Bangladeshi Factory Owners Charged in Fire That Killed 112

Among those charged on Sunday were the factory’s owners, Delowar Hossain and his wife, Mahmuda Akther, as well as M. Mahbubul Morshed, an engineer, and Abdur Razzaq, the factory manager, according to local news reports. Read More:

A wind of change in India village of widows

In August this year, Dr Kapoor’s project, Khuli Saans, led to the formation of a district task force on silicosis, with him as its convenor. Former top cop and a member of Rajasthan State Human Rights Commission M.K. Devarajan formally launched the task force at a function held at, significantly, Arampura Jatav Basti, 20 kilometres from the district headquarters. DVS campaign bore more results in September-October: the state government agreed to give Rs100,000 each to 63 silicosis patients (out of 73, 10 have died so far, and eight widows have received the Rs300,000 package), and to grant them BPL status, which would make them eligible for various social welfare schemes. Meanwhile, DVS sent 314 fresh cases to NIMH in June; 149 of them have been diagnosed with silicosisRead More:

Asbestos Activist Alleges a Failure of Ethics

 Scientists and academics have a role to play to speak up against this ongoing corruption of public health policy which causes unnecessary disease and deaths.” That’s how Kathleen Ruff, an activist and founder of Rights on Canada has characterized at a recent one day conference in Montreal some of the research carried out at McGill University and the internal investigation of this alleged corruption of policy by the University. The conference (Asbestos: Dialogue for the Future) was called by the Faculty of Medicine to engage in a baseline discussion about what asbestos is, how it has been used historically and its impact on human health, and to participate in a dialogue for the future with respect to research policy, ethics, and the broader context,” according to the University. Asbestos Activist Alleges a Failure of Ethics:

Asbestos: Europe's Past, Asia's Future

Even as French asbestos victims get ready to take to the streets in protest over judicial inaction on a notorious asbestos scandal, Indian court officials have sanctioned the construction of yet another Rajasthan asbestos factory despite vocal and active protests by local people (see: Patna High Court Ruling). The use of asbestos in France has led to an epidemic responsible for thousands of deaths every year, a situation which may, tragically, be replicated in India. It seems that even in the 21st century no amount of knowledge is enough to curtail the unbridled use of a substance that is commercially viable even if it is also deadly dangerous. Asbestos: Europe's Past, Asia's Future:

Asbestos consumption on the rise in Asia

Sugio Furuya, coordinator of the Asian Ban Asbestos Network, or A-BAN, has told Radio Australia's Asia Pacific consumption among many Asian countries is still on the rise, although countries like Japan, South Korea and Australia have banned the use of asbestos. "Asbestos consumption in Asia is accounting for 70 per cent of global asbestos consumption," Mr Furuya said. "More than 90 per cent of asbestos is used for construction materials and the people touching asbestos are not informed about [its] hazard." Read More:

BBC News - Foxconn admits labour violation at China factory

Foxconn, the world's biggest contract electronics maker, has admitted student interns worked shifts at a factory in China that were in violation of its company policies. The firm, which makes products for some the world's biggest brands, has been under scrutiny for labour practices. It had admitted to hiring underage interns at the same unit last year. Foxconn said actions had been taken to bring the factory "into full compliance with our code and policies". read more:

South Korean Premiere About Factory Sick Workers a Coup for Independent Film

When South Korean director Kim Tae-yun said he wanted to make a film about workers who came down with leukemia and other rare diseases during the time they worked at Samsung Electronics Co. factories, just about everyone told him he would struggle to secure financial backing. Two years later, the film has premiered at the ongoing Busan International Film Festival‒in part thanks to crowd-sourced funds from nearly 7,000 individuals who paid for more than a quarter of the billion-won ($932,700) budget. Close to half was self-funded and the rest has been made as IOUs. It marks a rare coup for Korean cinema, where independent producers struggle to secure funding without support from major film studios. Critics say close family and business ties between major movie companies and the nation’s biggest corporations prevent films with negative portrayals of those conglomerates from being made. The film has already won a mention in a recent report by U.S. watchdog Freedom House as an example of progress for South Korea’s freedom of expression. Titled “Another Family,” the film is based on a true story of a working-class family whose daughter went to work at Samsung semiconductor factory, contracted leukemia during her time there and died from the disease in 2007.
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[Wall Street Journal] Bangladesh Garment Factories Often Evade Monitoring

On a recent Saturday night, however, bright fluorescent lights flickered well past 10 p.m. as workers inside furiously stitched children's skinny jeans bound for�Gap�Inc.'s Old Navy stores. The company regularly keeps many of its 4,500 workers late-sometimes until 5 a.m.-to meet production targets set by retailers like Gap,�VF�Corp. and Tommy Hilfiger parent PVH Corp. The workers themselves sometimes welcome the extra pay, but the practice apparently conflicts with the retailers' stated policies and a Bangladeshi law that prohibits more than 10 hours of work a day, including two hours of overtime. Read More:

Factory in Bangladesh accused of shocking abuse of pregnant workers in new labour report |

A Bangladesh factory that sews garments for The Gap and Old Navy brands routinely forces workers to work over 100 hours a week and they are slapped, shoved and punched, says a damning report. It also says workers live in penury, earning 20 to 24 cents an hour, and illegal firings are regular. Read more:

Global retailers name 1600 units under BD Safety Pact

The international clothing retailers have released a list of nearly 1,600 garment factories of Bangladesh that will be covered by the Accord on Fire and Building Safety they signed few months back. Friday's release of the participating sites in the safety accord is the first step to improving job conditions and safety in the factories that make garments for the 90 signatories to the accord, which include H&M, Zara, Joe Fresh, Benetton and PVN. Read More

Losing Your Shirt: Cambodia’s Garment Industry

 A move by the International Labour Organisation to name and shame garment producers in Cambodia that flout workers’ rights and safety standards could damage the industry’s reputation and result in a drastic reduction in orders from buyers abroad, according to a senior manufacturing official. A senior official at the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC), Cheat Khemara told the Khmer Service of Radio Free Asia last week that the ILO should reconsider its decision to release its findings to buyers and instead seek to resolve factory issues by first informing the government. “The (relevant) government ministry will take measures against any factories found in violation if they refuse to improve their standards,” he is reported as saying. “We don’t want the ILO to immediately inform the buyers.” Beginning January 2014, the ILO is committed to publicly disclosing some of its findings based on the monitoring of over 450 factories under its Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) programme. The BFC would begin disclosing assessment information of individual factories’ compliance with Cambodian labour law and international labour standards, making it the only programme in SE Asia to use greater transparency to accelerate improvements across the garment sector. Read More:

1,000 workers suffer food poisoning in Tien Giang

 About 1,000 workers at Wondo Vina Co Ltd in Cho Gao District, southern Tien Giang province are being treated in many hospitals in the province after suffering from food poisoning symptoms this morning. Wondo Vina Co Ltd is a 100-percent South Korean-owned company that produces outdoor clothing including Gore-Tex jackets, down jackets, skiwear and golfwear, and employs more than 2,500 workers. Read More:

​A silent health danger stalks people - The Times of India

VARANASI: Though more than a year has passed since the E-waste (Management and Handling) Rules came into effect in May 2012, their implementation is still in a nascent stage, at least in Varanasi, one of the major cities of Uttar Pradesh. In fact, the state ranks fourth among the 10 largest e-waste generating states in the country. Read More:

Ship breaking: Newfoundland’s legacy with one of the most hazardous jobs

VANCOUVER and MARYSTOWN, N.L. – When old ships reach the end of their ocean-sailing life, they often go to shipyards in developing countries to be broken into scraps. But the workers who tear apart the no-longer-seaworthy ocean liners and tankers put their health, and lives, at risk to salvage whatever materials scrap dealers can sell. Read More:

No deal on Bangladesh garment disaster damages

International clothing makers have failed to reach a deal on the creation of a compensation fund for victims of two Bangladeshi factory disasters. Only a third of the retailers who used the factories turned up for a two-day meeting on the issue in Geneva. Only Primark was reported as making a firm commitment on funding. BBC News - No deal on Bangladesh garment disaster damages:

Protests at Bihar asbestos unit | Down To Earth

ANGER is writ large on each one’s face at the gates of Chennai-based Ramco Industries Limited in Bihiya. “Are they planning to kill us?” a woman shouts showing a glass full of yellow fluid. The murky fluid is the water people of this area in Bihar’s Ara sub-division in Bhojpur district drink every day. A bunch of company workers closeby claim in the recent months four of their colleagues developed skin ailments, three suffered paralysis and two died. Protests at Bihar asbestos unit | Down To Earth:

Advalpal prays mining calm is here to stay - The Times of India

In the monsoon of 2008, when the mining silt broke the boundaries of the mines, located only 200 metres from the homes of locals, it not only filled their homes but also surpassed their levels of tolerance. For over a week, the excavation and ore transportation activities took place under police surveillance, with clashes breaking out frequently between locals and mine workers. Read More:

Delhi, NCR likely to generate 50,000 metric tonnes of e-waste by 2015: Assocham

LUCKNOW: India's capital is emerging as the world's dumping capital for e-waste, with hazardous activities taking place and like to generate e-waste to an extent of 50,000 metric tonnes (MT) per annum by 2015 from the current level of 30,000 metric tonnes per annum, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 25%, according to an Assocham estimate. Read More:

Two million Karachiites face cancer threat

 ISLAMABAD: A personal loss has unfolded a collective tragedy in Karachi where a factory dumping site in Gadap Town exposes over two million residents to cancer-causing chemicals (Chrysotile asbestos) that annually take 100,000 lives at the global level resulting in its ban in 52 countries. This has been revealed in a report of the commission formed on the petition of a citizen, Syed Haroon, whose brother, an employee of Dadex Eternet Limited, died of cancer allegedly due to asbestos poisoning. Read More:

India's poor 'duped' into clinical drug trials

A petition filed by the family in India's Supreme Court alleges that the drug tested on him was Atopaxar, developed by Japan-based pharmaceutical company Eisai and supposed to treat anxiety disorders. His family and health rights group Swasthya Adhikaar Manch (Health Rights Platform) say that he would never have enrolled for the trial had he known that an untested drug would be administered. The family also claims that the side-effects of the drug left Pathak suffering from dementia.Read more:

Are Indian factories really safer than those in Bangladesh?

NEW DELHI, India — The death toll from the collapse of a Mumbai-area garment factory mounted on Friday, as rescue workers continued to sift through the wreckage.

So far, six people have died and around 40 have suffered serious injuries, following the collapse of a two-storey factory in Bhiwandi, an urbanized village in the Thane district, on the outskirts of India's financial capital.Read More

Justice Still Elusive in Factory Disasters in Bangladesh

DHAKA, Bangladesh — Inside Courtroom 21, the two judges peered down from high wooden chairs as lawyers in formal black robes presented their motions. Activists and victims watched from the back. And a few steps away, a portly man with a thick black beard remained silent. He was the suspect. He did not seem especially nervous. Read More:

Atrocious conditions in Bangladesh tanneries

Dhaka, Bangladesh (IRIN) – Despite working 12 hours a day and exposing herself to toxic chemicals, 55-year old Taslima Begum, a tannery worker in Hazaribagh, an industrial neighbourhood in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka, earns just US$40 per month. “Yes, the pay is very low and I know the health risks, but I don’t have other alternatives,” she said. The mother-of-five says she has no choice if she is to feed her family and ailing husband. Read More:

Hundreds Of Bangladesh Factory Workers Fall Sick From Suspected Contaminated Water

Hundreds of employees of a Bangladesh garment factory near the capital fell sick on Wednesday after drinking suspected contaminated water in their workplace, police and factory officials said. "Primarily we suspect the water supply of the Starlight Sweaters factory was poisoned or contaminated," local industrial police officer Mahfuzur Rahman told AFP from Gazipur, a suburb of Dhaka. Read More:

Scientific articles, intended to cast doubt on harm caused by chrysotile asbestos, were potentially part of a crime-fraud

 In a unanimous decision, five judges of a New York Appeal Court ruled (1) on June 6, 2013 that Georgia-Pacific must allow an in camera (private) review of documents and raw data related to eleven published research studies, funded by Georgia-Pacific, concerning the health effects of the company’s asbestos-containing joint compound (a product used in construction). Read More:

China: The electronic wastebasket of the world - CNN.com

Guiyu, China (CNN) -- Did you ever wonder what happens to your old laptop or cellphone when you throw it away? Chances are some of your old electronic junk will end up in China. According to a recent United Nations report, "China now appears to be the largest e-waste dumping site in the world." E-waste, or electronic waste, consists of everything from scrapped TVs, refrigerators and air conditioners to that old desktop computer that may be collecting dust in your closet. Read More:

After Bangladesh, Seeking New Sources

SEMARANG, Indonesia — Bennett Model helped pioneer the exporting of garments from China in 1975, the year before Mao Zedong died, and ever since, his New York fashion company has searched for other countries, from Guatemala to Vietnam to Indonesia, capable of supplying top retailers like Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus. Read More:

India reverses stand on asbestos at Rotterdam Convention meet | Down To Earth

In a retrograde move, India opposed the listing of chrysotile asbestos under Annex III of the Rotterdam Convention at the sixth meeting of Conference of Parties (COP6) on May 8 in Geneva. Substances listed under Annex III of the Convention—a global treaty to promote shared responsibilities in relation to import of hazardous chemicals—require exporting countries to advise importing countries about the toxicity of the substances so that importers can give their prior informed consent (PIC) for trade. The Convention does not ban or limit trade in such hazardous substances. Read More:

China blames illegal mining as blasts toll reaches 40

 Beijing: The death toll from two separate colliery accidents in southwest China has risen to 40, even as the authorities blamed illegal mining for the tragedies. Rescuers have saved 80 miners, while 28 others were confirmed dead in the gas explosion that took place yesterday in Taozigou coal mine in southwest China's Sichuan Province. Read More:

Enough is Enough – Stop these Murders at Workplaces in Asia | ANROEV

 The Asian Network for the Rights of Occupational and Environmental Victims (ANROEV) is deeply saddened and outraged at the recent industrial disasters in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Within a spate of 8 months more than 1300 workers have died and the toll is still rising as the bodies are being pulled out of the Rana Plaza. Just when this statement is being written there is one more fire in a garment factory in Bangladesh killing more than 7 people. Read More:

EHP – The JPC-SE Position Statement on Asbestos

Recently, the Joint Policy Committee (JPC) of the Societies of Epidemiology (SE), a consortium of national and international epidemiologic societies and organizations, released a statement calling for the global ban of asbestos use (JPC-SE 2012). This is not the first such call for an international ban (Collegium Ramazzini 2010), but it is a significant one because it is endorsed by 10 member organizations of the JPC-SE, numerous major epidemiologic and public health associations, and many epidemiologists (JPC-SE 2012). This position statement also highlights a case of global environmental injustice on a massive scale. Read More:

Rotterdam Convention in crisis, say civil society groups - Asian Ban Asbestos Network

Civil society groups attending the Rotterdam Convention conference in Geneva are expressing grave alarm that the Convention has been hijacked by the asbestos industry, which is determined to prevent the environmental and health protections of the Convention from being implemented. For the fourth time, a handful of countries allied to the asbestos industry have refused to allow chrysotile asbestos to be added to the Convention’s list of hazardous substances, even though the Convention’s expert scientific committee has repeatedly recommended that it be listed and even though it has been recognized that the listing of chrysotile asbestos meets all the criteria of the Convention. The committee’s conclusions are endorsed by all leading medical organisations and by the World Health Organisation. Read More:

Done In By The Dust

 The labour class, a great contributor to development, is the one to pay the costs of development. And so, despite environmental and labour laws, over one crore workers in India run the risk of silicosis, a lung disease caused by inhalation of silica dust in occupations such as cement-, glass- and brick-making, quarrying, mining, road-laying and all aspects of construction. Every year, silicosis kills about 30,000 people. Many of them die without treatment; their families seldom get due compensation. Read More:

Turkey Marks International Workers Memorial Day

 They say that the population of Istanbul is around 13.5 million. If I didn't know better I could have sworn that all of them were milling around in central Istanbul last Sunday morning, April 28. This is not as far-fetched as it sounds as it has been reported that on a single Saturday or Sunday up to 3 million people have been known to frequent Istiklal Avenue (Independence Avenue) one of the most famous boulevards in Istanbul and a pedestrianized space much used for parades, demonstrations and gatherings. Read More:

Asbestos lobbyists determined to sabotage UN Rotterdam Convention

 18 Asbestos lobbyists will be attending the UN Rotterdam Convention conference in Geneva in May. Their goal? To protect the asbestos industry’s profits by defeating health protections The goal of the Rotterdam Convention is to protect people from being harmed by hazardous substances. But the asbestos industry sees health protections as interfering with their profits. Read More:

Asbestos kills, that's for sure | Bangkok Post: opinion

The Public Health Ministry under the leadership of Minister Pradit Sintanawarong is never short of controversies. Amid a severe shortage of physicians in rural areas, Dr Pradit issued a policy to cut their hardship allowances. Effective treatment requires physicians to spend time with patients to gather details of their symptoms and personal backgrounds so they can make an accurate diagnosis. Yet the minister imposed a pay-for-performance system that rewards physicians on the quantity of tasks performed and requires doctors to document each and every task, which turns hospitals into factory assembly lines and a hell of paperwork. Read More:

Abu Dhabi campaign keeps 3 million labourers safe in the heat - The National

ABU DHABI // A campaign to save lives by educating outdoor labourers about the dangers of working in the summer sun has reached more than 3 million people, the health authority says. Read More:

Anti-mining activist from Indonesia wins top green honor

Aleta Baun, an activist who led a movement to block a destructive mine in a remote part of Indonesia, was today awarded the prestigious Goldman Prize, the top honor for grassroots environmental campaigners. Read More:

India, Known for Outsourcing, Now Wants to Make Its Own Chips - NYTimes.com

NEW DELHI — The government of India, home to many of the world’s leading software outsourcing companies, wants to replicate that success by creating a homegrown industry for computer hardware. But unlike software, which requires little infrastructure, building electronics is a far more demanding business. Chip makers need vast quantities of clean water and reliable electricity. Computer and tablet assemblers depend on economies of scale and easy access to cheap parts, which China has spent many years building up. Read More:

Asbestos Life and Death in Australia

Asbestos, Australia's “worst industrial menace,” remains a potent threat to its citizens, a decade after its use was banned. It is believed that up to two million tonnes of asbestos were used over a fifty year period. Australian society embraced asbestos technology with an almost unrivalled gusto; as domestic production of blue and white asbestos was insufficient to satisfy demand, 1.5 million tonnes of fiber were imported.1 Australia is paying a high price for its love affair with asbestos; whereas it had once led the world in per capita asbestos use, it now leads in the incidence of asbestos cancer. Over the next two decades, it has been predicted that up to 40,000 Australians will be diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease. Asbestos Life and Death in Australia:

MoEF asked to finalise Gadgil panel report on Western Ghats

New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal has asked the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to take expeditious steps to finalise the report of Gadgil Committee or any "other panel" set up to study the environmental sensitivity and ecological significance of the Western Ghats. Read More:

Amidst the silica dust - The Hindu

Amidst the silica dust - The Hindu: The shortened lifespan of the quarry workers of Uttar Pradesh is spent breaking stones and residing among the pollution- laden boulders Mired with sandy roads and rocky terrain, the landscape in south-western Allahabad creates a remarkable mirage under the blue sky. Some of the larger rocks here have sizeable craters formed in them -- a sign of their depletion over time, by an activity that is hazardous yet critical to the survival of many. The ground water accumulated on the surface of these depressions make them appear like lakes, adding to the visual serenity.

Union Minister asks Governors to cancel mining leases in Agency areas - The Hindu

Union Minister asks Governors to cancel mining leases in Agency areas - The Hindu: Unrelenting in his battle against destruction of tribal habitations for exploitation of forestland and resources, Union Minister for Tribal Affairs V. Kishore Chandra Deo has written letters to Governors of various States asking them to cancel mining leases in the Agency areas.

Silicosis screening underway in Coimbatore - The Times of India

COIMBATORE: The health department in Coimbatore has started screening workers of silicosis prone industries and has so far completed screening in two industries without identifying positive cases.Read More:

Breaking the chrysotile habit: Track the decline of Canada’s asbestos industry

 In last week’s budget, the federal government promised $50-million over seven years to help diversify the economies of two Quebec towns: Thetford Mines and Asbestos. Both communities historically relied on asbestos mining as the biggest driver of their economies. And with the decline of the asbestos industry, the local economies have suffered. Read More:

Federal budget finally buries asbestos industry - Winnipeg Free Press

 OTTAWA -- If the asbestos industry in Canada was on life-support, last week's federal budget finally pulled the plug. It was hidden midway through the budget papers, amid the more flashy and noticeable cuts to the cost of baby clothes and the "largest long-term federal commitment to Canadian infrastructure in our nation's history." "Supporting the Economic Transition of Communities Economically Linked to the Chrysotile Asbestos Industry," said the headline on page 241. Read More:

Breathing dust - Silicosis in Shankargarh, India

In the absence of safety gear, silica mine workers suffer the worst consequences Shankargarh, a block along the south-western fringes of Allahabad district in Uttar Pradesh, is widely known as a large supplier of silica sand to the glass industry.�The area is rocky and unfit for cultivation, leaving its major inhabitants- the Kol tribe, and Chamar and Kumbi castes little option but to engage in stone quarrying and sand mining. Read More:

Young women workers in China: Seeking a better life | China Labour Bulletin

After getting off work one evening at a Japanese-owned factory in the Pearl River Delta, a young woman walked in the Sunflower Women Workers Centre and picked up several copies of the centre’s newsletter: “I’m going to distribute it to my sisters at the factory,” she said proudly. The next day was 8 March, International Women’s Day, and the newsletter featured stories on the origin of Women’s Day and whether women workers in China are allowed to take the day off. Other stories included the dairy of two factory girls, a colloquial interpretation of labour law, and a training session on collective bargaining. Read More:

Disposal of Older Monitors Leaves a Hazardous Trail - NYTimes.com

Last year, two inspectors from California’s hazardous waste agency were visiting an electronics recycling company near Fresno for a routine review of paperwork when they came across a warehouse the size of a football field, packed with tens of thousands of old computer monitors and televisions. Read More:

Turin judge convicts 6 ex-Teksid managers in asbestos case

(ANSA) - Turin, March 15 - A judge in the northern Italian city of Turin convicted six ex-managers of Teksid, a leading iron-castings maker for the automotive industry, on charges related to the deaths and illnesses of workers presumed to be due to asbestos exposure at Teksid's Turin facilities. Read More:

Asbestos poses health hazard at Inchimala - The New Indian Express

With no end in sight to the pollution problems caused by the asbestos godown at Inchimala in Mulanthuruthy panchayat, the residents organised a people’s convention in the area which was inaugurated by environmentalist S Seetharaman on Sunday. Read More:

Silicosis victims get justice, at last - The Hindu

High Court asks State government and AP Mineral Development Corporation to compensate the victims In what may herald a sense of closure to their four-decade long suffering from silicosis, the Andhra Pradesh High Court has asked the State and the AP Mineral Development Corporation to own up and compensate the victims. Read More:

More People Died in Workplace Accidents Than Car Crashes in 2012: Jamsostek

Nine people died everyday in work-related accidents in 2012 — a figure higher than deaths from traffic accidents — state-owned worker insurance company Jamsostek said. Read More

Apple's Chinese suppliers still exploiting workers, says report

Apple has so far failed in its responsibility to monitor its Chinese suppliers for worker violations, claims a labor watchdog group. In a report released yesterday, Student & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM) accused three of Apple's Chinese suppliers of inhumane worker conditions. The three suppliers -- Foxlink, Pegatron, and Wintek -- fail to provide for basic human needs and continue to use student workers, according to SACOM. Read More:

Workers decry lack of health and safety in factories, workplaces

KARACHI: Trade union leaders and representatives of labour rights organisations have expressed their concern over absence and lack of occupational health and safety facilities at factories and other work places and demanded the government to ensure availability of these facilities which are mandatory under Factories Act 1934. Read More

Tripartite meeting vows to ensure fire safety in Bangladesh

The government, employers and labour leaders have vowed to ensure fire safety measures in work place in Bangladesh. To materialise their commitment, all the three parties promised to work together to develop a national tripartite action plan on fire safety by the end of February, said a press release of the ILO published on its website on January 15. Read More

[Pakistan]Poor man’s justice - Karachi Fire tragedy

Before this, the highest number of people killed in a factory fire was 146 in the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist garment factory in New York and 187 in the 1993 doll factory fire in Thailand. The factory fire death record remains firmly in Pakistan’s hands. Read More:

JS body trashes BGMEA probe

The parliamentary watchdog on labour yesterday rejected a probe by the garment industry lobby group on the deadly fire at Tazreen Fashions, saying it was biased and intended to protect the factory owner. Read More:

The Copper Age Returns (and Brings a Mess)

 Last Thursday, riot police used water cannons, tear gas, and incendiary devices to attack a peaceful encampment of protesters at the Letpadaung mine site -- an assortment of Buddhist monks, peasants complaining of illegal land seizures, and activists taking advantage of the country’s recent democratic opening -- who had been protesting for months against a proposed billion-dollar expansion. When the raid was over, dozens were injured; videos from a local hospital showed saffron-robed monks disfigured by burns. Read More: