“At 06:10 am a fire broke out at the Republican Narcological Centre in Baku,” the General Prosecutor’s Office, the health, interior and emergencies ministries said in a joint statement.

Azerbaijani firefighters at the site of a fire in the republican drug rehabilitation center in Baku, Azerbaijan, 02 March 2018. // EPA-EFE PHOTO

“According to the latest data, 25 people died in the fire,” said the updated statement, which initially put the death toll at 24.

Four more people were hospitalised with serious burns, the statement said, citing a power grid defect as the initial cause of the blaze.

President Ilham Aliyev went to the scene, Azerbaijan’s APA news agency reported, while Russian President Vladimir Putin sent condolences.

Video footage broadcast on local television showed huge flames leaping through barred windows of a one-storey wooden hospital ward.

Earlier Friday, APA news agency reported that at least 30 people had perished in the blaze.

It said the fire broke out in a ward for bed-ridden patients.

Women react near the site of fire in the republican drug rehabilitation center in Baku, Azerbaijan, 02 March 2018. // EPA-EFE PHOTO

It took some three hours for ten squads of firefighters and rescuers from the emergencies ministry to extinguish the blaze.

The ex-Soviet Caucasus nation has a history of large-scale casualties as a result of fires in residential buildings and elsewhere.

In May 2015, 15 people – including five minors — died in a fire in a multi-storey building in Baku.

In October 1995, 289 people died in a metro fire in Baku, in the world’s deadliest subway disaster that was caused by outdated Soviet equipment.

Witnesses said five armed men got out of a car and opened fire on passersby before heading towards the embassy, in the centre of the city.

An AFP reporter heard heavy exchanges of gunfire and saw a blazing vehicle, which witnesses said was the car used by the assailants. Police and army units were deployed in the area.

Bystanders look on as security personnel move beside an armoured personnel carrier in Ouagadougou on March 2, 2018, as the capital of Burkina Faso came under multiple attacks targeting the French embassy, the French cultural centre and the country’s military headquarters. // AFP PHOTO

Other witnesses said there was an explosion near the headquarters of the Burkinabe armed forces and the French cultural centre, which are located about a kilometre (half a mile) from the site of the first attack.

The French embassy confirmed that French interests were under attack.

“Attack under way at th French embassy and French Institute. Stay indoors,” it said in a terse message posted on Facebook.

Burkina Faso is one of a string of fragile countries on the southern rim of the Sahara that are battling jihadist groups.

The insurgency has caused thousands of deaths, prompted tens of thousands to flee their homes and dealt crippling blows to economies that are already among the poorest in the world.

On August 13 last year, two assailants opened fire on a restaurant on Ouagadougou’s main avenue, killing 19 people and wounded 21. The attack remains unclaimed.

On January 15 2016, 30 people, including six Canadians and five Europeans, were killed in a jihadist attack on a hotel and restaurant in the city centre.

Responsiblity was claimed by a group called Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which is known by its French acronym of AQMI.

France, the former colonial power in the Sahel region, has deployed 4,000 troops and is supporting a five-country joint force gathering Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.

The United Nations also has a 12,000-strong peacekeeping force in Mali called MINUSMA, which has taken heavy casualties. Four UN peacekeepers were killed by a mine blast on Wednesday in the centre of the country.

“Owing to weather conditions, Geneva airport is currently closed to air traffic, and will remain so until further notice,” the airport said on its website, urging passengers to contact airlines for information about their flights.

Following days of blizzards, fresh snowfall began in Geneva on Friday morning and was expected to continue until around 3pm (1400 GMT), the weather service said.

The fire brigade of Airport Security Services (SSA) operate snowplows removing snow on the runway during a snowfall at the Geneva Airport, in Geneva, Switzerland, 01 March 2018. // EPA-EFE PHOTO

Geneva on Thursday was covered in a thick 15-20 centimetre (six-eight inch) blanket of snow, forcing the airport to cancel all flights for several hours.

Zurich airport was less badly affected, with only a handful of flights cancelled.

Switzerland has seen the mercury plummet to records of up to minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus 40 Fahrenheit) in the ongoing blizzard, which has also impacted air, road and train transport around Europe.

Just 160 kilometres (100 miles) away in the west Antarctic, the same species is in decline due to sea ice melt blamed on global warming, they said.

This undated handout photograph released by Louisiana State University on March 2, 2018, shows Ad�lie penguins nesting on the Danger Islands, Antarctic. // AFP PHOTO

The first complete census revealed that the Danger Islands host more than 750,000 breeding pairs of Adelie penguins, more than the rest of the Antarctic Peninsula region combined, the team reported in the journal Scientific Reports.

It included the third and fourth-largest Adelie penguin colonies in the world.

The find “is certainly surprising and it has real consequences for how we manage this region,” study co-author Heather Lynch of Stony Brook University told AFP.

The islands, which lie at the tip of Antarctica nearest South America, have rarely been visited, and the new discovery was thanks to Earth-monitoring satellites, the team from America, Britain and France, said.

“This is called the Danger Islands for a reason,” explained Lynch.

“The area is covered by heavy sea ice most of the year, and even in the height of summer it is difficult to get into this region to do surveys.”

   – ‘Very lucky’ –

Evidence of the previously-unknown penguin colony first emerged in data from the Landsat Earth-monitoring satellites run by NASA and the US Geological Survey.

Lynch and her team “then went and looked at higher resolution commercial imagery to confirm the guano staining that our algorithms had picked up in the Landsat imagery,” she said.

When the Landsat data originally suggested the presence of hundreds of thousands of penguins on the islands, she thought it “was a mistake”.

“We were surprised to find so many penguins on these islands, especially because some of these islands were not known to have penguins.”

Then followed a field expedition for a headcount.

“We were… very lucky to have a window of time where the sea ice moved out and we could get a yacht in,” said Lynch.

The Danger Islands, said the team, has felt the ravages of climate change less than western Antarctic zones, and knew very little human activity.

But it may need protection from overfishing nevertheless. Krill, an Adelie staple, is caught in the area.

This undated handout photograph released by Louisiana State University on March 2, 2018, shows Ad�lie penguins nesting on the Danger Islands, Antarctic. // AFP PHOTO

“The most important implication of this work is related to the design of Marine Protected Areas in the region,” said Lynch.

“Now that we know this tiny island group is so important, it can be considered for further protection from fishing.”

The increased security presence this week has centred around a strip of “no man’s land” between the two countries where some 6,000 Rohingya sought shelter after fleeing a brutal Myanmar army crackdown last August.

The military campaign drove some 700,000 Rohingya across the border in total, with most travelling on to sprawling refugee settlements in Bangladesh’s southeastern border district of Cox’s Bazar.

The UN has accused Myanmar of waging an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Muslim minority.

Yet Myanmar has staunchly defended the crackdown as an effort to snuff out Rohingya militants who raided police posts last year.

The recent spike in security along the border is a response to new intelligence about the movement of Rohingya militants, said Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay.

“We acted this way based on the information we got regarding terrorism, especially the ARSA movement,” he told AFP, using an acronym for the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, a militant group, and declining to elaborate further.

“It was not aimed at antagonising Bangladesh,” he added.

On Thursday Bangladesh’s foreign ministry said it summoned Myanmar’s envoy to call for an “immediate pullback of Myanmar security forces along with military assets from the area.”

In recent weeks the Rohingya living in the no man’s land strip have faced growing pressure from Myanmar soldiers, who have stepped up patrols along the barbed-wire border fence near the camp and ordered the group to leave over loudspeakers.

On Thursday some 100 Myanmar soldiers arrived near the refugee camp in heavy military vehicles, according to Bangladesh border guards and Rohingya.

The heightened tensions will do little to speed-up a stalled repatriation plan signed by the neighbours in January.

The process was delayed at the last moment due to lack of preparations and protests by the refugees, who fear returning to Myanmar without guarantees of basic safety and citizenship.

Myanmar has branded the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and systematically dismantled their legal rights and access to basic services in Rakhine, a state where they have lived for generations.

Frightened, some of the refugees entered the Bangladesh territory.

Terming the army deployment a violation of border norms, Border Guard Bangladesh also increased its strength along the border at Bandarban’s Naikhyangchhari to “face any circumstances”.

Myanmar made the move 10 days after it had agreed to take back the Rohingyas from the no-man’s land.

Dhaka yesterday afternoon summoned Myanmar Ambassador Lwin Oo and asked for immediate withdrawal of the troops.

Some 6,500 Rohingyas had been living on the no-man’s land near the Bangladeshi village of Konapara since they fled their homes fearing persecution in Rakhine.

Roughly half of the people staying in makeshift camps on the border line moved to camps inside Bangladesh after the two countries met to discuss possible repatriation on February 20, Reuters reported yesterday.

Nearly 700,000 Rohingyas fled Myanmar and entered Bangladesh after insurgent attacks on August 25 last year sparked a military crackdown that the United Nations has said amounted to ethnic cleansing, with reports of arson attacks, murder and rape.

Meanwhile, Maj Iqbal Ahmed, second-in-command of BGB-34 Battalion in Cox’s Bazar, said a member of Myanmar security forces fired a shot in the air around 7:50pm following an altercation with some Rohingyas on the no-man’s land.

The altercation sparked after some Myanmar troops hurled abuse at the Rohingyas. Those troops retreated soon after opening the blank fire, he said.

PANIC ON NO-MAN’S LAND

Shamsul Alam, who entered Bangladesh from the no-man’s-land along with his four family members yesterday, said at least 400 to 500 army men had gone near the border fence earlier in the morning.

“Some of them [army men] even tried to cross the fence with ladders but they couldn’t do that because of BGB’s presence on the Bangladesh side,” he told The Daily Star yesterday evening over phone.

Later, the troops used loudspeakers and asked those on the no-man’s land to vacate the area as soon as possible.

“Frightened, we left the area and took shelter at the Kutupalong camp,” he said, adding that many other families also left the no-man’s land.

Arif Ahmed, a local Rohingya leader, said Myanmar army started patrolling the area in groups yesterday morning.

The troops asked the Rohingyas to go to Bangladesh, creating panic among them, he said, adding that the army had made similar announcement through loudspeakers last month.

SM Sarwar Kamal, upazila nirbahi officer of Naikhyangchhari, told reporters that they also heard about Myanmar army’s movement near the zero line.

That created panic among the Rohingyas there, he added.

MYANMAR VIOLATED BORDER NORMS: BGB

At a press conference in Dhaka yesterday, the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) expressed concern over the heavy deployment of the army along the border.

It said the Myanmar has violated border norms.

“A number of Rohingyas took shelter on the zero line near Konabari area of Naikhyangchhari upazila. Centring the issue, Myanmar deployed additional forces of army and BGP equipped with arms, which is out of the border norms,” said Brig Gen Mojibur Rahman, additional director general (operation and training) of the paramilitary force.

He said BGB called on the Myanmar authorities for holding a border-level flag meeting.

“We also protested Myanmar increasing its force in the bordering area,” he said expressing hope to resolve the “volatile situation” through the flag meeting immediately.

Due to the presence of the Rohingyas on the zero line, Rahman said Myanmar’s Border Guard Police (BGP) and army had been carrying out various activities, including setting up barbed wire fences and modern surveillance equipment, in the bordering area.

Using loud speakers, the Myanmar authorities, for the last one month, had also been calling upon the Rohingyas to leave the zero line area, the BGB official said.

In continuation of those activities, Myanmar deployed a huge number of troops within 150 yards of the Myanmar territory between 34 and 35 border outposts of Tombru around 10:30am yesterday, Rahman said.

He said the BGB also increased its force there.

“We are informed about the situation through intelligence and ground surveillance. We are alert and monitoring the situation very closely. The BGB will act accordingly to face any circumstances for the sake of the country,” he said.

Responding to a query, Rahman said Myanmar’s motive was not clear but it seemed to be an attempt to push the Rohingyas to Bangladesh.

“The situation has not taken an alarming turn yet so that we have to deploy more additional forces from other agencies,” he said claiming that the overall situation was under their control.

PULL BACK ARMY IMMEDIATELY: FOREIGN MINISTRY

The foreign ministry summoned the Myanmar Ambassador in Dhaka Lwin Oo yesterday afternoon.

During the meeting, acting Foreign Secretary Khurshid Alam conveyed to the Myanmar envoy concerns of Bangladesh on the military build-up around the border pillar-34 near the Tombru border.

Khurshid also conveyed to the Myanmar ambassador that such military build-up would create confusions within Bangladesh and escalate tensions on the border, said a foreign ministry press release.

He told the ambassador to convey the message to the Myanmar authorities for immediate pull back of the Myanmar security forces along with military assets from the area.

The acting foreign secretary also expressed concerns that such an event may hamper the Rohingya repatriation process, which both sides agreed to implement.

A diplomatic note on the subject was handed over to the ambassador, added the release.

ROHINGYAS ON ZERO LINE NOT TO BE ALLOWED IN: HOME MINISTER

Rohingyas stuck in the no-man’s land would not be allowed to enter Bangladesh, said Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal.

He made the comment while addressing the concluding parade of 91 recruit batch of BGB at the ground of Baitul Izzat training centre in Satkania upazila of Chittagong yesterday.

He also said during a meeting, the Bangladesh authorities informed the Myanmar’s home minister about the Rohingyas stuck on the no-man’s land and requested him to make efforts to take them back as soon as possible.

“We informed them that they [Rohingyas] are the nationals of Myanmar. The Myanmar home minister had assured us that they would take them back following scrutiny,” he said.

“We will not allow the Rohingyas to enter Bangladesh. The BGB is keeping an eye on the border,” he added.

The minister also alleged that Myanmar broke several promises in the past.

Our Correspondents from Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar and Bandarban also contributed to the report.