11 have died, but fears of devastating damage eased when the storm weakened as it moved over land. Myanmar was largely spared the brunt of the storm.

Bangladesh warned millions of people Monday that a cyclone could barrel into their coastal homes later this week as authorities in Myanmar began moving potential victims to higher ground.

04/11/2013 17:57 GMT

by Kamrul Hasan Khan

DHAKA, April 11, 2013 (AFP) - At least four people were killed and scores injured on Thursday as clashes erupted in parts of Bangladesh on the fourth day of a nationwide strike called by an Islamist opposition party, police said.

The violence came as police arrested the editor of an influential pro-opposition newspaper after he was accused of sedition and inciting religious tension in the Muslim-majority nation.

03/22/2013 18:34 GMT

DHAKA, March 23, 2013 (AFP) - A powerful tornado ripped through more than a dozen rural villages in eastern Bangladesh late Friday, killing at least 20 people and injuring more than 100, officials said.

The tornado wrecked havoc in Brahmanbaria district over a 15-minute period, authorities said, uprooting thousands of trees and flattened hundreds of tin and mud-built houses in the area, and snapping road and rail communication with affected villages.

03/01/2013 18:53 GMT

by Shafiq Alam

DHAKA, March 1, 2013 (AFP) - The number of people killed in clashes in Bangladesh over the conviction of Islamist leaders for war crimes rose to 53 on Friday as fresh violence erupted in the Muslim-majority nation.

Two people were killed when hundreds of pro-government supporters and followers of the rival Jamaat-e-Islami party battled each other with sticks in two northern districts of Gaibandha and Chapainawabganj, police chiefs told AFP.

02/28/2013 17:46 GMT

by Kamrul Hasan Khan

DHAKA, Feb 28, 2013 (AFP) - At least 34 people were killed in Bangladesh in a wave of violence on Thursday as Islamists reacted furiously to a ruling that one of their leaders must hang for war crimes during the 1971 independence conflict.

At least 23 of them were shot in clashes between police and protesters that erupted after Delwar Hossain Sayedee, the Jamaat-e-Islami party's vice president, was found guilty of war crimes, including murder, arson and rape.

02/23/2013
12:42 GMT

DHAKA, Feb 23, 2013 (AFP) - Bangladesh police fired live rounds Saturday in fresh clashes with supporters of the country's largest Islamic party whose leaders are standing trial for war crimes, killing two people.

The clashes came a day after the Muslim-majority nation was hit by deadly violence between police and Islamists demanding the execution of bloggers they accuse of blasphemy, which left four people dead and about 200 injured.

02/07/2013 09:01 GMT

BANGKOK, Feb 7, 2013 (AFP) - Almost 6,000 Rohingya boat people fleeing communal violence in western Myanmar have illegally entered Thai waters since October, an army spokesman said Thursday.

Of the 5,899 Rohingya who entered Thai territory, 1,752 are now in Thai immigration holding centres, police stations or welfare shelters, according to the military's Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC).

Some of the others were pushed back to sea, said ISOC spokesman Dithaporn Sasasamit, although he was unable to say how many.

01/04/2013 11:49 GMT

YANGON, Jan 4, 2013 (AFP) - About 13,000 boat people, including many stateless Rohingya Muslims, fled Myanmar and neighbouring Bangladesh in 2012 with hundreds dying during the perilous sea voyage, the UN said Friday.

A wave of deadly sectarian violence in Myanmar's western state of Rakhine has triggered an exodus of refugees, mostly heading for Malaysia.

"We know of at least 485 people who've drowned or are lost at sea," said Vivian Tan, spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency, adding the real death toll was probably far higher.