DHAKA: Bangladesh rescuers said yesterday that more than 500 people had likely died in a garment factory block that collapsed last week as the pope condemned the use of “slave labour” in the local clothing industry.
As bulldozers and cranes worked to remove the rubble of the eight-storey building on the outskirts of Dhaka, senior army officers said the number of confirmed dead now stood at 405 but 149 people were still missing.
The country’s worst industrial accident, which has focused attention on the use of factories in Bangladesh by Western clothing companies, drew tens of thousands of protesters onto the streets of the capital. Workers holding red banners and flags chanted “Hang the killers, Hang the Factory Owners!” during a May Day rally that was largely peaceful.
Man gored to death in bull ring
TOKYO: A bull has gored to death a 40-year-old man in southern Japan just a month after attacking his father and breaking the older man’s ribs, police and a report said yesterday.
Owner Rikiya Tomi was set upon as he tried to show the huge animal to friends on the southern islet of Tokunoshima, broadcaster NHK said.
The 1,100kg beast speared him in the chest as he tried to entice it from the ring. He was confirmed dead at a hospital two hours later, police said.
The bull attacked Tomi’s father early last month, breaking a number of ribs, Kyodo News reported, citing an association overseeing the island’s bullfighting industry.
Tokunoshima, a small sub-tropical island off the southern Kyushu coast, is famed in Japan for its bull-on-bull fights, which have a tradition stretching back several hundred years.
The incident came ahead of the opening of the island’s bull-fighting competition during the Golden Week holidays, which start at the end of this week and are expected to draw thousands of visitors.
Somali pirates free four Filipinos
MANILA: Four Filipinos along with two Danish sailors were released by their Somali captors, the Danish government reported yesterday.
The Danish Foreign Ministry reported through its website that the six crewmen of Danish vessel Leopard are now safe and are receiving medical attention and crisis counselling. The Danish vessel was seized by Somali pirates on January 12, 2011 off Oman.
The Danish Foreign Ministry said that the families of the crewmen have been informed of their release. “The crew members will be reunited with their families in Denmark, Chile and the Philippines as soon as possible,” the statement said.
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