DHAKA (Reuters) – Bangladesh’s garment boom has made Mohammad Fazlul Azim a wealthy man. Over three decades his empire has grown from a single factory to a string of plants that employ 26,000 workers and clock up an annual turnover of about $200 million.

Azim, who is also a member of parliament, has benefited from government policies to grow the industry into a global powerhouse. His elegant home here in Dhaka is a haven of luxury with an outdoor swimming pool, walled off from the chaos of the capital’s streets.

DHAKA (Reuters) – Bangladesh’s garment boom has made Mohammad Fazlul Azim a wealthy man. Over three decades his empire has grown from a single factory to a string of plants that employ 26,000 workers and clock up an annual turnover of about $200 million.

Azim, who is also a member of parliament, has benefited from government policies to grow the industry into a global powerhouse. His elegant home here in Dhaka is a haven of luxury with an outdoor swimming pool, walled off from the chaos of the capital’s streets.

DHAKA (Reuters) – One night in February, Rajib Haider was set upon near his Dhaka home by five knife-wielding youths. His face was so lacerated that a relative who found the body wasn’t sure it was him until he called Haider’s cellphone and heard it ring inside a pocket.

Haider was a blogger, one of hundreds in Bangladesh demanding the death penalty for Islamist leaders accused of wartime atrocities, whose grisly murder swelled the crowds at student-led rallies many hailed as a “Bangladesh Spring”.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Pakistan urged India on Thursday to tone down the “Pakistan bashing” over a spate of military clashes in Kashmir between the nuclear-armed neighbors, and again offered foreign minister-level talks to try to cool tensions.

“I think it is important not to let this cycle escalate into something which becomes even more ugly than it is today,” Pakistani High Commissioner to India Salman Bashir said in an interview with Reuters. “Let’s try to see if we can cool down and resume normal business.”

DHAKA (Reuters) – Sweating and trembling as he fielded questions about last month’s killer fire at one of his factories in Bangladesh, Delwar Hossain insisted he had no idea the workshop was making clothes for Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) when it went up in flames.

On the other side of the world, Wal-Mart said the factory – where 112 workers lost their lives – was not authorised to produce its merchandise and had been sub-contracted by a supplier without its permission.

DHAKA, Dec 7 (Reuters) – Sweating and trembling as he
fielded questions about last month’s killer fire at one of his
factories in Bangladesh, Delwar Hossain insisted he had no idea
the workshop was making clothes for Wal-Mart Stores Inc
when it went up in flames.

On the other side of the world, Wal-Mart said the factory -
where 112 workers lost their lives – was not authorised to
produce its merchandise and had been sub-contracted by a
supplier without its permission.

KATHMANDU, Nov 12 (Reuters) – Apart from a small bust of
Chairman Mao beside his armchair, Nepali Prime Minister Baburam
Bhattarai flaunts no trappings of his revolutionary past: these
days he talks of foreign investment, infrastructure projects and
double-digit growth.

The trouble is that, since they handed over their guns at
the end of a decade-long insurrection in 2006, Nepal’s Maoists
have done no better at running the Himalayan republic than the
corrupt and incompetent political mainstream they joined.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – From a shabby house in one of New Delhi’s grimmest suburbs, a mild-mannered former tax official has launched a salvo of accusations of corruption involving some of India’s most powerful people, rocking the political establishment.

In quick succession, Arvind Kejriwal has publicly levelled charges of shady dealings against the son-in-law of ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi, the outgoing law minister and the leader of the main opposition party.