DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Authorities in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh used loudspeakers and a network of volunteers and community leaders to relocate people from risky areas to safety Thursday after landslides killed at least 13 refugees in the past few days.
At least five children died Wednesday when a landslide caused by monsoon rains swept through an Islamic school at a camp in Cox's Bazar, where more than 1 million Rohingya refugees from neighboring Myanmar live.
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A child plays in heavy rain at a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Tuesday, July 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Shamimul Islam Faisal)
People walk through rain at a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Tuesday, July 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Shamimul Islam Faisal)
Rescuers work at the site of a landslide at a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Shamimul Islam Faisal)
Rescuers work at the site of a landslide at a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Shamimul Islam Faisal)
A teacher at the Islamic school described the scene from the landslide as chaotic, saying girls at the school were preparing for lessons when part of the building collapsed. “Those of us who were on the western side managed to get out, but everyone on the eastern side was buried under the debris,” said Begum Jahan, who teaches the Quran, Islam’s holy book.
“Some suffered broken arms, and some of the girls lost their lives,” she said.
People in the refugee camp started rescue operations before emergency services reached the scene, Dollar Tripura, head of the local fire service and civil defense, said Thursday. He added that emergency personnel later rescued the injured and recovered the bodies. The rescue operation was called off Wednesday evening.
Jamal Hossain, a Rohingya volunteer who helped in the rescue effort, said people rescued at the scene were sent to hospital and those that died were all women.
“However, we do not know whether there are any more bodies buried underneath,” he said.
Authorities in Cox’s Bazar said they were relocating refugees from at-risk hilly areas and that more than 1,000 people were already evacuated. They said the refugees are often reluctant to leave their makeshift homes despite warnings.
The Bangladesh weather office is forecasting more rain in the coming days.
Sunday night into Monday, landslides killed at least eight people at Rohingya camps in the area.
Local media reported at least 22 people died in the delta nation of 170 million people in landslides and wall collapses over the last three days. The death toll included the casualties at Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar, the country’s leading Bengali-language Prothom Alo daily reported.
Bangladesh has urged the international community for years to help the country begin repatriation of the refugees to Myanmar, but the process is stalled.
A child plays in heavy rain at a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Tuesday, July 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Shamimul Islam Faisal)
People walk through rain at a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Tuesday, July 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Shamimul Islam Faisal)
Rescuers work at the site of a landslide at a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Shamimul Islam Faisal)
Rescuers work at the site of a landslide at a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Shamimul Islam Faisal)
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Australia will begin to sell uranium to India for peaceful purposes after the two countries' leaders signed an administrative deal Thursday, enacting an agreement on exports of the material that was held up for years over concerns about weapons use.
Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the joint announcement after a meeting in Melbourne.
The leaders didn't immediately supply details of how much uranium would be sold, or when. Exports of Australian uranium to India stalled after an agreement to do so in 2014, because of concern that the material could be used to make weapons.
Australia has the world's largest known uranium resources, but the country doesn't use any nuclear power or weapons and all uranium is exported. India, which has a population of 1.4 billion people and a growing middle class, wants to install 100 gigawatts of nuclear power by 2047 — enough to power nearly 60 million Indian homes a year. But obtaining uranium hasn’t been simple.
India has doubled the amount of nuclear power installed in the country in the last decade, but that still makes up just 3% of its electricity.
India isn't a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which recognizes only the United States, China, Britain, France and Russia as nuclear weapons powers. Australia, which is a signatory country, refuses to sell uranium to non-signatories.
India says the treaty is discriminatory because it recognizes as legitimate nuclear weapon states only those that tested nuclear devices before January 1967, which would would disqualify it permanently. The country was hit with international technology sanctions and uranium trade bans after it conducted nuclear tests in 1998.
The Nuclear Suppliers Group of countries, which includes the U.S., in 2008 granted a waiver allowing India to buy uranium from its members and Delhi has since pursued bilateral pacts to permit sales of the material. It inked such a deal with Canada in March.
Australia's leaders historically ruled out doing the same until Delhi signed the treaty. Canberra's position has eased, however, and it agreed to allow exports in 2014, subject to International Atomic Energy Agency Safeguards and “separation of the Indian civilian and military nuclear programs,” according to a government website.
Thursday's administrative agreement was expected to remove obstacles to enacting the earlier deal.
Modi is visiting Australia for an annual leaders' summit between the two countries. In their joint statement, Modi and Albanese also pledged greater defense and security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, “reflecting a step‑change in the depth and ambition” of the relationship, the text of the statement read.
The pledge for closer cooperation on regional security came days after Australia criticized China for test firing a long-range ballistic missile from one of its nuclear-powered submarines into the South Pacific Ocean, an area protected by an anti-nuclear treaty.
The two leaders did not cite China when they announced the bolstered strategic ties, and didn't take questions from reporters after their statements Thursday. Thousands of people turned out in the city of Melbourne in hopes of seeing India's Prime Minister during his visit.
India is Australia’s fifth largest trading partner, with two-way trade in goods and services valued at 54.4 billion Australian dollars ($37.7 billion) in the 2024-2025 financial year, according to Australian government figures.
Earlier this week, Modi visited Indonesia and on Friday he'll travel to New Zealand for his first visit to the country. India and New Zealand signed a free trade agreement in April.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gestures as he speaks during a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, July 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hamish Blair)
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks during a joint press conference with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, July 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hamish Blair)
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inspects a guard of honour during a ceremonial welcome at Government House in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, July 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hamish Blair)
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, second right, talks to Australian Prime Minster Anthony Albanese, third left, during the Annual Leaders' Summit at Government House in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, July 9, 2026. (Izhar Khan Pool via AP)
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, left, is welcomed to the stage by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to address the Australia-India Economic Roadmap Business Reception in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, July 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hamish Blair)
