- Overshooting 1.5C risks 'irreversible' climate impact: study
- Time running out in Florida to flee Hurricane Milton
- Demis Hassabis, from chess prodigy to Nobel-winning AI pioneer
- The long walk for water in the parched Colombian Amazon
- Biden-Netanyahu to talk as Hezbollah, Israeli forces clash
- France vows to step up drugs fight after police vehicles torched
- Air France says jet flew over Iraq during Iran attack on Israel
- Activists target Picasso work to protest Israel arms sales
- Let 'Emily in Paris' remain in Paris, Macron says
- Global stocks diverge as Chinese shares tumble
- Time runs out in Florida to flee Hurricane Milton
- Chad issues warning ahead of more devastating floods
- Record-breaking Root helps England dominate Pakistan in first Test
- German govt sees economy shrinking again in 2024
- Ex-UK soldier denies passing secrets to Iran intelligence
- Creator's death no bar to new 'Dragon Ball' products
- Three Kosovo Serbs on trial over 'secession plot' attack
- Van Gogh museum to launch Impressionism show
- French minister ups ante in Eiffel Tower Olympic rings row
- Japan PM calls snap election to 'create a new Japan'
- German police shut pro-Palestinian camp over Thunberg invite
- Chinese stocks tumble on lack of fresh stimulus
- Trio wins chemistry Nobel for protein design, prediction
- SE Asian summit urges end to Myanmar violence but struggles for solutions
- Wimbledon replaces line judges with electronic system
- Record-breaking Root hits hundred as England power to 351-3
- Record-breaking Root hits hundred as England's power to 351-3
- Sabalenka relishes 'much-needed' tennis rivalry with Swiatek
- Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson set for six weeks out
- Taylor Swift got police escort to London gigs after Austria terror plot
- Cook tips Root to break Tendulkar's all-time runs record
- British skull auction sparks Indian demand for return
- Joe Root: England's elegant Test record-breaker
- Braving war: Lebanon's 'badass' airline defies odds
- Klopp to return as head of Red Bull football operations
- Hezbollah strikes Israel, says it foiled Israeli incursions
- Jurgen Klopp to return as head of Red Bull football operations
- Sinner to face Medvedev in Shanghai Masters quarter-finals
- US weighs Google breakup in landmark trial
- Record-breaking Root guides England to 232-2 in reply to Pakistan's 556
- Japan PM dissolves parliament for 'honeymoon' snap election
- Chinese stocks tumble on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- 7-Eleven owner confirms new takeover offer from Couche-Tard
- Goodbye Tito? Tomb at risk as Serbs argue over Yugoslav legacy
- Restoration experts piece together silent Sherlock Holmes mystery
- Sinner avoids Shanghai deja vu with assured Shelton win
- Pyongyang to 'permanently' shut border with South Korea
- Trumpet star Marsalis says jazz creates 'balance' in divided world
- No children left on Greece's famed but emptying island
- Nepali becomes youngest to climb world's 8,000m peaks
RIO | -0.68% | 66.21 | $ | |
CMSC | 0.28% | 24.64 | $ | |
NGG | -0.34% | 65.675 | $ | |
BTI | 0.55% | 35.415 | $ | |
GSK | 0.45% | 38.19 | $ | |
SCS | 2.44% | 13.1 | $ | |
BCE | -0.15% | 33.46 | $ | |
BP | -0.41% | 31.9 | $ | |
BCC | 0.45% | 142.665 | $ | |
RYCEF | -1.01% | 6.9 | $ | |
JRI | 0.3% | 13.2 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.11% | 24.8248 | $ | |
RBGPF | -2.48% | 59.33 | $ | |
RELX | -0.09% | 46.6 | $ | |
AZN | 0.12% | 76.965 | $ | |
VOD | 0.46% | 9.705 | $ |
Nobel winner Yunus returning to Bangladesh to lead new government
Nobel peace prize winner Muhammad Yunus was flying back to Bangladesh on Thursday to lead a caretaker government after a student-led uprising ended the 15-year rule of Sheikh Hasina.
Yunus, 84, could be sworn in as the country's new leader as soon as Thursday evening to begin what the army chief has vowed will be a "beautiful democratic process".
The prospect of Yunus standing alongside military leaders was almost unimaginable a week ago, when security forces were shooting dead protesters who had taken to the streets demanding that Hasina resign.
But the military on the weekend turned on Hasina, and she was forced to flee to neighbouring India as millions of Bangladeshis celebrated her demise.
The military then agreed to students' demands that Yunus, who won the Nobel in 2006 for his pioneering microfinancing work, lead an interim government.
"I'm looking forward to going back home, see what's happening and how we can organise ourselves to get out of the trouble we are in," Yunus told reporters in Paris' airport on Wednesday.
Yunus had travelled abroad this year while on bail after being sentenced to six months in jail on a charge condemned as politically motivated, and which a Dhaka court on Wednesday acquitted him of.
"Be calm and get ready to build the country," Yunus said Wednesday in a statement before beginning his journey back home.
"If we take the path of violence everything will be destroyed."
Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman said Wednesday that he hoped to swear in the interim government on Thursday evening and that he backed Yunus.
"I am certain that he will be able to take us through a beautiful democratic process," Waker said.
Yunus said he wanted to hold elections "within a few" months.
- 'Beautiful way' -
Few other details about the planned government have been released, including the role of the military.
But Bangladeshis voiced hope as they joined a rally in Dhaka on Wednesday of the former opposition Bangladesh National Party.
"I expect that a national government will be formed with everyone's consent in a beautiful way," Moynul Islam Pintu told AFP.
"I expect that the country is run in a nice way, and the police force is reformed so that they can't harass people."
Hasina, 76, who had been in power since 2009, quit on Monday as hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of Dhaka.
Jubilant crowds later stormed and looted her palace.
Monday's events were the culmination of more than a month of unrest, which began as protests against a plan for quotas in government jobs but morphed into an anti-Hasina movement.
Hasina, who was accused of rigging January elections and widespread human rights abuses, deployed security forces to quash the protests.
At least 455 people were killed in the unrest, according to an AFP tally based on police, government officials and hospital doctors.
- Military move -
The military's switching of allegiances was the decisive factor in her demise.
It has since acceded to a range of other demands from the student leaders.
The president dissolved parliament on Tuesday, a key demand of the students and the BNP.
The head of the police force, which protesters have blamed for leading Hasina's crackdown, was sacked on Tuesday.
The new chief, Md. Mainul Islam, offered an apology on Wednesday for the conduct of officers and vowed a "fair and impartial investigation" into the killings of "students, common people and the police".
Ex-prime minister and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, 78, was also released from years of house arrest, while some political prisoners were freed.
Police said mobs had launched revenge attacks on Hasina's allies and their own officers, and also freed more than 500 inmates from a prison.
Protesters broke into parliament and torched TV stations. Others smashed statues of Hasina's father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's independence hero.
But since Tuesday, streets in the capital have been largely peaceful.
Y.Aukaiv--AMWN