A fire raced through an overcrowded slum in Bangladesh's capital, killing five people and destroying more than 1,000 huts, a fire official said Sunday. The blaze broke out at Balur Math slum in the suburb of Rayer Bazar just before midnight Saturday, leaving about 5,000 people homeless, said Nilufar Yasmin, an official in the control room of the Fire Brigade in Dhaka. Three children, aged under five, were among the dead, she said.
