DHAKA, Bangladesh

Seven people died and dozens were injured in a fire that engulfed the top six floors of a high rise building housing Bangladesh’s largest shopping complex. Media reports put the number of injured at 40. The Daily Star newspaper said firefighters were ill equipped to deal with fires in high rise buildings. The six-storey mall, opened in 2004 and was Bangladesh’s first modern shopping centre.

SINGAPORE

Giving in to a natural urge in public proved costly for a Singapore taxi driver. The cabby was fined the maximum 1, 000 Singapore dollars for urinating on a road last June, a news report said. The driver left his taxi and urinated behind an electrical box, the online edition of the Straits Times newspaper said. He ignored shouts by another driver and his companions to stop.

BANGKOK, Thailand

Five years after the disappearance and presumed murder of a leading Thai human rights lawyer, an international rights group has called on Thailand's government to step up efforts to bring those responsible to justice. Somchai Neelaphaijit has not been seen since March 12, 2004, when he was assaulted and pulled from his car in Bangkok, allegedly by five police officers.

MANILA, Philippines

A 10-year-old girl was decapitated by a crocodile in a lake after the creature knocked over her canoe, police said. The girl and a classmate were on their way to their floating school on Agusan del Sur province's Mihaba Lake when the seven-metre crocodile bumped the boat, causing it to capsize. Rescuers found the girl's headless body floating in the lake. The classmate was rescued by a man escorting the pair in another boat, said Roel Hipulan, head of the private group that runs the remote school.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka

A Sri Lankan court has denied bail for the consul general of Singapore, who has been arrested and detained in connection with the island's largest ever financial scandal. Lalith Kotelawala, a Sri Lankan national, was accused of defrauding depositors of $645 million. Thousands of people deposited money into Kotelawala's Golden Key company expecting high returns. He commanded the confidence of investors partly with his credentials as Singapore's representative in Sri Lanka. Golden Key is a unit of Ceylinco Group

BEIJING, China

A southern China farmer in Jingcheng said two otherwise healthy pigs were born without snouts on his farm. Fang Lianseng said his two unique swine were born at his Jingcheng farm alongside several siblings with normal pig facial features, The Sun reported Friday. “They look strange but their nostrils are inside their mouths and they breathe quite well,” the farmer said. Veterinarians said the pigs may have been born that way as a result of a genetic mutation.

HONG KONG

A Hong Kong woman whose infant daughter died after being left alone in the care of her four-year-old sister began a two-year jail term last week. Man Ching-yee, 29, who was out at a bar when her three-month-old daughter died, was told by Judge Joseph Yau that she treated her children “worse than animals.” The baby’s death came after repeated complaints from neighbours that the four children were left alone with no food by their mother and their sewage worker father. The three surviving children are now with a grandmother and a care home.

TOKYO, Japan

Japanese warships are on their way to join an anti-piracy mission off Somalia in which the nation's armed forces could face combat abroad for the first time since the Second World War. The warships, each with 200 crew and carrying two patrol helicopters and two speedboats, will sail for the Gulf of Aden on a mission to protect Japanese cargo ships near the Suez Canal. Around 2,000 Japanese ships sail through Somali waters every year.

JAKARTA, Indonesia

Call it the rent-a-crowd culture. Indonesia is facing elections this year — a time when political rallies need to be well-attended. No problem. When political parties need to augment the ranks of their supporters, they need only bring along cash, T-shirts and snacks to the right places — such as Jalan Kembang in Kwitang, central Jakarta. The people there will be ready to jump onto buses. Residents said they were just waiting for invitations from parties to join their election campaigns — for a fee, of course.