GENEVA (AP) — The Latest on the donors conference for Asia’s Rohingya refugees (all times local): 1:50 p.m. The head of the U.N. agency that coordinates humanitarian aid says have pledged roughly $340 million to help more than 600,000 ethnic Rohingya who have fled Myanmar into Bangladesh since August. Mark Lowcock of the U.N. Office … Continue reading
UKHIYA, Bangladesh (AP) — The Latest on violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state and the flood of ethnic Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh (all times local): 9:30 a.m. Four Hercules planes carrying 34 tons of aid for Rohinyga refugees have departed for Bangladesh from an air force base in the Indonesian capital. Indonesia’s President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo … Continue reading
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Teen model Shonali Khatun strutted the catwalk as the audience cheered and clapped for a fashion show held in the capital of Bangladesh. But Khatun is no ordinary model, and this was no ordinary show. She and the 14 other models are survivors of acid attacks, common in this South Asian … Continue reading
NEW DELHI (AP) — The killing of two gay rights activists in the Bangladeshi capital has driven the country’s already secretive and small gay community underground, wondering if they can trust a government that considers their status to be criminal, rights groups said. Police detectives say they are working with evidence including a mobile phone, … Continue reading
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Police in Bangladesh questioned a prominent journalist and close aide of opposition leader and ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia over the weekend for his alleged role in a conspiracy to kidnap the only son of the current prime minister. Shafik Rehman, head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party, … Continue reading
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh is closing its notorious 18th-century prison where sensational political killings over decades have targeted people on both sides of the South Asian country’s 1971 war for independence from Pakistan. The government wants to reopen the old, dilapidated Dhaka Central Jail as a museum to its tumultuous past, while giving its … Continue reading
A bill headed for President Barack Obama this week includes a provision that would ban U.S. imports of fish caught by slaves in Southeast Asia, gold mined by children in Africa and garments sewn by abused women in Bangladesh, closing a loophole in an 85-year-old tariff law that has failed to keep products of forced … Continue reading
JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — Rebels in South Sudan freed 18 peacekeepers on Thursday but still kept 12 U.N. contractors they had seized on a barge in a contested area of the war-torn African country, U.N. officials said. The rebels said they had taken the vessels because they were thought to be transporting weapons for … Continue reading
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Police in Bangladesh have arrested four suspects in the killing of an Italian aid worker last month, and said Monday that the alleged gunmen had confessed to being hired to attack “a white man” in order to destabilize the impoverished South Asian nation. Cesare Tavella was gunned down by motorcycle-riding assailants … Continue reading
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A prominent Bangladeshi-American blogger known for speaking out against religious extremism was hacked to death as he walked through Bangladesh’s capital with his wife, police said Friday. The attack Thursday night on Avijit Roy, a Bangladesh-born U.S. citizen, occurred on a crowded sidewalk as he and his wife, Rafida Ahmed, … Continue reading
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A 2½-year-old victim of a homemade bomb lies in an intensive care unit with burns to his face, head and other body parts. In another hospital, 17 people, including students and a teacher, are being treated for similar injuries. Another victim, a schoolboy, lost both his eyes. That is … Continue reading
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