Fire kills five Covid patients in tent at hospital in B’desh

DHAKA: Five coronavirus patients died in a fire in a tent outside a hospital in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka on Wednesday, a fire service official said.

It was not immediately clear what caused the fire, said Zillur Rahman, a fire service director. Firefighters extinguished the flames in about an hour, Rahman said.

Five bodies were recovered from the makeshift unit of United Hospital treating Covid-19 patients. The dead included four men and a woman.

STUDY: 86MN MORE KIDS TO FALL INTO POVERTY

GENEVA: The number of children living in poor households across low and middle-income countries could increase by 86 million to reach 672 million by the end of 2020 due to the economic fallout of the pandemic, according to a study done by Unicef and Save the Children.

NEWS CORP TO SHUTTER 100 REGIONAL DAILIES

SYDNEY: The Australian arm of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp said on Thursday it will stop printing more than 100 regional newspapers after the coronavirus shutdown gutted advertising revenue. From next month, the company which dominates Australia’s media and political landscape said it would take 76 regional mastheads online only and shut another 36 altogether.

MILITANT-TRACKING TECH IN VIRUS FIGHT

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’ s intelligence services are deploying secretive surveillance technology to track coronavirus patients and the people they come into contact with. The Imran Khan government has turned to the powerful ISI for help in tackling the virus, which still is spreading at an accelerating rate.