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Bangladesh Court Issues Arrest Warrant for Ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina over Deaths of Protesters

File photo: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina speaks at Japan's national press club in Tokyo on May 28, 2014. Yoshikazu Tsuno, AFP
File photo: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina speaks at Japan's national press club in Tokyo on May 28, 2014. Yoshikazu Tsuno, AFP
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Bangladesh Court Issues Arrest Warrant for Ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina over Deaths of Protesters

File photo: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina speaks at Japan's national press club in Tokyo on May 28, 2014. Yoshikazu Tsuno, AFP
File photo: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina speaks at Japan's national press club in Tokyo on May 28, 2014. Yoshikazu Tsuno, AFP

A special court in Bangladesh issued arrest warrants on Thursday for former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and 45 others, including her close aides, on charges of crimes against humanity during a student-led uprising in July and August that forced her to flee the country, a prosecutor said.
Prosecutor B.M. Sultan Mahmud said the Dhaka-based International Crimes Tribunal issued the arrest warrants in response to two petitions submitted by the prosecution, reported The Associated Press.
He said the head of the tribunal, Golam Mortuza Majumdar, issued the orders in the presence of other judges.
Hasina fled the country to India on Aug. 5 after weeks of violent protests in which hundreds of people died. Prosecutors said in the petitions that Hasina, her close aides and security agencies were responsible for killing the protesters and others.

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UN Report: 1.1 Billion People in Acute Poverty

A woman sweeps the veranda at the Grande Hotel in Beira, Mozambique on October 12, 2024. (Photo by Zinyange Auntony / AFP)
A woman sweeps the veranda at the Grande Hotel in Beira, Mozambique on October 12, 2024. (Photo by Zinyange Auntony / AFP)
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UN Report: 1.1 Billion People in Acute Poverty

A woman sweeps the veranda at the Grande Hotel in Beira, Mozambique on October 12, 2024. (Photo by Zinyange Auntony / AFP)
A woman sweeps the veranda at the Grande Hotel in Beira, Mozambique on October 12, 2024. (Photo by Zinyange Auntony / AFP)

More than one billion people are living in acute poverty across the globe, a UN Development Program report said Thursday, with children accounting for over half of those affected.

The paper published with the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) highlighted that poverty rates were three times higher in countries at war, as 2023 saw the most conflicts around the world since the Second World War.

The UNDP and the OPHI have published their Multidimensional Poverty Index annually since 2010, harvesting data from 112 countries with a combined population of 6.3 billion people, AFP reported.

It uses indicators such as a lack of adequate housing, sanitation, electricity, cooking fuel, nutrition and school attendance.

"The 2024 MPI paints a sobering picture: 1.1 billion people endure multidimensional poverty, of which 455 million live in the shadow of conflict," said Yanchun Zhang, chief statistician at the UNDP.

"For the poor in conflict-affected countries, the struggle for basic needs is a far harsher and more desperate battle," Zhang told AFP.

The report echoed last year's findings that 1.1 billion out of 6.1 billion people across 110 countries were facing extreme multidimensional poverty.

Thursday's paper showed that some 584 million people under 18 were experiencing extreme poverty, accounting for 27.9 percent of children worldwide, compared with 13.5 percent of adults.

It also showed that 83.2 percent of the world's poorest people live in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Sabina Alkire, director of the OPHI, told AFP that conflicts were hindering efforts for poverty reduction.

"At some level, these findings are intuitive. But what shocked us was the sheer magnitude of people who are struggling to live a decent life and at the same time fearing for their safety -- 455 million," she said.

"This points to a stark but unavoidable challenge to the international community to both zero in on poverty reduction and foster peace, so that any ensuing peace actually endures," Alkire added.

India was the country with the largest number of people in extreme poverty, which impacts 234 million of its 1.4 billion population.

It was followed by Pakistan, Ethiopia, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The five countries accounted for nearly half of the 1.1 billion poor people.