Bangladesh's Microfinance Pioneer Muhammad Yunus Faces a Political Battle to Survive (Time.com)

By SUMON K. CHAKRABARTI / NEW DELHI Sumon K. Chakrabarti / New Delhi – 1 hr 10 mins ago

The clock started ticking for Nobel Peace laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus in 2007. That was the year the celebrated economist and microcredit guru made a brief foray into Bangladeshi politics. Two squabbling political parties have run the country throughout its history, but in 2007 a military caretaker government was in charge. Yunus launched the "Citizens' Power" party, billing itself as a clean, efficient alternative to political unrest. Instead, the move opened the door to political attacks. In March 2007, Awami League politician A.M.A. Muhith told a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor: "The fact that Yunus is being able to carry on political activities when all the other parties are straitjacketed by the state of emergency implies a tacit endorsement by the current regime."

His party never took off. In 2009 elections, the Awami League won national elections, returning its leader, Sheik Hasina, to power and putting Yunus and the Grameen Bank, the microlending bank that he founded in 1983, back under scrutiny. In November 2010, a Norwegian television documentary accused Yunus and Grameen of improperly moving funds donated by the Norwegian government. The Nobel laureate was subsequently vilified in the Bangladeshi media and faced an investigation in Norway. Oslo cleared Yunus and Grameen of any financial impropriety, but the damage was done. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina branded Yunus a "blood-sucker of the poor" and pushed for his removal from the helm of Grameen. Muhith, who is now finance minister, has called for him to "stay away" from the bank. On Wednesday afternoon, the government fired the 70-year-old Yunus from the institution he'd founded. (See pictures of Yunus' career.)

"Muhammad Yunus has been removed from the post of managing director of Grameen Bank," A F M Asaduzzaman, deputy general manager of the country's central bank, told reporters in Dhaka. The central bank declared that Yunus had violated the country's retirement laws by staying on as Grameen's head long past the mandatory retirement age of 60.

But the real drama began an hour later, when Jannat-E-Quanine, the spokesperson for Grameen Bank, stoutly defended its founder, announcing that Yunus will remain in charge and denying that he has violated any laws. The bank said in a statement: "Grameen Bank has been duly complying with all applicable laws. It has also complied with the law in respect of appointment of the Managing Director." A spokesperson for Yunus said he declined to make any further comment about the charges against him. (Watch "10 Questions for Muhammad Yunus.")

But Khondaker Muzammel Huq, the government-appointed chairman of Grameen Bank, told TIME that Yunus had been relieved of his duties for failing to get the mandatory clearance from the central bank when he was appointed managing director in 1999. "In the by-laws of Grameen Bank, it is clearly stated that the managing director should be appointed by the board with the prior approval of the Bangladesh Bank," Huq said. "That was not done. So he has been relinquished of his duties. We have sent a letter accordingly to Grameen bank."

Sheikh Hasina's government, meanwhile, is working overtime to convince the international community that their move was not illegal. On Monday, U.S. Ambassador James F. Moriarty met Muhith to express his concerns. Muhith is expected to meet ambassadors of various countries and representatives of World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank to clarify the government's decision on Yunus today. He told AFP, "We'll deal with it gracefully." (Comment on this story.)

The Friends of Grameen, a group of charities led by former Irish President Mary Robinson, last month alleged that Yunus was being subjected to "politically orchestrated vilification." Yunus, too, has called the charges against him politically motivated in the past. But his widespread support abroad has fueled criticism of him at home as someone caught up in his own fame. "The government seems to be legally right, but this is surely a politically incorrect move, now that some international celebrities, whose credibility you probably cannot question, are campaigning for Muhammad Yunus," says Toufique Imroze Khalidi, editor-in-chief of BDNEWS24. Khalidi says the government's role in helping to start Grameen Bank, in which it holds a small minority stake, has been ignored. "Professor Yunus simply outsmarts the government internationally with his superb PR skills."

The government in Dhaka has also capitalized on a wider disaffection with microfinance. The Grameen bank's micro-credit model is a "death-trap for the poor," says Professor Anu Mohammed, a leading Bangladeshi economist. "Their programs are such that do not reduce but reproduce poverty." Those same criticisms have hit microfinance lenders from Latin America to Africa to India, and Bangladesh is no exception. A five-member review committee on Grameen Bank was constituted on Jan. 11 to conduct a special audit of the bank, focusing on the rates of interest at which it borrows money and then lends to the poor. Defenders of microcredit acknowledge that the model cannot do much to help the poorest of the poor, but says it does serve an important function. As an editorial in the Financial Times put it: "Microfinance may not on its own lift people out of poverty, but it does enhance financial inclusion, letting poor borrowers smooth their incomes so they can cope with illness or other temporary shocks."

Grameen, too, has begun to expand its model beyond just microfinance, into savings programs and "social businesses" that might do more to directly ease poverty. But for now, those efforts will be on hold. Yunus will likely be spending much of his time in court in the coming months, fighting what looks set to be a long legal battle.

Sumon K Chakrabarti is the Chief National Correspondent of CNN-IBN

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Kadhafi's son says Libya faces bloody civil war (AFP)

TRIPOLI (AFP) – Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi's son warned Monday that the country faces a bloody civil war if protesters refuse to accept reform offers, in a speech broadcast as gunfire rang out in the capital.
Saif al-Islam Kadhafi condemned the unprecedented uprising against his father's 41-year rule as a foreign plot, but admitted mistakes were made in a brutal crackdown and urged citizens to build a "new Libya".
"Libya is at a crossroads. If we do not agree today on reforms, we will not be mourning 84 people, but thousands of deaths, and rivers of blood will run through Libya," he said.
Kadhafi's son gave a lower toll than the United States and rights watchdogs who said that hundreds are feared dead in an offensive to crush the uprising carried out by the military, reportedly backed by foreign mercenaries.
Heavy gunfire broke out in central Tripoli and several city areas Monday for the first time since the anti-regime uprising began in eastern Libya, witnesses and an AFP journalist reported.
Witnesses reported clashes in Tripoli's downtown Green Square between protesters and Kadhafi supporters.
A witness in the working-class Gurgi area said security forces fired tear gas to disperse protesters.
Confusion prevailed in the city after Kadhafi's speech and unconfirmed rumours that his father had left Libya triggered sounds of celebration, with women ululating and drivers hooting their car horns.
According to Human Rights Watch, at least 173 people have died in Libya since the anti-regime protests broke out on February 15 after similar uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt which ended the long rule of two veteran leaders.
The unrest has spread from the flashpoint city of Benghazi, where demonstrations began on Tuesday, to the Mediterranean town of Misrata, just 200 kilometres (120 miles) from Tripoli.
"This is an opposition movement, a separatist movement which threatens the unity of Libya," Kadhafi said in a fiery but rambling speech which blamed Arab and African elements for fomenting the troubles.
"We will take up arms... we will fight to the last bullet," he said. "We will destroy seditious elements. If everybody is armed, it is civil war, we will kill each other."
"Libya is not Egypt, it is not Tunisia," he said, adding that attempts at another "Facebook revolution" would be resisted.
But Saif al-Islam Kadhafi's threats betrayed a note of desperation, and he suggested that the eastern city of Benghazi, Libya's second city, was now out of government control.
"At this moment there are tanks being driven by civilians in Benghazi," he said, insisting the uprising was aimed at installing Islamist rule and that it would be ruthlessly crushed.
And despite the tough talk and finger-wagging, Kadhafi also made some concessions -- pledging a new constitution and liberal laws with more media freedom.
"If you want us to change the flag and national anthem, we will."
He also admitted "mistakes" on the part of the army in containing the riots, saying they were "not trained to contain riots" and were responding to attacks by "people on drugs."
Kadhafi also underscored Libya's vast oil wealth and issued a trenchant warning to foreign companies.
"We have one resource that we live on and that is petrol," he said. "All the foreign companies will be forced to leave the country."
Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmudi meanwhile told EU ambassadors in Tripoli that there are "very precise plans, destructive and terrorist, that want Libya to become a base for terrorism."
But in a significant crack in the regime's public face, Libya's envoy to the 22-member Arab League announced he was "joining the revolution."
"I have submitted my resignation in protest against the acts of repression and violence against demonstrators and I am joining the ranks of the revolution," Abdel Moneim al-Honi said.
A Libyan diplomat posted in China also resigned and called on the army to intervene in the bloody uprising, the Al-Jazeera news network reported.
The diplomat, Hussein Sadiq al Musrati, also said Kadhafi "may have left Libya" and that there had been a "gunfight" between his sons, the network added, while noting it was unable to confirm those statements.
Musrati is listed as the second secretary in the Libyan mission to Beijing. Embassy staff told AFP on Monday that officials were not available for comment on the report.
In Benghazi, which has borne the brunt of the violence, protests continued, lawyer Mohammed al-Mughrabi told AFP by telephone.
"Lawyers are demonstrating outside the Northern Benghazi court; there are thousands here. We have called it Tahrir Square Two," he said of the Cairo square central to protests that brought down Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
Winesses told AFP by telephone that security forces also clashed with anti-regime protesters in Misrata, saying security forces, backed by "African mercenaries," fired on crowds "without discrimination."
The United States and the European Union have strongly condemned the use of lethal force in Libya.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon called for "the non-use of force and respect for basic freedoms" in North African and Middle Eastern countries wracked by mass uprisings after Kadhafi's speech.
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Berlusconi faces trial and the wrath of Italy's women (Time.com)

Silvio Berlusconi has never had this much trouble with women. After a weekend in which hundreds of thousands of women turned out to demonstrate against him, the Italian Prime Minister was officially indicted on Tuesday on charges of paying for sex with an underage prostitute and abusing the power of his office to cover it up. In her ruling, judge Cristina Di Censo accepted the argument put forth by prosecutors that the strength of the evidence against Berlusconi was "obvious" enough to warrant an accelerated trial. The proceedings, set to begin on April 6, will take place before three other female judges.

The ruling has energized Italy's fractured opposition and given strength to those who argue that Italian culture - fueled in no small part by Berlusconi's media empire - has a long way to go when it comes to women's rights. "Leaving aside for a moment the Prime Minister's behavior, which I find incredibly deviant, this is a problem that regards all parts of life and the economy in our country," Alessia Mosca, a parliamentarian with Italy's Democratic Party, tells TIME. Italian women have one of the lowest employment rates in Europe, shoulder a disproportionate share of the country's housework, and suffer from badly managed and inadequate services, such as daycare. "Sure, the first thing is that Berlusconi should resign and submit himself to the court's judgment, but we also have a responsibility to intervene on a problem that touches all sorts of sectors," says Mosca. (See pictures of Berlusconi and the politics of sex.)

Tuesday's ruling follows weeks of rolling revelations, in which Italians have watched with a growing sense of shock as leaked wiretaps painted a picture of alleged debauchery at Berlusconi's residence, with callers describing "bunga bunga" parties featuring multiple young women, sometimes dressed as nurses and police officers. The 74-year-old Prime Minister, who has denied all the allegations, stands accused of paying for sex with a Moroccan nightclub dancer named Karima El Mahroug when she was 17. Prosecutors also allege that Berlusconi abused the powers of his office when he called a police station after El Mahroug had been arrested on suspicions of theft, told officers she was the granddaughter of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and urged that she be released.

More disturbing, to many women, is a growing perception - brought into sharp focus by the scandal - that Italy has become a country in which sex provides the surest path to fame and success. Nicole Minetti, one of three people alleged to have procured women for Berlusconi's parties, is a former showgirl and dental hygienist who was installed on the Prime Minister's ticket as a regional counselor. In one tapped call, according to Italian press reports, El Mahroug, who also goes by the name Ruby Rubacuori - "Ruby, Stealer of Hearts" - can be heard telling her boyfriend at the time that Berlusconi accepted her request that he give her €5 million ($7 million) as compensation for having her name sullied by the allegations, and that he asked her not to "tell anybody anything." (See "Berlusconi's "Talk-Show Rant: Just Good Politics.")

On Sunday, Rome's Piazza del Popolo spilled over with demonstrators - mostly women - while others protested in more than 200 towns and cities across the country, displaying signs saying "Berlusconi resign" and "We like Sex; Not Bunga Bunga" in protest of the way women are treated in Berlusconi's Italy. Many Italians worry that the Prime Minister's alleged antics have dragged the country's name into the mud, with some newspaper websites offering regular roundups of the foreign press's coverage of the events. "The Ruby scandal was the last drop that overflowed the glass," says Lorella Zanardo, director of Women's Bodies, a documentary on the Italian media's portrayal of women. "Italian women are doctors, engineers, mothers. But we're in a cage when it comes to how we're represented on the Prime Minister's television stations. We're represented as only sex objects."

On hearing the news of his indictment, Berlusconi abandoned a press conference in Sicily to fly to Rome, where he met with his lawyers and advisers. The Prime Minister and El Mahroug both deny they ever engaged in sex, though El Mahroug, now 18, says she did receive money and jewelry from Berlusconi. And while the premier admits to calling the police station, he has argued that he was carrying out the duties of his office and trying to avoid a diplomatic incident. Berlusconi's lawyers are also expected to argue that El Mahroug is a year older than official documents indicate. (See Berlusconi in TIME's list of the top 10 old leaders.)

Berlusconi and his allies have repeatedly characterized the accusations as the work of a politicized justice system bent on undermining the democratically elected Prime Minister. Speaking to Italian reporters about Tuesday's ruling, Piero Longo, one of Berlusconi's lawyers, said, "We didn't expect anything different." On the fact that the Prime Minister would be tried by female judges, Longo added: "Great, ladies are welcome - and sometimes even pleasing."

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Ex-Iron Maiden singer faces jail for benefit fraud (AFP)

LONDON (AFP) – Former Iron Maiden lead singer Paul Di'Anno is facing jail after admitting fraudulent welfare claims, newspapers reports said.

He admitted having claimed £45,479 after saying that nerve damage to his back prevented him from working.

The Department of Work and Pensions found out he had toured from 2002 to 2008 -- while claiming incapacity benefit, housing benefit and local authority tax payments.

The tattooed rocker was arrested last year on arriving back at London Heathrow Airport.

At Salisbury Crown Court in southwest England, he was bailed to return for sentencing on March 11.

"Prepare yourself for a prison sentence," judge Andrew Barnett told him told the singer.

Di'Anno, real name Paul Andrews, sang on the British heavy metal godfathers' first two albums "Iron Maiden" (1980) and "Killers" (1981).

The 52-year-old co-wrote songs including "Remember Tomorrow", "Running Free" and title track "Killers" before being sacked and replaced by Bruce Dickinson.

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