Bangladesh awaits interim government, may include Nobel laureate Yunus

Bangladesh awaits interim government, may include Nobel laureate Yunus
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus speaks to the media after he was granted bail by a court in an embezzlement case, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on March 3, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 06 August 2024
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Bangladesh awaits interim government, may include Nobel laureate Yunus

Bangladesh awaits interim government, may include Nobel laureate Yunus
  • Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled country on Monday following violent uprising against her
  • Yunus, 84, and his Grameen Bank won 2006 Nobel Peace prize for work to lift millions out of poverty in rural Bangladesh 

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s army chief will meet student protest leaders on Tuesday as the country awaits the formation of a new government a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled following a violent uprising against her.

Traffic was lighter than usual in Dhaka and schools reopened with thin attendance after closing down in mid-July as the anti-quota protests spiralled. About 300 people were killed and thousands injured in violence that ripped through the country.

Garment factories, which supply apparel to some of world’s top brands and are a mainstay of the economy, will remain closed on Tuesday and plans to reopen will be announced later, the main garment manufacturers association said.

Student leaders, who spearheaded a movement against job quotas that turned into a call for Hasina to resign, said early on Tuesday that they want a new interim government with Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus as its chief adviser.

“Any government other than the one we recommended would not be accepted,” Nahid Islam, one of the key organizers of the student movement, said in a video on Facebook with three other organizers. “We wouldn’t accept any army-supported or army-led government.”

“We have also had discussions with Muhammad Yunus and he has agreed to take on this responsibility at our invitation,” Islam added.

Yunus, 84, and his Grameen Bank won the 2006 Nobel Peace prize for work to lift millions out of poverty by granting tiny loans of under $100 to the rural poor of Bangladesh but he was indicted by a court in June on charges of embezzlement that he denied.

Reports said Yunus is currently in Paris and he did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters. He told Indian broadcaster Times Now in a recorded interview that Monday marked the “second liberation day” for Bangladesh after its 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.

But he said Bangladeshis were angry with neighbor India for allowing Hasina to land there after fleeing Dhaka.

“India is our best friend...people are angry at India because you are supporting the person who destroyed our lives,” Yunus said.

Hasina landed at a military airfield at Hindon near Delhi on Monday after leaving Dhaka, two Indian government officials told Reuters, adding that India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval met her there. They did not elaborate on her stay or plans.

India’s foreign minister was due to address an all-party meeting on Tuesday morning about the crisis in Bangladesh, Indian news agency ANI reported.

FRESH ELECTIONS PLANNED

Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman plans to meet the protest organizers at 12 noon local time (0600 GMT) on Tuesday, the army said in a statement, a day after Zaman announced Hasina’s resignation in a televised address and said an interim government would be formed.

Jubilant crowds stormed unopposed into the opulent grounds of Hasina’s residence after she fled, carrying out looted furniture and TVs. One man balanced a red velvet, gilt-edged chair on his head. Another held an armful of vases.

Zaman said he had held talks with leaders of major political parties — excluding Hasina’s long-ruling Awami League — to discuss the way ahead and was due to hold talks with the president, Mohammed Shahabuddin.

An interim government will hold elections as soon as possible after consulting all parties and stakeholders, President Shahabuddin said in a televised address late on Monday.

He also said that it was “unanimously decided” to immediately release the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson and Hasina’s nemesis, Begum Khaleda Zia, who was convicted in a graft case in 2018 but moved to a hospital a year later as her health deteriorated. She has denied the charges against her.

A BNP spokesperson said on Monday that Zia, 78, was in hospital and “will clear all charges legally and come out soon.”

Hasina, 76, had ruled since winning a decades-long power struggle with Zia in 2009.

The Indian Express newspaper reported that Hasina was taken to a “safe house” after her arrival at Hindon and she was likely to travel to the United Kingdom. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.


Pope Francis in critical condition for second day, Vatican says

Cardinal Baldassare Reina leads a holy mass and prayers for the healing of Pope Francis at Saint John Lateran archbasilica.
Cardinal Baldassare Reina leads a holy mass and prayers for the healing of Pope Francis at Saint John Lateran archbasilica.
Updated 57 min 3 sec ago
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Pope Francis in critical condition for second day, Vatican says

Cardinal Baldassare Reina leads a holy mass and prayers for the healing of Pope Francis at Saint John Lateran archbasilica.
  • Pope was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Feb. 14 after experiencing difficulty breathing for several days and subsequently had pneumonia diagnosed

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis, battling double pneumonia, remains in a critical condition for a second day running and his prognosis is still guarded, the Vatican said on Sunday.
The pope, 88, was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on February 14 after experiencing difficulty breathing for several days and subsequently had pneumonia diagnosed in both lungs.
The Vatican first described his condition as critical on Saturday, reporting that Francis had needed supplemental oxygen and blood transfusions that day after a “prolonged asthma-like respiratory crisis.”
“The condition of the Holy Father remains critical; however, since last night he has not experienced further respiratory crises,” the Vatican said on Sunday.
Blood tests also indicated a “mild renal insufficiency, which is currently under control,” it said.
“The complexity of the clinical picture, and the necessary wait for the pharmacological therapies to show some effect, require that the prognosis remains guarded,” it said.
The statement described the pope as “alert and well-oriented” and said he was receiving “high-flow oxygen therapy” through a tube under his nose.
In a written message for his usual Sunday prayer in St. Peter’s Square, which the pope was unable to read out for a second consecutive week, Francis said he was continuing “confidently” with his treatment in hospital. He thanked his doctors and people who have sent him messages of support.
Archbishop Rino Fisichella, a senior Vatican official, told participants at a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday morning they should make their prayers for Francis “stronger and more intense.”
The Diocese of Rome, which the pope leads, held a special Mass on Sunday evening to pray for Francis, so that he will have “the strength necessary to get through this moment of trial.”
Double pneumonia is a serious infection that can inflame and scar both lungs, making it difficult to breathe. The Vatican has described the pope’s infection as “complex,” saying it is being caused by two or more microorganisms.
Francis, who has been pope since 2013, has suffered bouts of ill health in the past two years. He is particularly prone to lung infections because he developed pleurisy as a young adult and had part of one lung removed.
Pilgrims pray for pope
Near the Vatican on Sunday morning, pilgrims were expressing concern for the pope’s condition.
“I am very, very sad,” said Elvira Romana, from Italy. “I don’t know how you can continue on normally at this moment.”
Matteo Licari, from Sardinia, said he was “extremely worried.” “Let’s hope he can keep living,” said Licari. “We are waiting for him to come back here.”
Outside Gemelli hospital, groups of people were gathering to pray near a statue of the late Pope John Paul II, who was treated at the facility many times during his long papacy.
People were leaving flowers and notes for Francis, and lighting candles at the base of the late pope’s memorial.
In a statement on Saturday evening, the Vatican said the pope had needed blood transfusions because tests showed he had a low platelet count, which is associated with anaemia. Platelets are cell fragments in our blood that form clots and stop or prevent bleeding.
In a briefing on Friday, two of his doctors said the pope was highly vulnerable because of his age and general frailty.
Dr. Sergio Alfieri, a senior member of the Gemelli staff, said there was a risk the lung infection could spread to his bloodstream and develop into sepsis, which “could be very difficult to overcome.”


Zelensky says he is willing to quit presidency if it means peace in Ukraine

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a joint press conference at the “Ukraine. Year 2025” forum in Kyiv.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a joint press conference at the “Ukraine. Year 2025” forum in Kyiv.
Updated 23 February 2025
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Zelensky says he is willing to quit presidency if it means peace in Ukraine

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a joint press conference at the “Ukraine. Year 2025” forum in Kyiv.
  • “If (it means) peace for Ukraine, if you really need me to leave my post, I am ready,” Zelensky said
  • “I can exchange this for NATO (membership), if that condition is there, immediately,” the president added

KYIV: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday he was willing to give up his position if it meant peace in Ukraine, adding that he could exchange his departure for his country’s entry into the NATO military alliance.
“If (it means) peace for Ukraine, if you really need me to leave my post, I am ready,” an irritated-looking Zelensky said when asked during a press conference whether he was ready to leave his post if it meant securing peace.
“I can exchange this for NATO (membership), if that condition is there, immediately,” the president added.
US President Donald Trump has pushed for elections to take place in Ukraine, having branded Zelensky a “dictator,” an apparent reference to the Ukrainian leader’s official five-year term running out in 2024. Russia has cited this in the past to assert that he is an illegitimate leader.
Ukrainian legislation prohibits holding elections during a state of martial law, which Ukraine declared the day Russia invaded in February 2022. Trump also falsely claimed that Zelensky has an approval rating of four percent.
“I am not going to be in power for decades, but we will not allow Putin to be in power over the territories of Ukraine either,” Zelensky said on Sunday, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A poll released this week put Zelensky’s approval ratings at 63 percent, and he made reference to this when talking about Trump’s claims on Sunday, calling his false statements “dangerous.”
“I believe it’s not a mistake, it’s misinformation that has an impact,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky said earlier this week Trump was in a “disinformation bubble,” angering the US President and his team. On Sunday, he sought to justify the earlier comments.
“(The information) about four percent of Ukrainians supporting me is one of the signals spread by the Russians, that’s why I said it was a disinformation attack, I didn’t say it was President Trump,” Zelensky said on Sunday.
Trump’s criticism of Zelensky came as relations between the two leaders deteriorated sharply in recent weeks.
Zelensky opposes the idea of elections in a full-scale war, a position backed by his major domestic political opponents.
The Ukrainian president also said he wanted to see Trump as a partner for Ukraine and more than a simply a mediator between Kyiv and Moscow.
“I really want it to be more than just mediation... that’s not enough,” he told a press conference in Kyiv.
Minerals deal

Trump has said Ukraine should give the US $500 billion in critical raw materials as payback for aid which Kyiv has already received from the previous Joe Biden administration.
Zelensky declined to sign a detailed US proposal last week that would have seen Washington receiving 50 percent of Ukraine’s critical minerals, which include graphite, uranium, titanium and lithium, the latter a key component in electric car batteries.
He has said he wants to do a deal, but that it should offer security guarantees for Ukraine in return.
On Friday, he said US and Ukrainian teams were working on a deal and Trump said he expects a deal will be signed soon.
On Sunday, Zelensky said at the press conference that he rejected the idea that Ukraine owed the US $500 billion.
“There cannot be (any) format which makes us debtors for the old (aid given).”
Zelensky said earlier this week that Washington had supplied his country with $67 billion in weapons and $31.5 billion in direct budget support throughout the nearly three-year war with Russia.
“I will not sign what 10 generations of Ukrainians will be repaying,” Zelensky said of the minerals deal.
Ukraine’s economy minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said on Sunday the 18 percent of Ukraine under Russian occupation contained about $350 billion of critical raw materials, adding that Ukraine is conducting additional geological research to update decades-old information.
The president’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said on Sunday that he had held constructive new talks with senior US officials on a deal to develop Ukrainian minerals.
“We are moving forward with our work. This was a constructive discussion,” Yermak wrote on Telegram.


British couple in their 70s detained by Taliban in Afghanistan

British couple in their 70s detained by Taliban in Afghanistan
Updated 23 February 2025
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British couple in their 70s detained by Taliban in Afghanistan

British couple in their 70s detained by Taliban in Afghanistan
  • Peter Reynolds, 79, and wife Barbie, 75, have spent 18 years running training projects in country
  • Daughter says she has not heard from her parents for over 2 weeks

LONDON: A British couple in their seventies were arrested by the Taliban in Afghanistan earlier this month, it was reported on Sunday.

Peter Reynolds, 79, and his wife Barbie, 75, who have spent 18 years running training projects in the country, were detained on Feb. 1 while returning to their home in Bamiyan.

Their daughter, Sarah Entwistle, told the BBC she had not heard from her parents in more than two weeks. Initially, they were able to send text messages from detention, with Afghan authorities assuring the family that they were “fine.”

However, communication ended three days later, leaving their children in the dark about their well-being since.

Speaking from Daventry in Northamptonshire, Entwistle said: “It’s been over two weeks since the messages stopped and they were taken into custody. We would like the Taliban to release them to go back to their home and continue their work.”

The couple, who met at the University of Bath and married in Kabul in 1970, have been running educational initiatives in Afghanistan since 2009.

Their work included training programs in five schools in Kabul and a project for mothers and children in Bamiyan, reportedly approved by local authorities despite the Taliban’s restrictions on female education and employment.

Entwistle told The Sunday Times: “They said they could not leave when Afghans were in their hour of need. They were meticulous about keeping by the rules even as they kept changing.”

She also expressed concern for her father’s health: “My mother is 75 and my father almost 80 and (he) needs his heart medication after a mini-stroke. They were just trying to help the country they loved. The idea they are being held because they were teaching mothers with children is outrageous.”

Entwistle and her three brothers have written to the Taliban, pleading for their parents’ release.

“We do not understand the reasons behind their arrest,” they said in the letter.

“They have communicated their trust in you, and that as Afghan citizens they will be treated well.”

They also distanced their parents from any potential prisoner exchange.

“Our parents have consistently expressed their commitment to Afghanistan, stating that they would rather sacrifice their lives than become part of ransom negotiations or be traded,” they said.

Taliban sources told the BBC that British nationals had been arrested in Bamiyan province for allegedly working for a nongovernmental organization and using a plane without notifying local authorities. The Taliban has imposed strict regulations on NGOs, banning women from working for them in 2022 and threatening closures for non-compliance.

The UK Foreign Office has acknowledged the detention of two British nationals in Afghanistan but has limited capacity to assist, as Britain does not recognize the Taliban and has no embassy in Kabul.


Russia and US plan another meeting this week

Russia and US plan another meeting this week
Updated 23 February 2025
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Russia and US plan another meeting this week

Russia and US plan another meeting this week
  • Russia-US relations thawing under President Donald Trump
  • US talking to Moscow over Ukraine war

MOSCOW: Russian and US teams plan to meet this week to discuss improving relations after the war in Ukraine had pushed ties to the worst level since the depths of the Cold War, a senior Russian start diplomat said on Sunday.
With Russian forces having advanced last year at the fastest rate in Ukraine since the start of the 2022 invasion, US President Donald Trump has said he wants to deliver a peace deal to end the war which he says has killed vast numbers of people.
Trump and President Vladimir Putin spoke on February 12 about improving relations and ending the war, and US and Russian officials met in Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh, on February 18 to that end.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, Moscow’s point man for relations with the US, said that a meeting at the level of departmental heads would take place at the end of the week.
“We are open to contacts with the American side, in particular, on irritants in bilateral relations,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying by state news agency TASS.
“We are waiting for real progress when the meeting scheduled for the end of the coming week takes place.”
Trump has repeatedly said that he believes Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky want to do a deal.
Trump said on February 12 that it was not practical for Ukraine to get NATO alliance membership and that he had seen support for US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s statement that Ukraine will not realistically return to its 2014 borders.
As the war enters its fourth year, Russia controls nearly one fifth of Ukraine — or an area about the size of the US state of Ohio — including Crimea which Russia annexed in 2014, about 75 percent of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions and more than 99 percent of the Luhansk region.
Russia says the land it controls is now Russian land under Russian law and the Russian nuclear umbrella, a position Ukraine and its Western European backers have said they will never recognize or accept.
Last June, Putin set out his terms for an end to the war: Ukraine must officially drop its NATO ambitions and withdraw troops from the entirety of the territory of the four Ukrainian regions claimed and mostly controlled by Russia.


UN chief calls for Ukraine peace deal respecting ‘territorial integrity’

UN chief calls for Ukraine peace deal respecting ‘territorial integrity’
Updated 23 February 2025
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UN chief calls for Ukraine peace deal respecting ‘territorial integrity’

UN chief calls for Ukraine peace deal respecting ‘territorial integrity’
  • The Security Council vote will be on a US-backed draft resolution that makes no mention of Ukraine’s territorial integrity
  • US President Donald Trump has adopted a tougher stance on Kyiv while taking a friendlier tone toward Moscow

UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Sunday, on the eve of a key United Nations vote, for a Ukraine peace deal that respects the country’s “territorial integrity.”
“I reaffirm the urgent need for a just, sustainable and comprehensive peace — one that fully upholds Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders,” Guterres said in a statement.
The Security Council vote will be on a US-backed draft resolution that makes no mention of Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
“Monday 24 February marks three years since the Russian Federation launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in clear violation of the United Nations Charter and international law,” the UN chief said.
“Eighty years after the end of the Second World War, the war in Ukraine stands as a grave threat not only to the peace and security of Europe but also to the very foundations and core principles of the United Nations,” Guterres said.
He saluted “all efforts toward achieving a just and inclusive peace.”
The statement comes as US President Donald Trump has adopted a tougher stance on Kyiv while taking a friendlier tone toward Moscow.
The United States wants the Security Council and General Assembly to vote on a short text calling for a “swift end” to the devastating conflict, while making no mention of Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
Ukraine and its European allies are seeking a vote in the General Assembly on a text that repeats earlier demands for an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine and an end to Russia’s attacks on its neighbor.
Similar resolutions have been voted on since Russia’s invasion on February 24, 2022, and each has passed the General Assembly by overwhelming majorities, with support from the US administration of then president Joe Biden.