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Bangladesh workers continue protest for higher minimum wage

DHAKA, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) — Bangladesh garment workers again on Thursday morning took to the streets and staged violent protests despite the owners had agreed to pay a minimum monthly salary of about 68 U.S. dollars to them, nearly a 77 percent hike from the existing monthly pay as recommended by a government board recently. […]

Projected Typhoon Haiyan death toll falls, but tensions rise amid aid bottlenecks

Cebu, Philippines (CNN) — While still unimaginably devastating, Typhoon Haiyan may not turn out to be as deadly as initially thought, the president of the Philippines told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour Tuesday. The initial projection of 10,000 deaths now appears to be “too much” and the final toll is more likely to be in the range of […]

Death toll in Philippines from typhoon Haiyan climbs to 1,833

MANILA, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) — Death toll in the Philippines from typhoon Haiyan (local name Yolanda) jumped to 1,833 with initial cost of damage increasing to 761.4 million pesos (17.4 million U.S. dollars), a senior government official said on Wednesday morning. The additional fatalities coming from Western Visayas reached 103, while the number of those […]

Hundreds of Bangladesh factories closed after labor unrest over wage hike

By Sheuli Akter DHAKA, Nov. 13 (NsNewsWire) — All the garment factories at a mega industrial belt Ashulia on the outskirts of Bangladesh capital Dhaka remained closed Wednesday following workers’ unrest over wage hike.. Citing security concerns, the apex body of Bangladesh’s woven garment manufacturers Tuesday night decided to shut down all the Ashulia garment factories. […]

Mauritian PM to join SL C’wealth summit boycott

Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam has become the third leader to announce a boycott of this week’s Commonwealth summit in Colombo over Sri Lanka’s human rights record. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper are also staying away. Sri Lanka is accused of committing widespread abuses in the final months of […]

Typhoon-stricken Filipinos rely on countrymen abroad for lifeline

As millions of Filipinos desperately search for sustenance and shelter in the devastation left by Typhoon Haiyan, many may be comforted by the knowledge that help is surely on the way from family members working abroad. The Philippines’ biggest export has long been its workers, with at least 10% of the country’s approximately 100 million […]

Grim Toll Rises Amid Ruin and Chaos

People covered their faces with towels and scarves against the stench of death Monday, clogging the typhoon-ravaged roads of the hardest hit part of the Philippines in a traffic jam of desperation. Headed into one center of devastation were Filipinos frantic to find loved ones, or help, or both; fleeing in the other direction were […]

Bangladesh Violence Closes 100 Garment Factories

DHAKA, Bangladesh November 11, 2013 (AP) –Garment workers demanding higher pay have clashed with police and attacked factories in an industrial belt on the outskirts of Bangladesh’s capital. The workers have rejected a proposed 5,300 takas ($66.25) monthly minimum wage, a raise by 77 percent. They demand 8,114 takas ($100) instead. Industrial Police Director Mustafizur […]

Typhoon Haiyan: Philippines destruction ‘absolute bedlam’

”We are so very hungry and thirsty” one survivor told the BBC’s Jon Donnison in Tacloban The head of the Red Cross in the Philippines has described the devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan as “absolute bedlam”. Up to 10,000 people are believed to have died in Tacloban city and hundreds elsewhere. Hundreds of thousands of […]