CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh

Bangladesh troops were deployed at a dumping site near Chittagong port last weekend to stop people from collecting rotten rice, officials said. Hundreds of citizens thronged the dumping site as the food department began ditching about 500 tonnes of damaged rice on Friday. Nearly half of Bangladesh’s 140 million people live on less than a dollar a day and their plight has worsened since rice and other food prices started rising this year.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka

A Sri Lankan state-backed former Tamil Tiger rebel group, accused of abductions and killings, has freed 39 child soldiers, reported UNICEF. The UN agency estimates more than 5,600 underage fighters have been recruited in Sri Lanka, the vast majority by the Tamil Tigers, since a 2002 ceasefire in the 25-year civil war broke down in 2006. The average age of child recruits in 2007 was 16 years, though some children much younger were recruited at earlier stages of the conflict. About 40 per cent were girls.

SEOUL, South Korea

The first North Korean army officer in 10 years has defected across the heavily fortified border to South Korea. According to an army spokesperson, the 28-year-old soldier fled over the border Sunday and was picked up on its western side by the South Korean guards, whom he asked for asylum. Intelligence services are investigating the officer’s story and his motive for fleeing North Korea.

NEW DELHI, India

At least 45 wedding revellers died in two separate accidents in India’s Rajasthan and Maharashtra states on the weekend. Twenty-four people, including five children, were killed when the pick-up truck they were travelling in rammed into a transport truck near Dechu, Rajasthan. The group was returning home after attending a wedding function in a neighbouring village. Also, 21 people died — 14 from the same family — when a boat capsized in the river Neera near Pune, 115 kilometres south of Mumbai. Police are investigating the causes of both tragedies.

NEW DELHI, India

Four children have died in southern India after getting measles vaccinations at state-run clinics, prompting the state to suspend use of the vaccine. It is not clear exactly what caused the deaths of the 10-month-old children, three girls and a boy, in the state of Tamil Nadu, but doctors suspect anaphylactic shock. All four children died within 20 minutes of being immunized. Vials of the vaccine have been sent to government labs for analysis.

BEIJING, China

Chinese authorities have ruled out Olympics-linked terrorism and have attributed human error as the cause of a train collision earlier this week which killed more than 70 people and injured over 250 in east China. Two high-ranking railway officials were fired just hours after the collision, which occurred when a high-speed passenger train traveling more than 40 km/h above the speed limit careened off the track and slammed into another train in the city of Zibo in the province of Shandong.

AIPEI, Tawian

Missing at sea for more than two days, eight Taiwanese scuba divers were rescued this week after the group’s coach, Ding Bo-ling, set off on a 76-kilometre, 12-hour swim for help. The six men and two women, all experienced divers, went diving off Kenting National Park, but failed to return to their boat sparking a search involving helicopters, patrol boats and fishing vessels. Following his remarkable feat, Bo-ling was able to signal a helicopter which plucked the chilled divers from the sea.