Two killed in mishap

DHAKA: A train smashed into a bus packed with passengers on Friday at a railroad crossing in northern Bangladesh, leaving at least two dead and 22 others injured, a police official said. The signalman was not at his post, local police chief Mejbah Uddin said. The reason was unclear. — AP

Pupil beaten to death

DHAKA: A Bangladeshi schoolboy, Dipu Islam, 12, was killed by canings from his teachers for not doing his homework and failing to pay attention in class, a news report said on Friday quoting an autopsy. The official BSS news agency reported he died as a result of blows inflicted by a “blunt weapon”. — AFP

Bird flu ‘deaths’

JAKARTA: Bird flu is suspected in the deaths of a man and his two daughters in Indonesia and the lack of evidence they had contact with sickened poultry raises concerns of possible human-to-human transmission, the health minister Diti Fadillah Supadi said on Friday. The victims, a 38-year-old man and his two girls, 9 and 1, would be Indonesia’s first human fatalities linked to the disease. — AP

J&K clash toll nine

SRINAGAR: Indian troops on Friday recovered the bodies of two more Islamic militants in the Kashmiri Himalayas, taking to nine the number of rebels killed in clashes there, the army said. Meanwhile, six people, including a retired police officer and his two guards, were hurt in a powerful explosion in the Srinagar-Gulmarg road on Friday, officials here said.— AFP

Singapore directive

SINGAPORE: The Singapore government will make it compulsory for the spouses of HIV patients to be informed that their partner has the disease, a senior health official said in remarks published on Friday. Under the new Singaporean law, the infected person’s consent is not required before his or her condition is made known to the spouse. This is the first time that the Singapore government has given the green light for physicians to breach patient confidentiality. — AFP