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Bangladesh

Bangladesh urges garment workers to accept wage hike

DHAKA (AFP) – Bangladesh’s Labour Minister urged millions of garment workers on Thursday to accept a new 80-percent wage hike, which looks set to end months of violent protests over pay and conditions.
The government said Tuesday it would raise the minimum wage from 1,662 taka, the lowest industry salary worldwide, to 3,000 [...]

Read More » No commentJuly 30, 2010

England bounce back to beat Bangladesh and win series

BIRMINGHAM (AFP) – Andrew Strauss and Jonathan Trott made hundreds as England bounced back from last weekend’s shock defeat to beat Bangladesh by 144 runs at Edgbaston here on Monday and so take the three-match one-day international series 2-1.
England captain Strauss made an ODI best of 154 and Trott 110, his first hundred at [...]

Read More » No commentJuly 13, 2010

New protests in Bangladesh garment factories

DHAKA (AFP) – Protesting workers forced a dozen Bangladeshi garment factories near the capital Dhaka to shut on Monday in a repeat of major industrial unrest that hit the sector last month.
A police official said about 2,000 employees demonstrated over low pay in the Ashulia industrial area, where hundreds of factories [...]

Read More » No commentJuly 5, 2010

Over 200 arrested in Bangladesh opposition strike

DHAKA, Bangladesh – Security forces arrested more than 200 activists Sunday, according to police and news reports, as Bangladesh’s main opposition party led a nationwide dawn-to-dusk general strike to protest alleged government misrule.
General strikes have been a common opposition tactic in Bangladesh, a fragile parliamentary democracy since nine years of military [...]

Read More » No commentJune 28, 2010

Bangladesh hit by first strike since elections

DHAKA (AFP) – Security forces in Bangladesh arrested more than 200 people Sunday as the first nationwide general strike since elections in 2008 was marred by violence, police said.
In the capital Dhaka, security forces fired tear gas and used batons to disperse hundreds of opposition activists as they tried to hold [...]

Read More » No commentJune 27, 2010

Wedding stoves triggered Dhaka blaze: probe

DHAKA (AFP) – A toxic blaze that killed more than 120 people in the Bangladeshi capital this month was started by cooking for a wedding feast, a government probe said Tuesday.
Police initially said the fire, which destroyed six large residential buildings in the old quarter of Dhaka, was caused by an [...]

Read More » No commentJune 16, 2010

‘53 dead’ in Bangladesh floods, landslides

COX’S BAZAAR, Bangladesh (AFP) – At least 53 people have been killed after days of heavy rain triggered flash floods and landslides in southeastern Bangladesh, police said Tuesday.
The country’s flood warning centre said most of the southeast had experienced heavy rainfall during the past 24 hours, with 24.2 centimetres (9.5 inches) [...]

Read More » No commentJune 15, 2010

Bangladesh fire races through buildings, kills 117

DHAKA, Bangladesh – An electrical explosion plunged a neighborhood of Bangladesh’s capital in darkness and ignited a shop of flammable chemicals, creating a massive inferno that killed at least 117 — including 15 members of a wedding party — and injured more than 100 others.
The country’s worst fire in recent memory [...]

Read More » No commentJune 5, 2010

Bangladesh blaze death toll climbs to 108

DHAKA (AFP) – Rescuers called off the search for survivors Friday as the death toll from one of Bangladesh’s worst fires rose to 108 after flames ripped through a packed neighbourhood of Dhaka, officials said.
The blaze raged for three hours, destroying a row of multi-storey apartment buildings and trapping [...]

Read More » No commentJune 4, 2010

87 dead, 100 injured in Bangladesh blaze: police

DHAKA (AFP) – At least 87 people were killed and over 100 injured when a fire tore through a row of crowded buildings in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, where a wedding party was under way, police said Thursday.
The massive blaze raged for three hours, destroying a row of multi-storey apartment buildings [...]

Read More » No commentJune 4, 2010