Muhammad Yunus to Lead Bangladesh Interim Gov't

Bangladesh's Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus will head the country's interim government after prime minister Sheikh Hasina stepped down and fled the country amid a mass uprising against her rule led mostly by students.

The announcement came from Joynal Abedin, the press secretary of President Mohammed Shahabuddin.

Abedin also said the other members of the Yunus-led government would be decided soon after discussion with political parties and other stakeholders.

The leaders of the student protests, the chiefs of the country's three divisions of the military, and civil society members, as well as some business leaders, held a meeting with the president for more than five hours to decide on the head of the interim administration.

The students had earlier proposed Yunus and said he agreed. The 84-year-old, who is currently in Paris for the Olympics, called Hasina's resignation the country's "second liberation day." He is expected to return to the country from France soon, local media reported.

A longtime opponent of the ousted leader, Yunus was accused of corruption by her government and tried on charges he said were motivated by vengeance. He received the Nobel Prize in 2006 for work pioneering micro-lending.

Following the decision, student leaders left the president's official house shortly after midnight , obviously satisfied.

President Mohammed Shahabuddin dissolved the parliament, paving the way for the formation of an interim government, a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country following a violent crackdown on a student-led uprising.

Bangladesh has been engulfed by demonstrations and violence after student protests last month against quotas that reserved a high portion of government jobs for certain groups escalated into a campaign to oust Hasina, who won a fourth straight term in January in an election boycotted by the opposition.