Geography * on the northern coast of Bengal * surrounded by india * the country is low-lying riverine land traversed by the many branches and tributaries of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers * tropical monsoons and frequent floods and cyclones inflict heavy damage in the delta region * tropical; cool, dry winter (October to March); hot, humid summer (March to June); cool, rainy monsoon (June to October) * mostly flat alluvial plain; hilly in southeast * even during a normal monsoon, floods covers about 20 percent of the country, disrupting life and causing deaths. More than 60 percent of Bangladesh gets inundated during years when the monsoon is severe. * In the last 100 years, floods have killed over 50,000 people, left nearly 32 million homeless and affected more than 300 million people * Bangladesh is one of the most flood-prone countries in the world because of its geographic location and topography * Bangladesh is criss-crossed by about 250 rivers, a few, such as the Meghna, swelling to up to 8 km (5 miles) wide during the monsoon season. * The country's worst floods in 1998 killed more than 3,500 and destroyed crops and infrastructure worth more than $2 billion * Between July and Sept. 2004 floods swamped two-thirds of the country, killing around 1,000 people and causing economic losses of more than $2 billion

Government * Bangladesh is governed by a multi-party parliamentary system of government * President - Zillur Rahman * Head of Government - Sheikh Hasina Wazed * Leader of the Opposition - Begum Khaleda Zia * Bangladesh is governed by the constitution of 1972 as amended * The head of state is the president, a largely ceremonial position, and the head of government is the prime minister. * There is a 300-seat unicameral National Parliament, whose members are popularly elected from constiuencies for five-year terms * Administratively, the nation is divided into 6 divisions, which are subdivided into 64 districts. * Government type - parliamentary democracy * mixed legal system of mostly English common law and Islamic law

Religion * Bangladesh is one of the largest Muslim countries in the world * About 80 percent of Bangladeshis are Muslims * Most Bangladeshi Muslims are Sunnis, but there is a small Shia community. Hinduism constitutes about 12 percent of the population * There are significant numbers of Buddhists and Christians in Bangladesh * In the Chittagong Hills, Buddhist tribes formed the majority of the population and their religion appeared to be a mixture of tribal cults and Buddhist doctrin

History * Bangladesh consists primarily of East Bengal (West Bengal is part of India and its people are primarily Hindu) plus the Sylhet district of the Indian state of Assam. *