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Bangladesh

Police arrest opposition protesters in Bangladesh

DHAKA, Bangladesh – Authorities raided the headquarters of the opposition party in the Bangladeshi capital Monday as they tried to end the group’s strike to protest spiraling commodity prices and crime. In other parts of the country, police fired tear gas and arrested protesters.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which is led by former Prime Minister Khaleda [...]

Bangladesh old cars get World Cup notice

DHAKA (AFP) – Bangladesh ordered owners of old cars to spruce up their vehicles ahead of the cricket World Cup Thursday, warning that they will be targeted by mobile courts, an official said.
Old and worn-out cars and buses in Dhaka and the southeastern city of Chittagong must “get fit, smarter and painted”, Abu Naser, spokesman [...]

Bangladesh jails 111 border guards for mutiny

DHAKA (AFP) – A Bangladeshi special court jailed 111 border guards for up to seven years Tuesday for their roles in a bloody 2009 mutiny, which left 74 people dead, a state prosecutor said.
Scores of senior army officers were killed in the 33-hour uprising that began when soldiers at the Bangladeshi Rifles (BDR) headquarters in [...]

Bangladesh says ‘eve-teasing’ belittles sex crimes

DHAKA (AFP) – Bangladesh’s High Court has ruled that using the South Asian term “eve-teasing” to describe the sexual harassment of women downplays serious crimes, a lawyer said Thursday.
“Eve-teasing” is a common phrase employed across India, Bangladesh and Pakistan to cover offences ranging from public groping to minor sexual assault, but [...]

Bangladesh stocks rally again after crash

DHAKA (AFP) – Shares on the Dhaka Stock Exchange surged for a second-straight day Wednesday, following weeks of plunges that saw trading suspended and clashes between investors and police.
Trading in the Bangladeshi capital was suspended last week and resumed on Tuesday when share prices bounced back by nearly eight percent.
On Wednesday, the [...]

Mass prayer at Bangladesh Islamic peace gathering

TONGI, Bangladesh – Tens of thousands of Muslims seeking peace and the revival of Islam’s tenets joined a mass prayer Sunday to wrap up an annual three-day Islamic congregation outside the Bangladeshi capital.
It was not clear how many devotees joined the final prayer, but the organizers had earlier said the congregation was [...]

Bangladesh’s Nobel winner Yunus in trouble at home

DHAKA (AFP) – Nobel prize winner and microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus is in trouble in Bangladesh — the price for crossing the country’s powerful Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, observers say.
Lauded internationally for his innovative work making small loans to poor entrepreneurs, at home he has been dragged to court to answer charges of defamation and [...]

Bangladesh’s Yunus in court over defamation charge

DHAKA (AFP) – Microfinance pioneer and Nobel peace prize winner Muhammad Yunus appeared in a Bangladesh court on Tuesday in a defamation case dating back to 2007, a court official told AFP.
Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank, a microfinance organisation that shared the Nobel prize with him in 2006, appeared for about 10 minutes in [...]

Boat capsizes in Bangladesh river, at least 37 die

DHAKA, Bangladesh – A boat packed with passengers capsized on a river in northeastern Bangladesh, and rescuers said Sunday at least 37 people died and 18 more were missing.
The boat carrying about 80 people collided with a sand-laden cargo vessel in the darkness late Saturday on the River Surma, local government officials Abul Hashem and [...]

Read More » No commentDecember 21, 2010

2 trains collide in Bangladesh, up to 19 killed

DHAKA, Bangladesh – A speeding train slammed into another moving slowly through a station in eastern Bangladesh, killing as many as 19 people and injuring scores, according to officials and news reports.
The force of the impact threw the cars of one train on top of the other, and other cars veered off the track in [...]

Read More » No commentDecember 12, 2010