Asian flood toll put at 1,000

Flooding caused by one of the heaviest monsoons in years has left up to 1,000 people dead in Bangladesh, India and Nepal, tens of thousands more homeless and huge swaths of farmland under water, AFP reports from New Delhi.

The greatest property damage and loss of life has been in India, where more than 500 deaths have been reported in nine states. The official death-toll has been put at 14 in Bangladesh this year but newspaper and other reports said at least 162 people have died since the monsoon began in May. In Nepal there have been at least 86 flood-related deaths and 120 residents are missing from two villages south of Kathmandu. Unofficial reports put the death toll at more than 300.