Cyclone Aila kills nearly 120 in Bangladesh and India

May 26, 2009 - By Anis Ahmed DHAKA (Reuters) - Nearly 120 people have been killed by a cyclone that ripped through Bangladesh and eastern India, officials and local media said on Tuesday, while millions remained marooned by floodwaters or living in shelters.The death toll in Bangladesh rose to at least 89 following recovery of more bodies on Tuesday, the Daily Star newspaper said in its online edition, while Indian officials said at least 29 people had died in West Bengal state. Cyclone Aila slammed into parts of coastal Bangladesh and eastern India on Monday, triggering tidal surges and flooding that forced half a million people from their homes. Officials in Bangladesh moved about 500,000 people to temporary shelters after they left their homes to escape huge tidal waves churned by winds up to 100 kph (60 mph). - 6 Comments

Taking jobs to Bangladesh's poor

Apr 30, 2009 - Taking jobs to Bangladesh's poor By Mark Dummett BBC News, Ratankandi Never mind the global downturn, even in the good years, Ratankandi would be an unlikely place to come across a positive business story. It is a thin, sandy strip of an island that sits in what is known in Bangladesh as the Jamuna river and in India as the Ganges. Every year the island floods and the 100 families living on it know that it is only a matter of time before Ratankandi is washed entirely away. - 13 Comments

Bangladesh blocks YouTube

Mar 09, 2009 - This story is from the BBC website. Apparently, Bangladesh has blocked YouTube, since audio files of a meeting between Sheikh Hasina and the head of the Army were posted there. Their meeting was regarding the recent "revolt" by the BDR. - 12 Comments

The Birth of a Two Headed Baby In Bangladesh

Aug 27, 2008 - He was named Kiron and weighed 12 lbs 1 oz. Kiron was born by Cesarean section on Monday at a clinic in Keshobpur, Bangladesh. According to telegraph.co.uk: "Dr Mohamad Abdul Bari, his mother's gynaecologist, said: "He has one stomach and he is eating normally with his two mouths. - 10 Comments

Bangladesh Islamist group banned

Oct 23, 2009 - The Islamist organisation, Hizb-ut Tahrir has been banned in Bangladesh, the home ministry has announced. Home Secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikdar said the government feared Hizb-ut Tahrir posed a threat to peaceful life. It is the first time that an Islamist group which has not been implicated in any terrorist acts been outlawed. - 5 Comments

Abandoned Under Obama

Nov 11, 2009 - Abandoned Under Obama By Heather Robinson on 11.10.09 @ 6:09AM Earlier this month, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, a self-described "Muslim Zionist," traveled to the U.S. to address audiences in New York City and at Yale University. Publisher of the largest English-language weekly newspaper in Bangladesh, Choudhury has been jailed, beaten, nearly blinded, and is now on trial for his life for his reporting, and for his pro-American, pro-Israeli views. - 9 Comments

Bangladeshi Single Mother Caned in Paternity Fight

May 27, 2009 - DHAKA (AFP) — A 22-year-old unmarried Bangladeshi woman who was caned 39 times for alleging a neighbour was the father of her son is fighting for her life in hospital, police said.The case has shocked the impoverished Muslim-majority nation, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordering the woman to be shifted from her village home to the capital for proper medical treatment. Local police chief Moshiur Rahman told AFP that the woman, from Comilla, 70 kilometres (43 miles) east of the capital Dhaka, had angered Islamic clerics when she told friends that a neighbour had fathered her six-year-old son.They called her and the alleged father to appear before a makeshift Islamic court, but the man denied the paternity claim, Rahman said. "He held a Koran in one hand and swore to the village clerics that he was not the father of the boy. - 19 Comments

UN plans 'shock therapy' for world leaders on environment

Sep 21, 2009 - The United Nations is planning a form of diplomatic shock therapy for world leaders this week in the hope of injecting badly needed urgency into negotiations for a climate change treaty that, it is now widely acknowledged, are dangerously adrift. UN chief Ban Ki-Moon and negotiators say that unless they can convert world leaders into committed advocates of radical action, it will be very hard to reach a credible and enforceable agreement to avoid the most devastating consequences of climate change. As the digital counter ticking off the hours to the Copenhagen summit – which had been supposed to seal the deal on climate change – hit 77 days today, progress at the UN summit in New York is seen as vital. - 4 Comments