Seven students and a teacher have been killed in Bangladesh after a landslide hit a girls’ school inside a refugee camp

“Some of them are seven, eight, 11 or 12 years old,” Panna Akhter, a local district officer, told BBC Bangla.

The other five children were taken to hospital for treatment.

Earlier, officials said other landslides had killed at least eight Rohingya refugees, including five children, since Sunday.

Thousands of Rohingya, one of Myanmar’s many ethnic minorities, were killed and more than 700,000 fled to neighbouring Bangladesh during an army crackdown in Myanmar in 2017

The group, which is primarily Muslim, are denied citizenship by the government of Myanmar, a Buddhist-majority country.

Many face poor living conditions in Bangladesh, living in makeshift homes of tarpaulin and bamboo on steep hillsides.

More rain is forecast for the coming days, with authorities issuing warnings for more landslides and floods, and evacuating families in high risk areas.

(BBC)

The US has launched a new round of strikes on Iran after President Donald Trump signalled he’d “hit them hard again tonight” following an overnight exchange of attacks on Tuesday.

Iranian state TV reported eight explosions in Bandar Abbas, and said two missiles had hit the ports of both Sirik and Jask – also in southern Iran.

It added that two projectiles hit the island of Abu Musa, which has been the subject of a longstanding ownership dispute between Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

Air defence systems have been activated in Bandar Abbas, according to reports in Iranian state media.

The extent of damage from the US strikes is not yet known, but Iranian media has reported power cuts in Chabahar and a fire at an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) barracks in Bushehr.

Two of three power lines cut off in Chabahar had been restored quickly and a third would be operational soon, the Iranian Students’ News Agency said.

On Tuesday, the US military said it had launched “powerful” strikes in response to attacks on three tankers in the strait.

On Wednesday, Iran said it targeted US military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait in retaliation.

Tuesday into Wednesday saw the worst exchange of strikes between the US and Iran since the deal – known as a memorandum of understanding (MoU) – was signed on 17 June.

Trump said on Wednesday that the ceasefire agreement signed last month with Iran is “over”, and added the US “hit them very

hard last night” and will “probably hit them hard again tonight”.

In response, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X: “We do not answer vulgarity with vulgarity, but with action: fearlessly and with great valour.”

The deal between the US and Iran included 14 points, among them a 60-day period for a ceasefire during which negotiations should continue, the safe passage of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz and the US lifting sanctions on Iran.

The 60-day-period for negotiations is not yet up, but Trump has said he saw further talks as “a waste of time”.

These are not the first strikes since the MoU was signed.

The US launched a series of strikes on Iran on 26 June after an Iranian projectile hit a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz.

Further US strikes took place on 27 June, following an attack on a tanker. But later that month both sides had agreed to “stand down”.

(BBC)

Pakistan is searching for a Boeing cargo aircraft missing over the Arabian Sea with five crew members on board.

The Karachi-bound 737-400 plane operated by a Pakistani carrier took off from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and lost contact with air traffic control about 9:18pm (16:18 GMT) on Tuesday after reporting a navigational ⁠system fault, the Pakistan Airports Authority said.

Minutes later, data from Flightradar24, a global flight-tracking service, showed the plane losing nearly 1,525 metres (5,000ft) of altitude in less than a minute before climbing about 1,830 metres (6,000ft) in the next 30 seconds. It then entered a final, near-vertical descent from a height of 11,140 metres (36,550ft).

Its last transmitted position placed it at 335 metres (1,100ft), descending at 22,400 feet per minute, or about 400 kilometres per hour. All contact was lost about 155 nautical miles (287km or 178 miles) west of Karachi.

Security sources told Al Jazeera a Pakistani navy ship, a merchant vessel operated by the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation and two navy aircraft are taking part in the search.

No wreckage or survivors have been found so far.

“We continue to pray, earnestly, for the safety of our colleagues,” K2 Airways, the Karachi-based private cargo airline that operated the flight, said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that it was fully cooperating with authorities on the search.

It was the only plane in the K2 Airways fleet.

If a crash is confirmed, the incident would mark Pakistan’s first major civilian air disaster since May 2020 when a Pakistan International Airlines plane crashed short of the runway in Karachi, killing 97 of the 99 people on board.