IN BRIEF (Page 12)

Bangladesh

10,000 homeless after fire razes slum

At least 10,000 people are homeless after a massive fire swept through a crowded slum in the Bangladesh capital and destroyed thousands of shanties, officials said on Sunday. The fire broke out at in Dhaka's Mirpur neighborhood late on Friday and razed around 2,000 mostly tin shacks, fire services official Ershad Hossain said. "I could not salvage a single thing. I don't know what will I do," said 58-year-old Abdul Hamid, who ran a tea stall inside the slum. Authorities eventually got the blaze under control and no one was killed, although several people had minor injuries, firefighters said. Many residents - largely low-income garment factory workers - were not in the slum as they had left their homes to celebrate the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday with their families. Around 10,000 people have taken refuge in crammed camps at nearby schools closed for the weeklong holiday, according to Hossain. At least 100 people have been killed so far this year in building fires across the densely populated metropolitan city.

United Kingdom

Brexit memos warn of 'worst-case scenario'

Leaked British government documents warning of the impact of a no-deal Brexit are based on a worst-case scenario, said Michael Gove, the minister in charge of coordinating preparations for leaving the European Union without a deal. The official documents on a project titled "Yellowhammer" show that Britain will face shortages of fuel, food and medicine if it leaves the EU without a transition deal, jamming ports and requiring a hard border in Ireland, The Sunday Times reported. "Yellowhammer is a worst-case scenario - significant steps have been taken in the last 3 weeks to accelerate Brexit planning," Gove wrote on Twitter.

France

Waiter shot dead for 'too slow' serving

A customer shot a waiter dead at an eatery in the Noisy-le-Grand suburb east of Paris on Friday night, apparently enraged at being made to wait for a sandwich, a source close to the investigation said on Saturday. The waiter's colleagues called police after he was shot in the shoulder with a handgun, the source said. Attempts to revive the 28-year-old failed and he died at the scene. The gunman, who a witness said lost his temper "as his sandwich wasn't prepared quickly enough", fled the scene. Police said a murder investigation has been opened. With the shooter still on the run on Saturday, shocked residents gathered outside the pizza and sandwich eatery. "He was killed for a sandwich?" one asked, unbelievingly. "It is sad," said a 29-year-old woman. "It's a quiet restaurant, without any problems. It just opened a few months ago."

Agencies

(China Daily 08/19/2019 page12)