SAVAR, Bangladesh - Police say the death toll from the collapse of a garment factory building in Bangladesh has soared past 1,100 as recovery operations continue. Doctors say a seamstress who was rescued 17 days after the eight-story building collapsed is recovering in a hospital, but is exhausted, panicked and dehydrated. Her discovery in the rubble Friday brought a boost to the rescue workers. By Saturday, they had resumed their grim task and the death toll reached 1,115 in the world's worst garment industry disaster.

By Ruma Paul and Serajul Quadir DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh urged on Saturday urged the European Union not to take tough measures against its economically crucial textile industry in response to the collapse of a garment factory that killed nearly 550 people. Bodies were still being pulled from the ruins on Saturday as tearful families stood by waiting for news of victims of the country's worst ever industrial accident.

Bangladeshi police broke up a protest by tens of thousands of religious hardliners and shut down an Islamist television station Monday after 28 people were killed in running battles on the streets of Dhaka. In some of the fiercest violence to rock the capital since independence four decades ago, hundreds more people were reported to have been injured as riot police broke up the rally near a key commercial district in a pre-dawn raid. Dozens of demonstrators were also arrested while the leader of the protests was put on a plane to the second city Chittagong.

The death toll from Bangladesh's worst industrial disaster surpassed 620 Sunday after dozens more bodies were pulled from the wreckage of a nine-storey building that housed garment factories. Search teams said the toll would almost certainly rise since debris had only been cleared down to the fifth floor of the pancaked building, and a strong stench from lower floors suggested more bodies would be found. Lieutenant Imran Khan of the army control room coordinating the rescue told AFP the confirmed death toll now stands at 622 after 53 bodies were pulled out on Sunday.