Bangladeshis hope fortune cookies can stop floods

A village in eastern Bangladesh has cooked up an answer to the threat of floods - fortune cookies filled with religious writings.

The people of Haimchar village have piled thousands of whole-wheat cookies stuffed with verses from the Koran _ Islam’s holy book _ by the Meghna River to stop it bursting its banks, local reports said today.

Over the last week, they have placed more than 125,000 of the 'talisman' cookies along a six-mile stretch of the Meghna in Chandpur district, 40 miles east of Dhaka.

Bangladesh is facing its worst floods in four years, affecting more than three-and-a-half million people.

Nearly 90% of Bangladesh’s 130 million people are Muslims.

Superstition and faith cures are common among villagers, who often use talismans inscribed with holy verses to protect themselves from diseases or other evils.