Bangladesh’s government plans to raise the minimum wage for clothing workers after more than 1,100 people perished in the collapse of a factory building.

Bangladesh’s first human case of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has been detected, health officials said today, calling on residents not to panic.

Two rain-swollen rivers in north-eastern Bangladesh burst through mud embankments, inundating more than 200 villages and marooning about 100,000 people, officials and media reports said today.