Here is why:
"Very little has changed in Bangladesh.... as Bangladesh reals from the deaths of hundreds of garment workers in the building collapse, the refusal of global retailers to pay for strict nationwide factory inspections is bringing renewed scrutiny to an industry that has profited from a country notorious for its hazardous workplaces. After a factory fire killed 112 garment workers in November, clothing brands and retailers continued to reject a union-sponsored proposal to improve safety throughout Bangladesh's $20 billion garment industry.... very little has changed in Bangladesh"
And I thought when the fires roared through things would change because my ma$$ media was on the case. When will I ever learn?
"Building collapse kills more than 230 in Bangladesh" by Julhas Alam and Al-Emrun Garjon | Associated Press, April 25, 2013
SAVAR, Bangladesh — Deep cracks visible in the walls of a Bangladesh garment building had compelled police to order it evacuated a day before it collapsed, officials said Thursday. More than 230 people were killed when the eight-story building splintered into a pile of concrete because factories based there ignored the order and kept more than 2,000 people working.
Wednesday’s disaster in the Dhaka suburb of Savar is the worst ever for Bangladesh’s booming and powerful garment industry, surpassing a fire less than five months earlier that killed 112 people. Workers at both sites made clothes for major brands around the world; some of the companies in the building that fell say their customers include retail giants such as Wal-Mart.
Hundreds of rescuers, some crawling through the maze of rubble in search of survivors and corpses, worked through the night and all day Thursday amid the cries of the trapped and the wails of workers’ relatives gathered outside the building, called Rana Plaza. It housed several garment factories and a handful of other companies.
Late Thursday, rescuers located 40 survivors trapped in a room on the fourth floor of the building, said Brig. Gen. Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder, who is overseeing the rescue operations.
He said 12 of the workers had been rescued and emergency teams were working to free the others.
An Associated Press cameraman who went elsewhere into the rubble with rescue workers spoke briefly to a garment worker pinned face down in the darkness between concrete slabs and next to two corpses. Mohammad Altab pleaded for help, but they were unable to free him.
‘‘Save us, brother. I beg you, brother. I want to live,’’ Altab moaned. ‘‘It’s so painful here ... I have two little children.’’
Another survivor, whose voice could be heard from deep in the rubble, wept as he called for help.
‘‘We want to live, brother. It’s hard to remain alive here. It would have been better to die than enduring such pain to live on. We want to live. Please save us,’’ the man cried.
After the cracks were reported in the walls of Rana Plaza on Tuesday, managers of a local bank that also had an office in the building evacuated their workers. The garment factories, though, kept working, ignoring the instructions of the local industrial police, said Mostafizur Rahman, a director of the specialized police force.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association also asked the factories to suspend work starting Wednesday morning, hours before the collapse.
‘‘After we got the crack reports, we asked them to suspend work until further examination, but they did not pay heed,’’ said Atiqul Islam, the group’s president.
On Thursday, the odor of rotting bodies wafted through holes cut into the building. Bangladesh’s junior minister for home affairs, Shamsul Haque, said that by midday Thursday 2,000 people had been rescued from the wreckage.
Rescue chief Shikder said the death toll had climbed to 238 by Thursday evening.
Dozens of bodies, their faces covered, were laid outside a local school building so relatives could identify them. Thousands of workers’ relatives gathered outside the building, waiting for news, and thousands of garment workers from nearby factories took to the streets across the industrial zone in protest.
Shikder said rescue operations were progressing slowly and carefully to save as many people as possible.
He said rescue teams were standing by with heavy equipment and would ‘‘start bulldozing the debris once we get closer to the end of the operation. But now we are careful.’’
He also said the huge crowd that remained at the collapse site Thursday was interfering with getting more rescuers to the scene.
‘‘We are ready with about 1,000 soldiers and rescue workers from other departments. But a huge crowd is obstructing our effort,’’ he said.
Thousands of workers from the hundreds of other garment factories in the Savar industrial zone took to the streets to protest the factory collapse and poor safety standards for the country’s garment workers.
Television reports said that hundreds of protesting workers also clashed with police in Dhaka and the nearby industrial zone of Ashulia. It was not immediately clear whether there were any injuries in those clashes.
The garment manufacturers’ group said the factories in Rana Plaza employed 3,122 workers, but it was not clear how many were in the building when it collapsed.
Abdur Rahim, an employee who worked on the fifth floor, said he and his co-workers had gone inside Wednesday morning despite the cracks in the building, after a factory manager gave assurances that it was safe. About an hour later, the building collapsed. The next thing Rahim remembered was regaining consciousness outside.
Abdul Halim, an official with the engineering department in Savar, said the owner was originally allowed to construct a five-story building but added another three stories illegally.
On a visit to the site, Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir told reporters the building had violated construction codes and that ‘‘the culprits would be punished.’’
Local police chief Mohammed Asaduzzaman said police and the government’s Capital Development Authority have filed separate cases of negligence against the building owner. Bangladesh’s High Court also asked the owner of the building and the heads of the garment factories to appear before it on April 30 to explain their role.
Habibur Rahman, police superintendent of the Dhaka district, identified the building owner as Mohammed Sohel Rana, a local leader of the ruling Awami League’s youth front. Rahman said police were looking for the owners of the garment factories.
Among the garment makers in the building were Phantom Apparels, Phantom Tac, Ether Tex, New Wave Style and New Wave Bottoms. Altogether, they produced several million shirts, pants and other garments a year.
When I was working retail I saw stuff from Bangladesh come in. I once wondered if it had come from a factory that had burned.
The New Wave companies, according to their website, make clothing for major brands including North American retailers The Children’s Place and Dress Barn, Britain’s Primark, Spain’s Mango and Italy’s Benetton. Ether Tex said Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, was one of its customers.
Primark acknowledged it was using a factory in Rana Plaza, but many other retailers distanced themselves from the disaster, saying they were not involved with the factories at the time of the collapse or had not recently ordered garments from them.
Benetton said in an email to The Associated Press that people involved in the collapse were not Benetton suppliers. Wal-Mart said it was investigating and Mango said it had only discussed production of a test sample of clothing with one of the factories.
The November factory fire that killed 112 people drew international attention to working conditions in Bangladesh’s $20 billion-a-year textile industry. There were calls by labor activists, manufacturers, the government and major retailers for improved safety standards, but so far there has been little progress. The country has about 4,000 garment factories and exports clothes to leading Western retailers, and industry leaders hold great influence in the South Asian nation.
Bangladesh’s garment industry was the third-largest in the world in 2011, after China and Italy. It has grown rapidly over the past decade, a boom fueled by some of the lowest labor costs in the world. The national minimum wage, which was doubled in 2010, stands at $38 per month.
The Tazreen factory that caught fire in November lacked emergency exits, and its owner said only three floors of the eight-story building were legally built. Surviving employees said gates had been locked and managers had told them to go back to work after the fire alarm went off.
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"From factory’s rubble, cries for help; Tragedy revives safety questions in Bangladesh" by Julhas Alam and Al-Emrun Garjon | Associated Press, April 26, 2013
SAVAR, Bangladesh — ‘‘Save us, brother. I beg you, brother,’’ Mohammad Altab moaned to the rescuers who could not help him. He was pinned between slabs of concrete in the ruins of the garment factory building where he worked.
‘‘I want to live,’’ he pleaded, his eyes glistening with tears as he spoke of his two young children. ‘‘It’s so painful here.’’
Altab should not have been in the building when it collapsed Wednesday, killing at least 275 people.
No one should have.
After seeing deep cracks in the walls of the building on Tuesday, police had ordered it evacuated. But officials at the garment factories operating inside ignored the order and kept more than 2,000 people working, authorities said.
The disaster in Savar, an industrial suburb of Dhaka, the capital city, is the worst ever for Bangladesh’s booming and powerful garment industry, surpassing a fire five months ago that killed 112 people and brought widespread pledges to improve the country’s worker-safety standards.
Instead, very little has changed in Bangladesh, where wages, among the lowest in the world, have made it a magnet for numerous global brands. Companies operating in the collapsed building say their customers included retail giants such as Wal-Mart, Dress Barn and Britain’s Primark.
On Friday, hundreds of rescuers, some crawling through the maze of rubble in search of survivors and corpses, spent a third day working amid the cries of the trapped and the wails of workers’ relatives gathered outside the Rana Plaza building, which housed numerous garment factories and a handful of other companies.
Rescuers on Thursday evening found 40 survivors trapped in a room on the fourth floor. Twelve were soon freed, and crews worked to get the others out safely, said Brig. Gen. Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder, who is overseeing rescue operations. Crowds at the scene burst into applause as survivors were brought out, although no other details were immediately available.
That is where my print copy cut it.
An Associated Press cameraman who went into the rubble Thursday morning with rescue workers spoke briefly to Atlab, the man who pleaded to be saved. But the team was unable to free Atlab, who was trapped next to two corpses.
From deep inside the rubble, another survivor could be heard weeping as he called for help.
‘‘We want to live, brother! It’s hard to remain alive here. It would have been better to die than enduring such pain to live on. We want to live! Please save us,’’ the man cried. It was not immediately clear if he or Atlab were among those later rescued.
After the cracks were reported, managers of a bank that had an office in the building evacuated their employees. The garment factories, though, kept working, ignoring the instructions of the local industrial police, said Mostafizur Rahman, a director of that police force.
Abdur Rahim, who worked on the fifth floor, said he and his co-workers had gone inside Wednesday morning despite seeing the cracks. He said a factory manager had assured people it was safe.
About an hour later, the building collapsed, and the next thing Rahim remembered was regaining consciousness outside.
Officials said they had made it very clear that the building needed to be evacuated.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association had also asked the factories to suspend their work.
‘‘After we got the crack reports, we asked them to suspend work until further examination, but they did not pay heed,’’ said Atiqul Islam, the group’s president.
As crews bored deeper into the wreckage, the odor of decaying bodies wafted through the building. Bangladesh’s junior minister for home affairs, Shamsul Haque, said 2,000 people had been rescued.
Maj. Gen. Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy, a top military officer in the Savar area, told reporters that search and rescue operations would continue for at least three days after the collapse.
‘‘We know a human being can survive for up to 72 hours in this situation. So our efforts will continue non-stop,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, thousands of workers from the hundreds of garment factories across the Savar industrial zone took to the streets to protest the collapse and poor safety standards.
Shikder said the death toll had reached 275 by Friday morning. The garment manufacturers’ group said the factories in the building employed 3,122 workers, but it was not clear how many were inside it when it collapsed.
Dozens of bodies, their faces covered, were laid outside a school building so relatives could identify them. Thousands gathered outside the building, waiting for news. TV reports said hundreds of protesters clashed with police in Dhaka and the nearby industrial zone of Ashulia. It was not immediately clear if there were any injuries in those clashes.
After the November fire at the Tazreen Fashions Ltd. factory, there were repeated calls for improved safety standards by labor activists, manufacturers, the government and major retailers, but little progress.
The building collapse highlighted the dangers that workers still face. Bangladesh has about 4,000 garment factories and exports clothes to leading Western retailers, and industry leaders hold great influence in the South Asian nation.
Its garment industry was the third largest in the world in 2011, after China and Italy. It has grown rapidly in the past decade, a boom fueled by Bangladesh’s exceptionally low labor costs. The country’s minimum wage is now the equivalent of about $38 a month.
Officials said soon after the collapse that numerous construction regulations had been violated.
Abdul Halim, an official with Savar’s engineering department, said the owner of Rana Plaza was originally allowed to construct a five-story building but added another three stories illegally.
On a visit to the site, Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir told reporters the building had violated construction codes and that ‘‘the culprits would be punished.’’ Local police chief Mohammed Asaduzzaman said police and the government’s Capital Development Authority have filed separate cases of negligence against the building’s owner.
But on the streets of Dhaka, many believe the owners of the building and the factories will ultimately walk free.
‘‘Was anyone punished earlier? Was the owner of Tazreen Fashions arrested? They are powerful people, they run the country,’’ said Farid Ahmed, an insurance company official.
The Tazreen factory that burned in November lacked emergency exits, and its owner said only three floors of the eight-story building were legally built. Surviving employees said gates had been locked and managers had told them to go back to work after the fire alarm sounded.
Habibur Rahman, police superintendent of the Dhaka district, identified the owner of the collapsed building as Mohammed Sohel Rana, a local leader of ruling Awami League’s youth front. Rahman said police were also looking for the owners of the garment factories.
Among the garment makers in the building were Phantom Apparels, Phantom Tac, Ether Tex, New Wave Style and New Wave Bottoms. Altogether, they produced several million shirts, pants and other garments a year.
The New Wave companies, according to their website, make clothing for major brands including North American retailers The Children’s Place and Dress Barn, Britain’s Primark, Spain’s Mango and Italy’s Benetton. Ether Tex said Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, was one of its customers.
Wal-Mart said none of its clothing had been authorized to be made in the facility, but it is investigating whether there was any unauthorized production.
The Cato Corp., which sells moderately priced women’s and girls’ clothing, said that New Wave Bottoms was one of its vendors, but that it had no production with them at the time of the collapse.
Primark acknowledged it was using a factory in Rana Plaza, but many other retailers distanced themselves from the disaster, saying they were not involved with the factories at the time of the collapse or had not recently ordered garments from them.
Benetton said in an email to the AP that people involved in the collapse were not Benetton suppliers. Mango said it had only discussed production of a test sample of clothing with one of the factories.
US State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the collapse underscored the ‘‘urgent need’’ for the Bangladesh government, as well as the factory owners, buyers and labor groups, to improve working conditions in the country.
Highlighting failings in the patchwork system that retailers use to audit factories, two of Rana Plaza’s garment companies had passed inspections by a major European group that does factory audits in developing countries. But the Business Social Compliance Initiative, which represents hundreds of companies and audited the Phantom Apparels and New Wave Style factories, said its standards focus more on labor issues than building standards.
Human Rights Watch says Bangladesh’s Ministry of Labor has only 18 inspectors to monitor the more than 100,000 garment factories in the sprawling Dhaka district, where much of the nation’s garment industry is located.
John Sifton, the group’s Asia advocacy director, also noted none of the factories in the Rana Plaza were unionized, and had they had been, workers would have been in a better position to refuse to enter the building on Wednesday.
‘‘Unionizing is Bangladesh remains incredibly difficult and dangerous,’’ he said.
But unions are bad.
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"Time running out for Bangladeshi workers" by Julhas Alam | Associated Press, April 27, 2013
SAVAR, Bangladesh — Two owners of garment factories in a Bangladesh building that collapsed into a pile of mangled metal and concrete have been arrested as public fury mounts over the accident that left at least 324 dead.
Junior Home Minister Shamsul Haque Tuku said Saturday that police had arrested Bazlus Samad, managing director of New Wave Apparels Ltd., and Mahmudur Rahman Tapash, the company chairman.
He told reporters that police had also detained the wife of Mohammed Sohel Rana, the owner of the collapsed building, for questioning.
Authorities said that the death toll had climbed to 324, but that rescuers had pulled seven more survivors from the rubble early Saturday after they found more than 40 survivors inside late Friday.
The arrests came hours after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordered police to arrest Sohel Rana and the owners of the garment factories based operating in the building.
Hasina made the order as protests spread over the latest accident to hit Bangladesh’s massive, but poorly regulated, garment industry.
Wailing, angry relatives fought with police who held them back from the wrecked, eight-story Rana Plaza building, as search-and-rescue operations went on. Three of the floors had been illegally added.
Fire service inspector Shafiqul Islam, who searched the building, said more than 40 survivors were found late Friday. Through holes in the structure, he gave them water and juice to combat dehydration in the stifling heat and humidity.
‘‘They are alive, they are trapped, but most of them are safe. We need to cut through debris and walls to bring them out,’’ Islam said.
More dead were also discovered. Shamim Islam, a volunteer who entered the collapsed building along with rescue workers, said he saw ‘‘many bodies inside.’’
Search crews were cautiously using hammers, shovels, and their bare hands. Many of the trapped workers were so badly hurt and weakened that they needed to be removed within a few hours, rescuers said.
There were fears that even if unhurt, the survivors could be dehydrated, with daytime temperatures soaring to 95 degrees.
Nearly 90 people have been rescued in the last day, as hundreds of rescuer workers crawled through the rubble amid the cries of the trapped and the wails of relatives gathered outside the building.
A garment manufacturers’ group said the factories in the building employed 3,122 workers, but it was not clear how many were inside it when it collapsed Wednesday. Rescue officials say more than 2,200 have been rescued or escaped.
Police cordoned off the site, pushing back thousands of bystanders and relatives after rescue workers said the crowds were hampering their work.
Clashes broke out between the relatives and police, who used batons to disperse them. Police said 50 people were injured in the skirmishes.
‘‘We want to go inside the building and find our people now. They will die if we don’t find them soon,’’ said Shahinur Rahman, whose mother was missing.
Thousands of workers from the hundreds of garment factories across the Savar industrial zone and other nearby areas marched to protest the poor safety standards in Bangladesh. Local news reports said demonstrators smashed dozens of cars Friday, although most of the protests were largely peaceful.
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That article was totally rewritten from the print copy, and I can't find it anywhere on the web. We call it censorship.
What was cut, rearranged, rewritten, or discarded:
"As Bangladesh reals from the deaths of hundreds of garment workers in the building collapse, the refusal of global retailers to pay for strict nationwide factory inspections is bringing renewed scrutiny to an industry that has profited from a country notorious for its hazardous workplaces.
Renewed scrutiny?
After a factory fire killed 112 garment workers in November, clothing brands and retailers continued to reject a union-sponsored proposal to improve safety throughout Bangladesh's $20 billion garment industry.
In the five months since last year's deadly blaze at Tazreen Fashions Ltd, there were 41 other "fire incidents" in Bangladeshi factories -- ranging from a deadly blaze to smaller fires or sparks that caused employees to panic, according to a labor organization affiliated with the AFL-CIO umbrella group of American unions. Combined, nine workers were killed and more than 660 were injured.
What role retailers play in making working conditions safer at the factories that manufacture their apparel has become a central issue for the $1 trillion global clothing industry."
Who told him to take it down and change it, huh?
"Six arrested in Bangladesh as collapse toll climbs to 348; Survivors’ voices growing fainter, rescuers report" by Julhas Alam and Farid Hossain | Associated Press, April 28, 2013
SAVAR, Bangladesh — Police in Bangladesh took six people into custody in connection with the collapse of a shoddily constructed building that killed at least 348 people, as rescue workers said Saturday that voices of survivors are getting weaker after four days of being pinned under the increasingly unstable rubble.
Still, in a boost for the rescuers, 29 survivors were pulled out Saturday, said army spokesman Shahinul Islam.
Most of the victims were crushed by massive blocks of concrete and mortar falling on them when the eight-story structure came down on Wednesday morning — a time many of the garment factories in the building were packed with workers.
It was the worst tragedy to hit Bangladesh’s massive garment industry, and focused attention on the poor working conditions of the employees who toil for $38 a month to produce clothing for top international brands.
Among those arrested Saturday were two owners of a garment factory, who a Dhaka court ruled can be questioned by police for 12 days without charges being filed. Also detained were two government engineers and the wife of the building owner, who is on the run, in a bid to force him to surrender. Late Saturday, police arrested another factory owner.
Violent public protests continued sporadically in Dhaka and spread to the southeastern city of Chittagong where several vehicles were set on fire.
Working round the clock since Wednesday through heat and a thunderstorm, rescuers on Saturday finally reached the ground floor from the top of the mountainous rubble through 25 narrow holes they have drilled, said Brigadier General Ali Ahmed Khan, the head of the fire services.
‘‘We are still getting response from survivors though they are becoming weaker slowly,’’ he said, adding that rescue workers were now able to see cars that were parked at the ground level.
‘‘The building is very vulnerable. Any time the floors could collapse. We are performing an impossible task, but we are glad that we are able to rescue so many survivors.’’ He said the operations will continue overnight as chances fade of people surviving for a fifth day with possibly grievous injuries and the heat.
The building site was a hive of frenzied activity all day with soldiers, police, and medical workers in lab coats working nonstop. Rescuers passed bottles of water and small cylinders of oxygen up a ladder leaning against the side of the building to be given to possible survivors inside.
They used bare hands and shovels, passing chunks of brick and concrete down a human chain away from the collapsed structure.
Nearby, Abul Basar wept as he awaited news of his wife, who worked in one of the garment factories. ‘‘My son says that his mother will come back someday. She must return!” he cried.
The bodies were kept at a makeshift morgue at the nearby Adharchandra High School before being handed over to families. Many people milled around at the school, waving photos of their missing loved ones.
9/11.
Jahangir Kabir Nanak, junior local government minister, put the death toll at 348. Military spokesman Shahinul Islam said 2,429 survivors were accounted for, including 29 who were pulled out Saturday.
Shamsul Haque Tuku, junior home minister, said police had arrested Bazlus Samad, managing director of New Wave Apparels Ltd., and Mahmudur Rahman Tapash, the company chairman. He told reporters that police had also detained the wife of Mohammed Sohel Rana, the owner of the collapsed Rana Plaza building, for questioning.
The top three floors of the eight-story building were illegally constructed. Military spokesman Shahinul Islam said officials arrested Aminul Islam, chairman of Phantom Apparels Ltd., late Saturday in Dhaka.
Authorities are still searching for Rana, a local politician, who hasn’t been seen publicly since the building collapsed. Negligence cases have been filed against him. Police in Bangladesh often detain relatives of missing suspects as a way to pressure them to surrender.
Habibur Rahman, Dhaka police superintendent, said Rana was a local leader of ruling Awami League’s youth front. His arrest, and that of the factory owners, was ordered by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is also the Awami League leader.
Police said they detained for questioning two engineers working for the Savar municipality, Imtemam Hossain and Alam Ali.
They did not say what role they played in approving the design of the building but it was clear that the arrests amounted to a widening crackdown.
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"Collapsed building’s owner caught in Bangladesh; Nine located alive in rubble but fire postpones search" by Julhas Alam and Chris Blake | Associated Press, April 29, 2013
SAVAR, Bangladesh — The fugitive owner of an illegally constructed building that collapsed and killed at least 377 people was captured Sunday by a commando force as he tried to flee into India. At the disaster site, meanwhile, fire broke out in the wreckage and forced authorities to temporarily suspend the search for survivors.
Mohammed Sohel Rana was arrested in the western Bangladesh border town of Benapole, said Jahangir Kabir Nanak, junior minister for local government. Rana was brought back by helicopter to the capital of Dhaka where he faced charges of negligence.
Rana’s capture was announced by loudspeaker at the disaster site, drawing cheers and applause from those awaiting the outcome of a continuing search-and-rescue operation for survivors of Wednesday’s collapse.
Many of those killed were workers at clothing factories in the building, known as the Rana Plaza, and the collapse was the deadliest disaster to hit Bangladesh’s garment industry, which is worth $20 billion annually and is a mainstay of the economy.
The fire that broke out late Sunday night sent smoke pouring from the piles of shattered concrete and halted some of the rescue efforts, including a bid to free a woman who was found trapped in the rubble. Rescuers said they located nine people alive inside the rubble on Sunday.
The blaze was caused by sparks as rescuers tried to cut through a steel rod to reach the woman, said a volunteer, Syed Al-Amin Roman. At least three rescuers were injured in the fire, he said. It forced them to retreat while firefighters frantically hosed down the flames.
Officials believe the fire is likely to have killed the trapped woman, said army spokesman Shahinul Islam. Rescue workers had delayed the use of heavy equipment for several hours in the hope that she could be extricated from the rubble first. But with the woman presumed dead, they began using heavy equipment around midnight.
An exhausted and disheveled Rana was brought before reporters briefly at the Dhaka headquarters of the commando team, the Rapid Action Battalion. Wearing a printed shirt, Rana was sweating as two security officers held him by his arms. A security official helped him to drink water after he gestured he was thirsty. He did not speak during the 10-minute appearance, and he is likely to be handed over to police, who will have to charge him and produce him in court within 24 hours.
A small-time politician from the ruling Awami League party, Rana had been on the run since the building collapsed Wednesday. He last appeared in public Tuesday in front of the Rana Plaza after huge cracks appeared in the building. Witnesses said he assured tenants, including five garment factories, that the building was safe.
A bank and some shops on the first floor closed Wednesday after police ordered an evacuation, but managers of the garment factories on the upper floor told workers to continue their shifts.
Hours later, the Rana Plaza was reduced to rubble, crushing most victims under massive blocks of concrete.
Rana’s arrest was ordered by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is also the Awami League leader.
On Saturday, police arrested three owners of two factories. Also detained were Rana’s wife and two government engineers who were involved in giving approval for the building design. Local TV stations reported that the Bangladesh High Court has frozen the bank accounts of the owners of all five garment factories in the Rana Plaza.
Three floors of the eight-story building apparently were built illegally.
A garment manufacturers’ group said the factories in the building employed 3,122 workers, but it was not clear how many were inside when it fell. About 2,500 survivors have been accounted for.
Army Major General Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy, the coordinator of the rescue operations, said the next phase of the search involved the heavy equipment such as hydraulic cranes that were brought to the disaster site Sunday. Searchers had been manually shifting concrete blocks with the help of light equipment such as pickaxes and shovels, he said.
The work will be carried out carefully so as not to mutilate bodies, he said. ‘‘We have engaged many private sector companies which supplied us equipment, even some heavy ones,’’ Suhrawardy said.
In a rare bit of good news, a female worker was pulled out alive Sunday. Rescuer Hasan Akbari said when he tried to extricate a man next to the woman, ‘‘he said his body was being torn apart. So I had to let go. But God willing, we will be able to rescue him with more help very soon.’’
The death toll surpassed a fire five months ago that killed 112 people and brought widespread pledges to improve worker-safety standards. But since then, very little has changed in Bangladesh.
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All I can think is this far surpasses the death toll at the Boston Marathon.
What do you do when it is terrifying to go to work?
Islamist politician sentenced to death in Bangladesh
WTF?
Islamist’s Death Sentence Sets Off Riots in Bangladesh
I'm tired of the rewrites!
"At least 44 die in Bangladeshi clash" by Julfikar Ali Manik and Jim Yardley | New York Times, March 02, 2013
DHAKA, Bangladesh — The death toll from violent clashes between protesters and security forces in Bangladesh reached at least 44 on Friday, one day after a special war crimes tribunal handed down a death sentence to an Islamist leader for crimes against humanity committed 42 years ago, during the country’s 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.
The verdict against Delawar Hossain Sayedee, a leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist party, resonated across the country. It was celebrated by the hundreds of thousands of young protesters who have taken to the streets in recent weeks to condemn Jamaat and demand justice in the war crimes cases against other party leaders.
“This verdict is a victory for the people,’’ declared Imran H. Sarkar, a blogger and an organizer of the protests, during a rally Thursday afternoon.
But followers of Jamaat reacted with fury, saying the case brought against Sayedee and others was politically motivated and tainted.
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"CLASHES CONTINUE IN BANGLADESH -- Opposition lawmakers shouted at security forces during a nationwide strike Tuesday called by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in Dhaka. Rioting following a death sentence given to Delwar Hossain Sayedee for alleged crimes in the 1971 independence war has left more than 60 people dead (Boston Globe March 6 2013)."
All I can think is this far surpasses the death toll at the Boston Marathon.
"BANGLADESH CLASH -- Jahangir Alam, the officer in charge of the Upashashar police camp, lay injured Monday after Jamaat-e-Islami activists hit him in the head with bricks in Rajshahi city. At least four police officers were hurt, one critically, when the activists and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir fought with police (Boston Globe April 2 2013)."
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"At rubble, hope for survivors wanes in Bangladesh; Police interrogate building owner; protests continue" by Farid Hossain | Associated Press, April 30, 2013
SAVAR, Bangladesh — A court on Monday gave police 15 days to interrogate the owner of a building that collapsed last week, killing at least 382 people, as rescuers used heavy machinery to cut through the destroyed structure after giving up hopes of finding more survivors.
Mohammed Sohel Rana, who was arrested Sunday as he tried to flee to India, will be held for questioning on charges of negligence, illegal construction, and forcing hesitant employees to work. His father, Abdul Khaleque, was also arrested on suspicion of helping Rana to force people to work in a dangerous building.
The illegally constructed, eight-story Rana Plaza collapsed in a heap Wednesday morning as thousands of people worked inside five garment factories. About 2,500 survivors have been accounted for.
Rana was brought to the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court in a bulletproof vest and led away to an unknown detention place after the magistrate granted a police request to hold him longer before filing formal charges. The crimes he is accused of carry a maximum punishment of seven years. More charges could be added.
The collapse was the deadliest disaster to hit Bangladesh’s garment industry, which is worth $20 billion annually and supplies global retailers.
In renewed anger against conditions in garment factories, hundreds of workers poured into the streets in the Dhaka suburb of Ashulia and set fire to an ambulance Monday, the Independent TV network reported.
They also tried to set fire to a factory, it said.
Authorities shut down all garment factories in the Ashulia and Gazipur industrial suburbs, including one that had reportedly developed cracks and was evacuated earlier.
Volunteers, army personnel, and firefighters have worked around the clock since Wednesday, mostly using their hands and light equipment to pull out survivors. Around midnight Sunday, authorities deployed hydraulic cranes and heavy cutting machines to break up the massive slabs of concrete into manageable pieces that could be lifted away.
Brigadier General Ali Ahmed Khan, chief of the fire brigade at the scene, said there was little hope of finding anyone alive.
The civilian volunteers who had swarmed the site since the disaster are now gone, and only workers and army soldiers in green camouflage and hard hats are visible, watching the heavy machinery dig into the thick concrete.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited the site and a nearby hospital to meet with survivors on Monday, the first time since the disaster.
Rana had permission to build a five-story building but added three more floors illegally, officials said. He last appeared in public on Tuesday in front of the Rana Plaza after huge cracks appeared in the building.
Witnesses said Rana assured tenants then that the building was safe. Police, however, ordered an evacuation. A bank and some first-floor shops closed, but managers of the garment factories on the upper floors told workers to continue their shifts.
Hours later, the Rana Plaza was reduced to rubble.
Police have also arrested four owners of three factories. Also in detention for questioning are two municipal engineers who were involved in approving the building’s design.
The death toll surpassed a fire five months ago that killed 112 people and brought widespread pledges to improve worker-safety standards.
But since then, very little has changed in Bangladesh.
I know.
The collapse and previous disasters in garment factories have focused attention on the poor conditions of workers who toil for as little as $38 a month to produce clothing for top international brands.
‘‘I think it is a wake-up call for the nation, a wake-up call for the industry and for the trade unions,’’ said Shirin Akter, founding president of Karmojibi Nari, a Dhaka-based group that lobbies for the rights of women in the workplace.
Bangladesh’s garment industry was the third-largest in the world in 2011, after China and Italy, having grown rapidly in the past decade.
Among the garment makers in the building were Phantom Apparels, Phantom Tac, Ether Tex, New Wave Style, and New Wave Bottoms.
Altogether, they produced several million shirts, pants, and other garments a year.
The New Wave companies, according to their website, make clothing for several major North American and European retailers.
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