1.   Floods caused by weeklong monsoon rains stranded nearly half a million people, washed away mud embankments and damaged rice crops in northeastern Bangladesh, officials said Monday.

2.   On Monday, the situation worsened further after rain-swollen rivers such as the Brahmaputra washed away parts of mud embankments in Bogra and Lalmonirhat districts.

3.   Several thousand villagers fled their flooded homes and took shelter behind mud embankments, officials said.

4.   The homeless have taken shelter on roads, mud embankments, and schools or abandoned factories.