Bangladesh is one of the countries most likely to suffer from rising seawaters as global warming takes hold. Its 150 million inhabitants are squeezed into 130,000 km² and many of those living by the sea are abandoning their land and heading for the capital Dhaka. Once there, they often take up residence as some of the poorest members of society.
Today, most Western ready-to-wear brands are manufactured in Bangladesh. The textile industry makes up 80% of the country’s exports, a windfall of several billion dollars. Bangladesh may be benefiting, but the workers themselves are not. They’re sometimes paid less than one dollar a day and struggle just to keep themselves and their families alive.
Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of the Grameen microfinancing bank, Muhammad Yunus (centre), lost a final appeal Tuesday against an order sacking him from the bank, a decision his supporters say is politically motivated.
Bangladesh’s Supreme Court on Tuesday delayed the hearing of an appeal by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus (pictured) against a court confirming his forced retirement from Grameen Bank, his pioneer microlending institution.
In Pakistan, Minority affairs minister Shahbaz Bhatti died in a hail of bullets. He was an outspoken campaigner against Pakistan's blasphemy laws and the only Roman Catholic in the government
Microfinance banking hero Muhamad Yunus is under attack by the Bangladeshi government.
And in India, between abiding by the cast system and satisfying the parents, there's little room for Bollywood style love matches.
A London court Monday found a Bangladeshi Islamic militant formerly employed by British Airways guilty of four counts of plotting terrorist attacks, including a plan to blow up a plane in cooperation with a radical US-Yemeni cleric.
Bangladesh suspended trading on the Dhaka Stock Exchange Monday when stocks fell a record 9.25 percent causing security officials to use batons and tear gas to disperse angry investors upset over the market plunge.
In India, cows are sacred and venerated. Yet millions cross the border illegally, destined for the abattoir in neighbouring Bangladesh. In a country with insufficient cattle to feed its population, Indian cows are big business. France 24 takes you behind the scenes of the trafficking the Indian authorities are striving to contain, so far without success.
The search for survivors continued Sunday on the river Surma after an overcrowded boat sank overnight killing at least 37 people, all of them women and children. Officials say 95% of boats in Bangladesh do not meet safety requirements.
A large fire tore through a major clothes factory just outside the capital Dhaka on Tuesday, killing at least four people, with the death toll feared to rise. Over 100 more are confirmed injured.
