Bangladesh orders mass arrests over 2013 factory disaster

Yahoo - AFP, December 21, 2015

The Rana Plaza garment factory building collapsed in Savar, on the outskirts

of Dhaka, in April 2013 killing more than 1,100 people

A Bangladesh court Monday ordered the arrest of 24 people and seizure of their assets after they failed to turn up to face murder charges over the collapse of a garment factory that killed more than 1,100 people.

Senior judicial magistrate Mohammad Al Amin issued the warrants after his court accepted the murder charges against the 24 fugitives for the collapse in April 2013 of the Rana Plaza factory compound, one of the world's worst industrial disasters.

"The court accepted the charge sheet against 41 people who have been charged with murder over the Rana Plaza disaster," prosecutor Anwarul Kabir told AFP.

"The court issued arrest warrants against 24 of them as they have absconded. It also ordered the seizure of their property," he said, adding police have been asked to report on their arrests by January 27.

Factfile on the 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse in
Bangladesh that killed over 1,100 garment workers. 

Kabir said the court had accepted the charges against four government factory and building inspectors despite attempts by their departments to shield them from prosecution by citing public servant immunity rules.

The case was delayed by "several months" due to the non-clearance by the various departments, Kabir said, adding that prosecutors now expect the trial to start by April next year.

Among the 41 who have been charged with murder is Sohel Rana, the owner of the nine-storey complex on the outskirts of Dhaka which collapsed on April 24, 2013, at the start of the working day.

Rana, who is in custody awaiting trial, became Bangladesh's public enemy number one after survivors recounted how they were forced to start work despite complaints about cracks developing in the walls the previous day.

At least 1,138 people are known to have died in the tragedy, the worst in the country's history. Rescue workers struggled for weeks to retrieve the bodies from the ruins but several people are still unaccounted for.

More than 2,000 people were injured, including many who lost limbs.

Seven owners of factories housed in the complex and 12 government officials responsible for safety and inspections were also charged with murder.

Bangladeshi property tycoon Sohel Rana is among

 the 41 who have been charged with murder over

 the 2013 factory collapse

Workers 'slapped'

Rana's parents, who jointly owned the building with him, and the mayor and councillor of the town of Savar where it was located, were also charged.

Those facing arrest including "associates of Rana" who "slapped and forced" the workers to join the shift, Kabir said.

In a separate case Rana and 41 others have been charged with violating building codes and with illegally extending the six-storey building, which was initially approved as a shopping mall, into a nine-storey factory complex.

The disaster highlighted appalling safety problems in Bangladesh's $30 billion garment industry and triggered global concern as protesters marched to demand action from Western retailers.

A host of such retailers had clothing made at the five factories housed at Rana Plaza, including Italy's Benetton, Spain's Mango and the British low-cost chain Primark.

The disaster prompted sweeping reforms including new safety inspections and higher wages in the industry which employs about four million workers.

Two groups of top retailers such as Walmart and H&M have since launched drives to clean up the sourcing factories. They hired engineers to review fire, building and electrical safety in thousands of garment plants.

Under the clean-up campaign, engineers have identified safety problems in each of the plants, and drawn up recommendations for upgrades as well as setting deadlines for the owners to implement remedial measures.

From ghost city to boomtown, Phnom Penh soars high

Yahoo – AFP, Suy Se, 20 December 2015

Phnom Penh is second only to Laos in East Asia for the fastest rate of urban 

spatial expansion, according to the World Bank (AFP Photo/Tang Chhin Sothy)

From glitzy malls and high-rise flats to five-star hotels, a luxury building boom in Phnom Penh is transforming a capital once reduced to a ghost town into one of Asia's fastest growing cities.

Inside the recently opened Aeon Mall in the heart of Phnom Penh, Cambodia's first mega shopping centre, shoppers and curious residents flock to see the latest Levi's and Giordano handbags, snapping selfies in front of a giant Christmas tree.

It is a common scene across much of Southeast Asia but was previously unimaginable for many in Cambodia where around 20 percent of people still live on less than $1.25 per day.

But while poverty remains entrenched, a fast-growing middle class and elite are increasingly looking for local ways to spend their cash.

"I am glad we have such a modern mall in Phnom Penh. It shows the city is growing," says 20-year-old Bopha, a well-heeled university student who said her family made more than $1 million in a recent land sale.

Inside the recently opened Aeon Mall in the heart of Phnom Penh, Cambodia's 

first mega shopping centre, shoppers and curious residents flock to see the latest

 Levi's and Giordano handbags, snapping selfies in front of a giant Christmas tree

(AFP Photo/Tang Chhin Sothy)

Bopha said she used to have to travel to Thailand and Singapore for her shopping trips but that was now changing.

"Their cities are crowded with high-rise towers. I think we are heading in the same direction to be like them," she beamed.

The $200 million Japanese-built mall is just one of dozens of new shopping complexes, condominium projects and hotels springing up in Phnom Penh as Cambodia rides a wave of high economic growth rates in recent years.

The capital is second only to Laos in East Asia for the fastest rate of urban spatial expansion, according to the World Bank, and its economy is expected to grow at 6.9 percent this year.

Rise of the high-rise

All across the city luxury high-rise condos are popping up with names like "The Peak" and "Diamond Island", complete with billboards promising aspirational taglines such as "Sophisticated Urban Living".

A ferry sails past the five-star Sokha hotel in Phnom Penh (AFP Photo/

Tang Chhin Sothy)

According to the government, Cambodia drew construction investment worth $1.75 billion in the first nine months of 2015, a 13.7 percent rise from a year earlier.

Many of the new entrants into the kingdom's building market are developers from Japan, China, South Korea and Singapore.

The 39-storey Vattanac Capital Tower, Cambodia's first skyscraper which was finished in 2014, is designed in the shape of a dragon and incorporates Chinese traditional feng shui principles.

A few kilometres (miles) away, the local Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation is drawing from the country's past, building Parisian-style apartments framed by a replica of the Arc de Triomphe on a riverside complex in downtown Phnom Penh.

But some are worried where the construction frenzy will leave a city once famed as the "Pearl of Asia".

In its French colonial heyday Phnom Penh was regarded as one of the loveliest cities in Southeast Asia thanks to its wide European-style avenues, carefully manicured gardens and picturesque stately homes.

Just a few decades later, the buzzing city was reduced to a ghost town when Pol Pot's brutal Khmer Rouge army seized control of the capital and ordered its two million people to evacuate.

Phnom Penh has been coming back to life since the radical communist regime

 was toppled in 1979 but the surge of activity and change to its landscape has

intensified in recent years (AFP Photo/Tang Chhin Sothy)

The city has been coming back to life since the radical communist regime was toppled in 1979 but the surge of activity and change to its landscape has intensified in recent years.

Poor pushed to city fringes

Silas Everett of The Asia Foundation in Cambodia fears the city's original charm is fast disappearing with villas and stately buildings from the colonial era being torn down to make room for lucrative new construction projects.

"Phnom Penh's architectural heritage is world renowned... Yet the rate of destruction of these buildings of significant cultural heritage is alarming," said Everett, mourning in particular the loss of buildings designed by famed Cambodian architect Vann Molyvann.

And while wealthy Cambodians are lining up for a chance to live in some of the city's most coveted new addresses, the urban poor are increasingly relegated to the edges of the capital where many were evicted to make way for commercial developments.

Critics of strongman premier Hun Sen, who has ruled with an iron fist for the last 30 years, say he has turned Cambodia into a notoriously corrupt fiefdom where those loyal to him are handsomely enriched.

But he remains unapologetic about the capital's rapid transformation.

Experts worry that Phnom Penh's original charm is disappearing with villas 

and stately buildings from the colonial era being torn down to make room for

lucrative new construction projects (AFP Photo/Tang Chhin Sothy)

Phnom Penh, he said during a speech in November, would have been a "coconut plantation" had the Khmer Rouge remained.

Instead, he added, "an already dead city survived through the bare hands of our people".

Not everyone has benefited, however.

Strolling through Aeon Mall, Seng Seat, 60, says most of the products remain outside her budget.

"The price of some clothes and shoes at the retail brand shops is too expensive," Seat said.

"I just had a look at the price and left immediately."

Landslide in southern China leaves dozens missing

Chinese state media say a number of people are missing after a landslide buried buildings in the southern city of Shenzhen. The landslide also reportedly caused an explosion in a gas pipeline.

Deutsche Welle, 20 December 2015

The landslide in Guangdong province on Sunday buried some 22 buildings and left 27 people missing in Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong, Chinese state media reported.

Earlier reports by the state-run Xinhua news agency spoke of 41 people missing after the landslide, which hit the city's Liuxi Industrial Park, also causing the collapse of at least one building.

Some 700 rescuers are reported to be scouring the site for survivors

Xinhua said four people had so far been rescued from the rubble, three of whom had suffered slight injuries. It was unclear whether there had been any fatalities.

Hundreds of rescuers were at the scene looking for survivors, Xinhua said. Local authorities said most residents had been evacuated from the buildings before the landslide hit.

The official broadcaster China Central Television said a section of the major West-East natural gas pipeline also exploded.

A landslide last month in rural Zhejiang province killed 38 people after burying 27 homes.

tj/jlw (Reuters, dpa, AFP)

Huge China landslide, caused by illegal soil dumping, leaves 91 missing https://t.co/LWMjtmNNj2 pic.twitter.com/X76tnM3DvU

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) December 21, 2015

Fire shuts down Belgium's Tihange nuclear reactor

A nuclear reactor at the Tihange power station in Belgium has been shut down following a fire inside the plant. Germany has protested the power station near the border.

Deutsche Welle, 19 December 2015

Tihange's reactor 1 was taken offline at 10:35 p.m. (2135 UTC) Friday following a fire in a non-nuclear section of the plant, operator Electrabel told Belgium's private Belga news agency.

Electrabel said the incident did not impact workers, the public or the environment.

The power plant - about 70 kilometers (43 miles) from the German border city of Aachen - is controversial in neighboring Germany.

Earlier this week regional government authorities in Germany protested Belgium's decision to restart the plant's reactor 2 following a two-year shutdown after discovery of micro-cracks in the reactor's cement casing in 2012.

Belgium's decision to delay decommissioning its nuclear reactors is
controversial in neighboring Germany

German neighbors unhappy with nearby reactors

North Rhine-Westphalia's state government has protested restarting the 40-year-old reactors, claiming it is a safety hazard and located to millions of people as four of Germany's 10 largest cities - Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund and Essen - are located within the Rhineland state.

Seven nuclear power plants produce about half of Belgium's electricity supply. Two other 40-year-old reactors meant to be decommissioned this year - Doel 1 and 2 - are being kept online for another decade to help meet domestic demand.

Belgium said it's committed to phase out nuclear power entirely by 2025. Germany is also phasing out its nuclear plants, with the remaining slated to close by 2022.

jar/sms (dpa, AFP)

Taste for luxury: Ethiopia's new elite spur housing boom

Yahoo – AFP, Justine Boulo, December 2, 2015

Large villas are seen at a new housing development on the outskirts of Addis
 Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia White fences and manicured lawns surround the
 villas of an elegant housing estate in Ethiopia, a potent symbol of the emerging elite
 in a country better known for drought and famine. Just 10 years ago, the affluent
suburb of Yerrer View was little more than fields. Today, imposing villas with
pillars stand behind neatly-trimmed oleander hedges. (AFP Photo/Zacharias Abubeker)

Addis Ababa (AFP) - White fences and manicured lawns surround the villas of an elegant housing estate in Ethiopia, a potent symbol of the emerging elite in a country better known for drought and famine.

Just 10 years ago, the affluent suburb of Yerrer View was little more than fields. Today, imposing villas with pillars stand behind neatly-trimmed oleander hedges.

A comfortable commuting distance of 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the capital Addis Ababa, the 600-hectare (1,500-acre) estate has tapped into a growing taste for high-end luxury among wealthy Ethiopians, who are looking for a home which reflects their success in business.

Over the past decade, this Horn of Africa nation has seen an annual growth rate of nearly 10 percent, World Bank figures show, due to a boom in construction, manufacturing, trade and agriculture.

For those in Africa's second most populous country who are enjoying that growth, the estate symbolises much more than a home.

"We are selling a lifestyle more than just housing," says Haile Mesele, a civil engineer who heads Country Club Developers, the property firm behind the development.

"We don't do any advertising. We prefer that the residents themselves spread the news, and in a way, chose their own neighbours," he said.

According to a recent study by New World Wealth (NWW), a South Africa-based market research consultancy, there are now 2,700 millionaires in Ethiopia, reflecting an increase of 108 percent between 2007 and 2013 -- the fastest growth rate in Africa.

"There is a demand for luxury real estate," said Wunmi Osholake, who runs the Ethiopian branch of online real estate platform Lamudi, which focuses on emerging markets, with customers eyeing property costing over $330,000.

The price, she adds, has no upper limit.

A new Manhattan?

And the luxury boom is not just in the suburbs.

In the centre of Addis Ababa, the bustling Kazanchis business district is also undergoing major renovations.

Eighteen months ago, May Real Estate Development began a new residential development called the Addis Gojo project, which incorporates 113 apartments in three 10-storey towers located near several embassies.

"For those working for the UN or diplomats, it is very central. The district is a new sort of Manhattan," says project manager Bitania Ephfrem.

"The lifts work, which is not the case elsewhere," says Bitania, adding they are planning rooftop swimming pools, a gym and a restaurant "so that residents don't need to leave the premises."

A standard apartment between 140-170 square metres (1,500-1,800 square feet) rents for about $1800 per month (1700 euros).

Villas for locals

Such luxury housing has been designed to meet the needs of Ethiopia's emerging new middle class. At the estate in Yerrer View, hundreds of the homes from stand-alone villas to modern apartments are already occupied with plans for a total of 5,400 houses for some 20,000 people.

When completed, the estate will also include a golf course, a five-star spa hotel, a shopping centre, school and clinic and an organic farm covering about 200 hectares.

"When we began, economic growth wasn't very strong," recalls Haile. "Half of our clients came from the diaspora. But since then, the economy has become a lot stronger and nearly 85 percent of our residents are local."

The customers have high expectations. Pushing open the door, Mesele shows off a 500 square metre (5380 square foot) property built on a plot measuring 1,000 square metres.

A large open plan kitchen and a curved imitation-marble staircase leads up to the first floor where there are three bedrooms, all en-suite.

The master bedroom has a fireplace and a dressing room, while the bathroom has "an open space in case the owners want to install a sauna," he explains.

All that remains is to install surveillance cameras able to read a licence plate before opening the gate, smoke detectors and a security system.

And the price tag? $400,000 (377,000 euros) -- a fortune in a country where the gross domestic product per capita is $565.

"No matter what we build, it will always be too little to meet demand," he says.

But others have spotted the growing demand, with several other sites popping up nearby.

Labour challenge

Since the overthrow of a Marxist junta in 1991, Ethiopia's political and economic situation has stabilised, although rights groups have criticised the government for suppressing opposition.

The economy is still heavily dependent on agriculture, especially coffee, with the vast majority of the country's workers involved in that sector.

Meeting the demand for new housing has called for bringing in foreign workers as Ethiopia lacks a skilled work force.

Haile said his firm recruited around a thousand specialist workers from China.

Yoseph Mebratu, the major shareholder in May Real Estate Development, also complains that he had to import 70 percent of raw materials.

"Windows, doors, wood panelling... everything comes from China," he told AFP, adding that taxes are "very heavy."

Inflation, which hit a record 64.2 percent in July 2008 but has since stabilised at around 13 percent, has also caused delays.

"We had to slow down our business and missed deadlines... but since last year, we have become profitable again," Mesele added.