Bangladesh
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Bangladesh Arrests Man for 'Filming' Boy's Lynching

Bangladesh police said Thursday they had arrested a man on suspicion of filming the brutal murder of a 13-year-old boy that provoked public outrage after the footage went viral.

Police arrested Nur Mia, 20, on the outskirts of the northeastern city of Sylhet late Wednesday.

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Dozens of Boat Migrants Found by Myanmar Navy

Myanmar's navy has discovered over a hundred migrants stranded for weeks on a southern island, state media said Tuesday, in the wake of a regional boat crisis earlier this year.

The group of 102 men were picked up by Myanmar's navy off the coast of the country's southernmost Tanintharyi region, according to a report by the Global New Light of Myanmar.

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Bangladeshis Demand Killers Hang over Boy's Lynching

Protesters took to the streets across Bangladesh Tuesday to demand the death penalty for the killers of a 13-year-old boy as anger mounted over the sickening lynching which was captured on video and then went viral.

Bangladeshi police have now arrested five people over the July 8 killing of Samiul Alam Rajon, who was tied to a pole and then subjected to a brutal assault in which he pleaded for his life.

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25 Dead in Bangladesh Charity Handout Stampede

A stampede during a Ramadan charity handout killed at least 25 people in Bangladesh on Friday as hundreds of desperately poor people tried to get their hands on free clothing, police said.

The stampede in the northern city of Mymensingh erupted when crowds of people tried to force their way into a factory compound through a small gate after massing outside before dawn, according to local police chiefs.

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Bangladesh Police Identify 7 Suspects in Blogger Murder

Bangladesh police said Tuesday seven people belonging to a home-grown Islamist militant group took part in the brutal murder of a Bangladeshi-born U.S. atheist blogger in Dhaka in February.

All seven followed Avijit Roy on the night of February 26 and then brutally hacked him to death in a busy road on the Dhaka University campus when Roy and his wife were returning from a book fair.

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Bangladesh Police Arrest 'Top Qaida Militant'

Bangladesh police said Thursday they had arrested 12 suspected militants including the local head of al-Qaida's branch in the region, foiling an attack planned for the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) also seized explosives and other bomb-making materials during raids on Wednesday on the militants' hideouts in the capital Dhaka, spokesman Major Maksudul Alam said.

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Bangladesh Upholds War Crimes Death Sentence of Top Islamist

Bangladesh's highest court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence against the second highest ranked Islamist leader for war crimes during the country's battle for independence, paving the way for his hanging.

In a brief ruling, Chief Justice S.K. Sinha "dismissed" Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid's appeal against his sentence, an AFP correspondent at the Supreme Court said. 

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Indonesia Warns Boat Payment Would be Bribery amid Australia Row

Indonesia's vice president warned Monday that paying people-smugglers would amount to "bribery" after Australia was accused of handing out money to turn back a boatload of asylum-seekers.

Allegations that the captain and five crew of a boat, carrying migrants from Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka, were each paid US$5,000 by an Australian immigration official to turn back to Indonesia were made to police on Rote island in the country's east last week.

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Australian PM Refuses to Deny People-Smugglers Were Paid to Turn Back Boat

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Friday Australia would do "whatever we need to do" to combat people-smuggling as he repeatedly refused to deny claims an official paid thousands of dollars to turn back a boat from Indonesia.

Indonesian authorities said they were investigating allegations told to local police that the captain and five crew of a boat carrying asylum-seekers were each paid US$5,000 by an Australian immigration official to return to the Southeast Asian nation.

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Photographer Arrested over Bangladesh Blogger Murder

Bangladesh police said Monday they have arrested a photo-journalist over the murder of an atheist blogger hacked to death last month by a masked gang wielding machetes.

The man was arrested Sunday in the northeastern city of Sylhet and remanded in custody by a local court over the murder of the blogger, the third to be hacked to death since February.

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