• Bangladesh: Olive ridley turtle breaks 4-year record with 53 percent increase in eggs
• Banana fiber sari offers sustainable, biodegradable alternative in Bangladesh
• Falling solar costs offer hope for power-deprived Bangladesh

• A 'new idea': Application of Vedic Defence Technology in peacekeeping missions: Weekly Blitz reports

• Bangladesh's worst ever dengue outbreak a 'canary in the coal mine' for climate crisis, WHO expert warns
• 'Spreading faster than ever': Bangladesh's tea pickers have world's highest rate of leprosy
• Bangladesh fears a coronavirus crisis as case numbers rise

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Positive Trends
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Bangladesh: Olive ridley turtle breaks 4-year record with 53 percent increase in eggs
30 April 2024 - This year, Bangladesh has seen its highest number of olive ridley turtle eggs, thanks to extensive conservation actions, including building awareness among local people and the vigilance of local conservation groups to ensure favorable conditions for the species. (more)

Banana fiber sari offers sustainable, biodegradable alternative in Bangladesh
24 October 2023 - In a remarkable fusion of tradition and innovation, a couple of Marma women and Manipuri men have taken the Bangladeshi fashion scene by storm with their unique creation: a sari woven entirely from banana fiber. While this may not be a unique concept in the global context, it marks an exciting shift in the fashion landscape of Bangladesh, bringing environmental consciousness to the forefront. (more)

Falling solar costs offer hope for power-deprived Bangladesh
2 October 2023 - Falling solar power prices can help ease an energy crunch in Bangladesh, where an over-dependence on fossil fuels has drained foreign-exchange reserves and jeopardized electricity supplies, BloombergNEF said in a report. Solar on its own is set to become the cheapest source of power in the South Asian nation by 2025, thanks to declining technology prices, BNEF said in the report published Monday [2 October]. (more)

Medicinal plants in Bangladesh are now thriving again
8 August 2023 - According to the World Health Organization, 88 percent of all countries are estimated to use traditional medicine; more than 40 percent of pharmaceutical formulations are based on natural products, and many landmark drugs originated from traditional medicine. According to the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, there are 722 species of medicinal plants in Bangladesh. Locals who once cut down trees are now actively planting and cultivating medicinal trees. (more)

Bangladesh, Nepal celebrate new years after pandemic pause
14 April 2022 - After a two-year break, thousands of people in Bangladesh and Nepal on Thursday [14 April] celebrated their respective new years with colorful processions and musical soirees as the coronavirus pandemic eased and life swung back to normal. In Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, people clad in the traditional red attire ushered in the Bengali year 1429. ... People in Nepal, meanwhile, welcomed the year 2079 with visits to Hindu temples and Buddhist shrines, where families prayed for prosperity and good luck. (more)

Largest study of masks yet details their importance in fighting COVID-19
2 September 2021 - A study involving more than 340,000 people in Bangladesh offers some of the strongest real-world evidence yet that mask use can help communities slow the spread of COVID-19. The new findings demonstrate that efficacy in the real world -- and on an enormous scale. The research was led by Kwong, Jason Abaluck and Mushfiq Mobarak from Yale University, and Steve Luby and Ashley Styczynski from Stanford University. (more)

Bangladeshi wins children's prize for fighting cyberbullying
15 November 2020 - A 17-year-old Bangladeshi boy won the International Children's Peace Prize on Friday [13 November] for his work combating cyberbullying in his country, and he vowed to keep fighting online abuse until it is eradicated. Sadat Rahman was handed the prestigious award at a ceremony in The Hague. (more)

The remarkable floating gardens of Bangladesh
10 September 2020 - In the lowlands of Bangladesh, people are turning to a centuries-old form of hydroponics. In one part of south-central Bangladesh, for 300-400 years, people have been following an age-old traditional method of cultivation called dhap, or known locally as baira. These are floating vegetable gardens -- artificial islands, that simply rise and fall with the swelling waters. Now farmers are reviving this old practice to reduce their vulnerability due to climate change. (more)

Bangladeshi group sends cards, baskets to COVID-19 patients
17 June 2020 - A Bangladeshi group of volunteers is providing COVID-19 patients with fruit baskets and 'get well soon' cards to keep their spirits up. The group has distributed about 1,400 fruit baskets since it began distributing them on June 1. (more)

Bangladesh allows Rohingya children to study
2 February 2020 - Rohingya refugees reacted with surprise and joy on Wednesday [29 January] to the news that Bangladesh would provide formal education to their children, two and a half years after they were forced to flee Myanmar. Human rights groups have long campaigned for the nearly half a million effectively stateless Rohingya children in Bangladesh's refugee camps to be allowed access to quality education. (more)

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Success of Maharishi's Programmes
Short Summaries of Top Stories

A 'new idea': Application of Vedic Defence Technology in peacekeeping missions: Weekly Blitz reports
8 September 2011 - The word 'Vedic' comes from the Sanskrit word 'Veda,' which means 'pure knowledge.' Vedic Defense Technology as revived by the Vedic scholar Maharishi Mahesh Yogi involves applying the pure knowledge of Veda to protect society: to 'avert the danger that has not yet come.' Maharishi's preventive strategy includes establishing a permanent group of meditating peace-creating experts whose daily practice of his Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program creates a more coherent national and world consciousness, and thereby prevents negativity from arising in the nation. (more)

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Flops
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Bangladesh's worst ever dengue outbreak a 'canary in the coal mine' for climate crisis, WHO expert warns
7 September 2023 - Bangladesh is battling its worst dengue outbreak on record, with more than 600 people killed and 135,000 cases reported since April, the World Health Organization said Wednesday [6 September], as one of its experts blamed the climate crisis and El Nino weather pattern for driving the surge. The country's health care system is straining under the influx of sick people, and local media have reported hospitals are facing a shortage of beds and staff to care for patients. There were almost 10,000 hospitalizations on August 12 alone, according to WHO. (more)

'Spreading faster than ever': Bangladesh's tea pickers have world's highest rate of leprosy
7 April 2023 - Despite the WHO declaring it eliminated in 1998, thousands of tea pickers have caught the disease. According to the Leprosy Mission, the vast tea plantations of Sylhet in the north-east of the country, which employ about 600,000 workers -- mostly women from minority groups -- have the highest rate of leprosy in the world. (more)

Bangladesh fears a coronavirus crisis as case numbers rise
16 June 2020 - As hospitals in Bangladesh turn patients away, and frontline workers bear the brunt of rising case numbers, there are fears the densely populated South Asian country could become a new global hotspot. (more)

Key radical Islamist groups in Bangladesh
3 July 2016 - The hostage crisis at a restaurant in Bangladesh's capital that left 28 dead, including 20 hostages and six militants, has focused attention on the radical Islamist attacks occurring in the moderate, mostly Muslim country in the past few years. Most have been claimed by the Islamic State group or by al-Qaida's local branch, but the government vehemently denies these transnational jihadi groups have any presence in the country. Instead, the government blames domestic militants and its political opponents of trying to destabilize the country. Authorities have cracked down on extremist groups by banning them from operating and arresting many of their members. The opposition parties deny the allegation that they're involved. A look at some of the main Islamic political parties and radical groups in the country: (more)

Hostage crisis leaves 28 dead in Bangladesh diplomatic zone
2 July 2016 - The dramatic, 10-hour hostage crisis that gripped Bangladesh's diplomatic zone ended Saturday morning with at least 28 dead, including six of the attackers, as commandos raided the popular restaurant where heavily armed attackers were holding dozens of foreigners and Bangladeshis prisoner while hurling bombs and engaging in a gunbattle with security forces. The victims included 20 hostages, mostly foreigners, and two Bangladeshi police officers. The attack marks an escalation in militant violence that has hit the traditionally moderate Muslim-majority nation with increasing frequency in recent months, with the extremists demanding the secular government set up Islamic rule. (more)

Bangladesh failing to spare millions from arsenic poisoning
6 April 2016 - An estimated 20 million people in Bangladesh are still being poisoned by arsenic-tainted water -- a number that has remained unchanged from 10 years ago despite years of action to dig new wells at safer depths, according to a new report released Wednesday by Human Rights Watch. The New York-based rights group blames nepotism and neglect by Bangladeshi officials, saying they're deliberately having new wells dug in areas convenient for friends, family members, and political supporters and allies, rather than in places where arsenic contamination is highest or large numbers of poor villagers are being exposed. Arsenic also kills about 45,000 Bangladeshis every year. Scientists first discovered arsenic in Bangladesh's groundwater in 1993, sounding alarm bells worldwide about a massive public health crisis pouring from the millions of hand-cranked tube wells tapping water from underground. (more)

Bangladesh court upholds death sentences of 2 politicians
18 November 2015 - Bangladesh's Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld death sentences given to two influential opposition leaders who were convicted of war crimes during the country's 1971 independence war against Pakistan. Jamaat-e-Islami and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party say the trials ordered by the government are politically motivated, an allegation Hasina rejects outright, saying justice for victims' families is overdue. In Washington, leaders of U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee expressed concern that 'democratic space is shrinking' in Bangladesh and that the war crimes tribunal was being used for political retribution. (more)

More Bangladeshis found in Thailand on human trafficking route
13 October 2014 - Thai police found scores of sick and exhausted boat people hiding on a remote island on Monday, and all but one of the 79 suspected human-trafficking victims were from Bangladesh, according to local officials. The high proportion of Bangladeshis cropping up on smuggling routes once plied mainly by Rohingya is consistent with what a leading Rohingya advocacy group says is an alarming rise in 'forced departures' from Bangladesh. Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project, which plots migration across the Bay of Bengal, said the group had learned that brokers in Bangladesh were abducting men and boys, or luring them by false promises of work, then shipping them to Thailand and Malaysia. Reuters reported last year how thousands of Rohingya were held and sometimes tortured by traffickers at jungle camps in southern Thailand until their families secured their release with ransoms of $2,000 or more. The discovery of the boat people, along with the detention of dozens more Rohingya last month, suggests that smuggling routes are still thriving in Thailand. (more)

Minority Biharis under pressure in Bangladesh
21 July 2014 - The recent violent attack on Urdu-speaking Biharis in the Bangladeshi capital highlights this minority's ongoing protection needs: Community leaders allege political collusion in the attack. Clashes broke out on 14 June between Biharis and Bengalis, who make up the majority of Bangladesh's population, in Mirpur on the outskirts of Dhaka. Ten Biharis were killed and houses were torched; no arrests have been made to date. Anwari Begum, 50, told IRIN she was injured during the clash when a police officer hit her with his baton; she believes the police did too little to stop the violence. There are 300,000 Muslim Biharis scattered across 116 squalid camps in Bangladesh today. Many came from the Indian state of Bihar, and moved to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) during and after partition in 1947. The West Pakistan-based government's preferential treatment of Urdu speakers seeded tensions between Biharis and Bengalis, which were further stoked when many Biharis sided with the Urdu-speaking Pakistani army in the bloody 1971 war of liberation. A 2008 landmark High Court decision recognized Biharis as Bangladeshi nationals, but citizenship rights have yielded minimal gains, and most remain on government-owned land, leaving them vulnerable to abuse and political manipulation. (more)

Rising wages squeeze Bangladesh garment makers as factories await upgrades
14 April 2014 - Bangladesh garment factory owners say they are soaking up much of the cost of nearly doubling wages as some global retailers balk at price hikes, leaving less money for safety improvements urged by apparel chains after last year's Rana Plaza disaster. The task of coping with a 79 per cent increase in the minimum monthly wage to $68 (40.63 pounds), imposed last December at the urging of some retail chains, comes as competition intensifies among emerging markets producing garments for stores like Walmart and Zara. That is squeezing sales in Bangladesh's main export industry. At Dhaka-based clothing company Simco Group, one of the thousands of businesses the sector comprises, chairman Muzaffar Siddique said that before the wage increase his net profit margin was a little more than 2 per cent. Now he's losing money on orders, and reckons four out of every five garment makers in the world's second-biggest clothing exporter after China are in the same boat. Nearly a year after the eight-storey Rana Plaza building collapsed in Dhaka's Savar district, killing more than 1,100 workers, Bangladesh's garment export growth has slowed to the lowest rate in 15 years. Some buyers have shifted orders to countries like India, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Cambodia because of concerns about workshop safety, higher wages, and political uncertainty. (more)