Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Analysis of air pollution data finds that 64% of cities globally exceed WHO guidelines
Twenty-two of the world’s 30 worst cities for air pollution are in India, according to a new report, with Delhi again ranked the world’s most polluted capital.
The Greenpeace and AirVisual analysis of air pollution readings from 3,000 cities around the world found that 64% exceed the World Health Organization’s annual exposure guideline for PM2.5 fine particulate matter – tiny airborne particles, about a 40th of the width of a human hair, that are linked to a wide range of health problems.
Iran reforms drive 90% fall in death penalty worldwide, but report warns hardline approach to minor cases violates human rights
Global efforts to abolish the death penalty are in danger of being undermined by anti-drug governments that use capital punishment to enforce a zero-tolerance approach, experts have warned.
The caution comes even though the number of people sentenced to death for drug offences around the world has actually fallen by nearly 90% over the past four years, according to a study by Harm Reduction International, with 91 known deaths last year compared with 755 in 2015.
Over 100 workers claim to have been sacked after protesting about low wages at factory that makes ‘girl power’ T-shirts
Charity “girl power” T-shirts sold in the UK are made at a Bangladeshi factory where more than 100 impoverished workers claim to have been sacked after striking in protest at low wages, it can be revealed.
The £28 garments are sold online by F=, which claims to be “all about inspiring and empowering girls”, with £10 from each T-shirt donated to Worldreader, a charity that supplies digital books to poverty-stricken children in Africa. Television presenter Holly Willoughby recently reposted a 2017 picture of her and Spice Girl Emma Bunton wearing the T-shirts.
Women in Bangladesh and Vietnam working for Big W, Kmart, Target and Cotton On earning 51 cents an hour
Women in Bangladesh and Vietnam making clothes for the $23bn Australian fashion industry are going hungry because of wages as low as 51 cents an hour, an Oxfam report has found.
The aid group interviewed 470 garment workers employed at factories supplying brands such as Big W, Kmart, Target and Cotton On, and found 100% of surveyed workers in Bangladesh and 74% in Vietnam could not make ends meet.
Police warn death toll may rise in ‘highly combustable’ blaze in old part of Bangladesh capital
At least 69 people have died in a huge fire that tore through apartment buildings also used as chemical warehouses in an old part of the Bangladeshi capita.
Dozens of people were trapped in the buildings, unable to escape onto narrow streets clogged with traffic, as the highly-combustible stores of chemicals, body sprays and plastic granules erupted in flames.
Country at odds with UK over decision to strip 19-year-old of British citizenship
Shamima Begum is not a Bangladeshi citizen and there is “no question” of her being allowed into Bangladesh, the country’s ministry of foreign affairs has insisted, setting up a clash with the UK after Sajid Javid’s move to strip the teenager of her UK citizenship.
“The government of Bangladesh is deeply concerned that [Begum] has been erroneously identified as a holder of dual citizenship,” Shahriar Alam, the state minister of foreign affairs, said in a statement issued to the Guardian, adding that his government had learned of Britain’s intention to cancel her citizenship rights from media reports.
The woman was robbed and told if she protested she would be ‘killed and put in box’
A Bangladeshi factory that produces clothes for Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Mothercare was forced to compensate an “outspoken” female worker after she was beaten up on the orders of management and threatened with being murdered, the Guardian has learned.
The woman claimed to have been “severely beaten up” by security guards and the HR and compliance management at the factory, which is used by the brand Stanley/Stella. She said she was robbed of her severance pay and told that if she protested she would be “killed and her body put in a cardboard box”, an industry watchdog report that endorses her account states.
Spice Girls T-shirts sold to raise money for Comic Relief’s “gender justice” campaign were made at a factory in Bangladesh where women earn the equivalent of 35p an hour during shifts in which they claim to be verbally abused and harassed, a Guardian investigation has found.
The charity tops, bearing the message “#IWannaBeASpiceGirl”, were produced by mostly female machinists who said they were forced to work up to 16 hours a day and called “daughters of prostitutes” by managers for not hitting targets.
Salma has never even heard of the Spice Girls. Her life, hunched over a sewing machine for up to 16 hours a day, is a world away from the luxuries enjoyed by the millionaire pop band.
But while neither knows it, Salma and the Spice Girls are connected. The factory where she has worked for more than five years, off a narrow, winding road three hours’ drive from Dhaka, is where charity T-shirts designed by the group were made.
Dozens of factories have closed after more than a week of protests in which one person has died
Thousands of garment workers in Bangladesh who make clothes for top global brands have clashed with police as strike action over low wages entered a second week.
Police said water cannon and tear gas were fired on Sunday to disperse huge crowds of striking factory workers in Savar, a garment hub just outside the capital, Dhaka.
A full-blown political row has erupted ever since the final draft of Assam's NRC was published on Monday. As of now, India has not shared NRC findings with us and has not raised the issue.
A child is seen behind a barbed wire fence in 'no man's land' at the Myanmar and Bangladesh border UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he heard "unimaginable" accounts of atrocities during a visit to vast camps in Bangladesh that are home to a million Rohingya refugees who fled violence in Myanmar. Mr Guterres described the situation for the persecuted Muslim minority as "a humanitarian and human rights nightmare", as he prepared to tour makeshift shelters crammed with people who escaped a Myanmar army operation last year that the UN has likened to ethnic cleansing.
Myanmar's military has assured the United Nations of "harsh" action against perpetrators of sexual violence, state media reported on Tuesday, as U.N. envoys traveled to Rakhine State where the military conducted a widely criticized crackdown. Rohingya refugees are reflected in rain water along an embankment next to paddy fields after fleeing from Myanmar into Palang Khali, near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh November 2, 2017.
Republican Governor Sam Brownback of Kansas, speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, US, February 23, 2017. Photo: Reuters Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom of the United States Sam Brownback arrives here on Wednesday on a two-day official visit to discuss religious freedom with government officials, civil society representatives and others concerned.
Traveling at speed in a ramshackle truck, a group of 44 Rohingya refugees make the last stage of their harrowing 10-day journey into Bangladesh after fleeing from Myanmar. Dazed and exhausted, they stumble out of the vehicle when they arrive at Balukhali refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, many of them cradling young children.
Rohingya refugees build shelter with bamboo at the Jamtoli camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, in the morning on January 22, 2018. Photo: Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain The UN refugee agency and other groups have urged a rethink of the plan to send Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar amid fears of forced repatriations and the inability of aid agencies to ensure the safety of hundreds of thousands who fled bloodshed at home.
Rohingya refugees line up for daily essentials distribution at Balukhali camp, near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh on January 15, 2018. Photo - Reuters Rohingya refugees line up for daily essentials distribution at Balukhali camp, near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh on January 15, 2018.
Hindu farmer Surodhon Pal has packed his bags, eager to return to Myanmar after fleeing for Bangladesh during a wave of violence last year, but he is in a tiny minority - most of the refugees are terrified of going home. Bangladesh wants the more than 655,000 refugees who have flooded into the country since late August to start returning to Myanmar by the end of this month under a controversial agreement between the two nations.