US: Tornadoes have hit parts of the central United States, killing at least 33 people and obliterating entire neighbourhoods.
Missouri reported at least nine deaths, possibly more, and neighbouring Kansas seven, while 11 died in western Tennessee. Dozens more were injured, and rescuers dug through debris in a search for more possible victims.
Rescue workers climbed among the ruins of a National Guard armoury in Pierce City, where some residents had fled seeking shelter. The tornado struck as people were rushing to the armoury's basement, and many got trapped at the top of a stairway as the roof collapsed, officials said.
The storms caused the worst damage to southern Missouri and southern Kansas, as well as western Tennessee, where downtown Jackson resembled a war zone. Governors in the three states declared states of emergency for storm-damaged counties.
In Kansas, Crawford County's emergency manager, Mr Eldon Bedene, said 95 homes were destroyed in a storm so powerful it blew a freight train completely off the tracks.
As the storms moved eastward, tornadoes tore through western Tennessee, knocking out power to thousands and threatening flooding in some areas.
Hardest hit was Jackson, Tennessee, where one of the fatalities was a two-year-old child from a heavily damaged housing development, said Ms Jan Boud, a spokeswoman at the local hospital. The hospital, operating on emergency power, was treating 66 other people with injuries ranging from broken bones to cuts and bruises.
Tornadoes also struck Arkansas, ripping roofs off of homes and overturning tractor-trailers, but causing no major injuries, state officials said.
In Bangladesh a storm with heavy rain and winds of up to 75 m.p.h. has killed at least 23 villagers, with 19 people missing.
Hundreds of mud-walled and tin-shed houses were razed when the storm swept through Noapoti village in Brahmanbaria district, around 110 miles east of the capital, Dhaka, a witness said.
In Kenya the UN refugee agency said it had started airlifting fuel and plastic sheets to thousands of refugees made homeless after floods caused by heavy rains destroyed their shelters.
Floods have washed away the Garissa-Dadaab road, the only one that links the remote camp hosting 60,000, mainly Somali refugees, with the Kenyan capital.
On Friday, the UNHCR office in Dadaab warned of a possible outbreak of waterborne diseases among the 60,000 refugees.
The UNHCR has also suspended the repatriation of 300 refugees to their homes in Galkayo and Bossaso areas of north-eastern Somalia because of the floods. - (Reuters)