Hordes of women protest Belarus leader
KYIV, Ukraine -- Thousands of women marched through the capital of Belarus on Saturday, calling for the resignation of the authoritarian president, and university students demonstrated against the detention of classmates during the wave of protests gripping the country for four weeks.
For the first time in the demonstrations, supporters of LGBT rights appeared with rainbow flags in the women's march in Minsk, an indication that opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko are becoming bolder.
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Although homosexuality was decriminalized in Belarus in 1994, stigmatization of it is strong. Authorities haven't allowed any LGBT organization legal registry. Same-sex marriage is prohibited.
About 5,000 women took part in the march, according to the human rights organization Viasna. Police followed the march, but no detentions were reported.
Marches and demonstrations by women have become a frequent feature of the protests, which broke out Aug. 9 after the election in which Lukashenko was officially received an 80% victory.
Earlier in the day, hundreds of students formed human chains to demonstrate against the detention of students at the State Linguistics University. Viasna said about 20 of the students were detained Saturday.
Scores dead, hurt in gas pipeline blast
DHAKA, Bangladesh -- An underground gas pipeline near a mosque exploded during evening prayers outside Bangladesh's capital, leaving 16 Muslim worshipers dead and dozens injured with critical burns, officials said Saturday.
The blast occurred Friday night as people were finishing their prayers at Baitus Salat Jame Mosque at Narayanganj, local police chief Zayedul Alam said.
By Saturday afternoon, 16 people, including a 7-year-old boy, had succumbed to their injuries. Doctors at a burn unit of a state-run hospital were treating at least 37 people with burns on up to 90% of their bodies, said Samanta Lal Sen, a coordinator of the unit.
TV stations reported that because of the impact of the blast, at least six air conditioners also exploded inside the mosque.
Firefighters were investigating the cause of the explosion.
Abdullah Al Arefin, assistant director of the Fire Service and Civil Defense, said officials suspected that gas had accumulated inside the mosque from a leak in the underground pipeline, and that it had gone unnoticed.
"The gas could not go out as the windows of the mosque were shut because of the air conditioners," he said.
Typhoon churns toward Okinawa islands
TOKYO -- A typhoon, the second in a week, barreled toward the Okinawa islands in southern Japan on Saturday, prompting warnings about torrential rainfall and fierce wind gusts.
Weather officials have cautioned about Typhoon Haishen for the past several days, urging people to brace for what could be a record storm, and be ready to take shelter and stock up on food and water.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said Haishen, packing sustained winds of up to 112 mph early Saturday, was on course to hit Okinawa by today, and later the main southern island of Kyushu.
But the pouring rain, high tides and winds will hit before the typhoon, the agency said.
Okinawa is home to more than half of the roughly 50,000 U.S. troops based in Japan under a bilateral treaty.
Haishen, or "sea god" in Chinese, was moving northward at 9 mph from out at sea, south of Minami Daito, an island to the south of Japan. The projected course has Haishen hitting the Korean Peninsula on Tuesday.
Sudan declares disaster amid flooding
CAIRO -- Sudanese authorities declared their country a natural disaster area and imposed a three-month state of emergency across the country after rising floodwaters and heavy rainfall killed around 100 people and inundated more than 100,000 houses since late July.
The announcement was made late Friday after a meeting of the country's Defense and Security Council, which is headed by a top government official, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan.
Flooding caused by seasonal heavy rainfall, mostly in neighboring Ethiopia, led the Nile River to rise about 57 feet late in August, the highest level it has reached in about a century, according to the Sudanese Irrigation Ministry.
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The ministry said water levels of the Blue Nile are higher than the 1988 flood levels that destroyed tens of thousands of homes in several parts of Sudan and displaced over 1 million people.
Labor and Social Development Minister Lina al-Sheikh said the flooding had killed some 100 people, as well as injured at least 46 people and affected more than 500,000 people across the country. More than 100,000 houses across the country were totally or partly collapsed, she said.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports