Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) — Dhaka is awash with millions of plastic-laminated campaign posters ahead of elections in the Bangladeshi capital, and environmentalists are up in arms. These posters — of which there are an estimated 304 million — will likely end up in sewers, rivers and canals, says activist Sharif Jamil. “If they are burnt, they will pollute the air,” he adds. The city’s air quality has been ranked one of the worst in the […]
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) – Sam JAHAN Bangladesh’s high court has ordered the shutdown of 231 factories that have contributed to Dhaka’s main river becoming one of the world’s most polluted, a lawyer said Tuesday. The country is crisscrossed by hundreds of rivers, but a recent industrial boom, including the emergence of the world’s second biggest garment industry, has prompted officials to turn a blind eye to the industrial waste they dump into rivers. In a landmark […]
by Jalees Andrabi / Anup Sharma / with Sailendra Sil in Kolkata GUWAHATI, India (AFP) — The death toll from violent protests in northeast India against a contentious citizenship law has risen to six, officials said Sunday, as authorities maintained internet bans and curfews to quell unrest. Tension remained high at the epicenter of the unrest in Assam state’s biggest city, Guwahati, with troops patrolling the streets in vehicles amid tight security. Some […]
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) — Eight people were killed and at least 24 critically injured when a devastating fire swept through an illegal plastics factory outside the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, police said Thursday. The fire started on Wednesday afternoon and quickly ripped through the ground floor of the Prime Patent Plastic factory at Keraniganj, just southwest of Dhaka, they said. “One person burnt to death on the spot and 33 workers were critically burnt. Seven of […]
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) — Bangladesh said Tuesday it will shut hundreds of soot-belching brick kilns around its capital Dhaka as part of measures to reduce thick smog enveloping the city and pushing air quality levels to among the world’s worst. Residents in several other cities in South Asia, including India’s capital New Delhi and Lahore in Pakistan, have also been breathing toxic smog in recent weeks amid uncontrolled emissions and crop burning. Air Visual, an […]
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) — At least 15 people were killed and 58 others injured when two trains collided in eastern Bangladesh early Tuesday, police said. Three coaches were sent tumbling off the tracks at Mondolbhag station in the town of Kasba when a Dhaka-bound intercity train and a locomotive bound for Chittagong collided. “At least 15 people have been killed. And another 58 were injured. We have sent the injured to different hospitals in the […]
by Sam Jahan with Sailendra Sil in Kolkata KHULNA, Bangladesh (AFP) — Twenty people died and more than two million others spent a night huddled in storm shelters as Cyclone Bulbul smashed into the coasts of India and Bangladesh with fierce gales and torrential rains, officials said Sunday. The cyclone packed winds of up to 120 kilometers (75 miles) per hour when it hit late Saturday, forcing the closure of ports and airports in both […]
MOUSOUNI ISLAND, India (AFP) — Bangladeshi and Indian authorities on Saturday ordered more than 450,000 people to flee coastal villages and islands as Cyclone Bulbul headed for the Bay of Bengal coast. The eye of the storm, packing winds of up to 120 kilometres (75 miles) per hour, was expected to hit land around the Bangladesh-India frontier late Saturday. A storm surge up to two metres (seven feet) high was predicted along the coast, […]
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — Bangladesh skipper Mahmudullah Riyad won the toss and elected to bowl in the opening Twenty20 international against India in a pollution-stricken New Delhi on Sunday. The Indian capital has been blanketed by smog with authorities saying air pollution had reached “emergency” levels, with schools closed and other restrictions imposed. But the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) refused to change the venue due to logistical issues, although president […]
by Sam JAHAN Agence France Presse FENI, Bangladesh (AFP) — Sixteen people were sentenced to death Thursday for burning alive a Bangladeshi teenager who refused to withdraw sexual assault charges against her head teacher. The case highlights what activists say is a culture of impunity over sexual violence in the South Asian country of 168 million people, as well as abuse rife in around 20,000 seminaries that educate mostly poor and rural students. Nusrat […]
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) — At least 10,000 people are homeless after a massive fire swept through a crowded slum in the Bangladesh capital and destroyed thousands of shanties, officials said Sunday. The fire broke out at in Dhaka’s Mirpur neighbourhood late on Friday and razed around 2,000 mostly tin shacks, fire services official Ershad Hossain told AFP. “I could not salvage a single thing. I don’t know what will I do,” 58-year-old Abdul Hamid, who […]
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) — The death toll from monsoon storms in Bangladesh rose above 100 Friday with flood levels still rising in many parts of the country, officials said. About 20 people have died in 48 hours, taking the toll to 104, making it one of the worst monsoons in years, officials said. Most victims have drowned but some have been killed by landslides, snake bites and lightning strikes. Five girls aged between six […]
