Most of Canada to receive emergency alert test today
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
More than seven million people in Bangladesh are in desperate need of shelter and emergency relief after what one aid agency has described as the worst flooding to hit South Asia in living memory.
Hundreds of thousands of homes near the Bangladesh-India border are underwater, and in the worst-hit areas whole neighbourhoods have been submerged, aid agencies said Tuesday.
At least 207 people in both countries have died since the floods began in April, according to official figures.
Torrential rain has caused rivers in Bangladesh – a densely populated delta nation – to overflow, submerging areas that border the Indian state of Meghalaya, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
Some 94% of Bangladesh's Sunamganj town and 84% of the surrounding Sylhet district are now submerged, the IFRC said. Roads leading to the region have been largely cut off and there are power cuts even in areas not underwater.
Save the Children said the floods had "washed away homes, schools and livelihoods," damaging at least 93,000 homes and 419 primary schools in Sylhet in May alone.
"We have never seen this sort of flooding in our living memories in that region," said Bangladesh Red Crescent Society secretary-general Kazi Shofiqul Azam.
Bangladesh has about 700 rivers, making it particularly vulnerable to flooding during extreme weather events. The IFRC estimated the total number of people in Bangladesh in need of aid at 7.2 million.
Meanwhile, in the eastern Indian state of Assam, which neighbours Bangladesh, flooding has displaced more than 270,000 people, according to authorities.
Parts of Meghalaya state have experienced the most rainfall in decades, which has caused large river systems running between India and Bangladesh to overflow and inundate surrounding areas.
The Bangladesh Red Crescent is spending $10 million on relief and recovery operations. Volunteer teams on the ground have been distributing food and drinking water.
The IFRC has launched an emergency appeal to raise a further $7.8 million, which it says could help another 300,000 people.
Aid agencies say those communities worst affected by flooding tend to be those that are already impoverished.
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has made headlines with his recent arrival in the U.K., this time to celebrate all things Invictus. But upon the prince landing in the U.K., we have already had confirmation that King Charles III won't have time to see his youngest son during his brief visit.
An Ontario man found out that a line of credit he thought was insured actually isn't after his wife of 50 years died.
After more than a century, Boy Scouts of America is rebranding as Scouting America, another major shakeup for an organization that once proudly resisted change.
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
In March, Indonesian officials and local fishermen rescued 75 people from the overturned hull of a boat off the coast of Indonesia. Until now, little was known about why the boat capsized.
An Ontario woman said it would have been impossible to buy a house without her mother – an anecdote that animates the fact that over 17 per cent of Canadian homeowners born in the ‘90s own their property with their parents, according to a new report.
Canadian immigrants threatened by hostile regimes are urging parliamentarians to quickly pass the 'Countering Foreign Interference Act' so they can feel safe living in their adopted home.
A long-simmering feud between hip-hop superstars Drake and Kendrick Lamar reached a boiling point in recent days as the pair traded increasingly personal insults on a succession of diss tracks. Here’s a quick overview of what’s behind the ongoing beef.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.