MADAGASCAR: Cyclone Gezani has killed at least 36 people, injured more than 370 and destroyed nearly 18,000 homes over 24 hours of destruction, authorities said today.

President Michael Randrianirina declared a national disaster and appealed for international aid, reporting that 75 per cent of the main port city Toamasina was damaged or destroyed.

The Indian Ocean island, vulnerable to cyclones, was hit by another storm last month which killed 14 people.

HAITI: The recruitment of children by armed groups tripled last year as poverty and gang violence deepened across the troubled Caribbean country, according to a new Unicef report released today.

The UN estimates 30 to 50 per cent of armed group members are children, some as young as nine, with boys used as spies and girls subjected to sexual violence.

The surge comes as record displacement of 1.4 million people leaves children increasingly exposed and vulnerable.

IRAN: The death toll from a crackdown against nationwide protests last month has reached at least 7,002, activists said today.

The slow rise in reported fatalities adds to tensions facing Iran as it negotiates with the US over its nuclear programme, with a second round of talks uncertain.

Families of the dead are expected to intensify pressure as they begin marking the traditional 40-day mourning for their loved ones.

BANGLADESH: Elections were held today in the country’s first vote since mass protests toppled Sheikh Hasina’s government in 2024, with a turnout of more than 47 per cent reported.

The balloting, mostly peaceful, pits the Bangladesh Nationalist Party against an 11-party Islamist alliance.

Voters also faced a referendum on constitutional reforms that would reshape parliament, create new bodies and empower an upper house.