About one-fifth of Bangladesh’s ready-made garment factories do not meet fire, electrical and structural safety standards 11 years after the collapse of Rana Plaza that left more than 1,100 garment workers dead, according to an industry monitoring body.
Religious tensions were high in a central Bangladesh district as hundreds of demonstrators started fires and blocked roads on Wednesday to protest last week’s deadly beating of two Muslims by a mob, allegedly of Hindus, police said.
Three people severely burned in an explosion at a shop in Bangladesh earlier this week had to be taken for treatment 18 miles (29 km) away to the capital Dhaka because there were no health facilities in Savar, the site of the blaze.
Nearly four dozen members of the Burmese junta-affiliated Border Guard Police and soldiers have fled to Bangladesh since Tuesday night amid intensifying fighting between junta troops and Arakan Army rebels in neighboring Rakhine state, officials said.
The first officer of a Bangladeshi-crewed ship hijacked off East Africa in early March conveyed Eid al-Fitr greetings on behalf of the 23 sailors who had fasted during Ramadan while being held captive by Somali pirates, his brother said Wednesday.
Social media influencers in Bangladesh are claiming they succeeded in slicing the price of watermelon in half by organizing a two-week boycott and are now targeting another pricey product: beef.
Indonesian search-and-rescue officials said Monday they had recovered the bodies of 11 Rohingya refugees, mostly women, who were on a boat that capsized off the coast of Aceh province last week.
Eight days after they hijacked a Bangladesh ship and detained its 23 crew members, Somali pirates contacted the owner of the MV Abdullah on Wednesday for the first time but made no ransom demands, company and government officials said.
Prices for several essential food items continue to rise in Bangladesh ahead of Ramadan, with consumers mostly blaming the government for not keeping costs in check in time for the Islamic fasting month that begins next week.
Authorities in Dhaka said they have begun cracking down on unsafe restaurants after 46 people died in a fire last week that gutted a multi-story shopping mall and started in an eatery on the ground floor.