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Ziaur Rahman was the 6th President of Bangladesh and founder of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. While an officer in the Pakistan Army, Zia's unit captured the Kalurghat radio station at the onset of the Bangladesh Liberation War and declared the independence of Bangladesh. Recognised as a war hero, he would be honoured with the Bir Uttom in 1972. A high-ranking officer in the Bangladesh Army, Zia was appointed chief of army staff following the Assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975. Although briefly overthrown in a coup d'etat, Zia returned to power in a counter-coup organised by Colonel Abu Taher. Declaring himself president in 1977, Zia won a referendum held in 1978. Founding the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Zia won widespread popular support for stabilising the nation and leading it in a new direction. A right-wing politician, Zia established free-market policies in a 19-point programme of industrialisation and development. He adopted policies bringing the government increasingly under Islam, which he included in the national constitution. Zia controversially pardoned the assassins of Sheikh Mujib by signing the Indemnity Act and rehabilitated individuals who had supported the Pakistan Army. A popular yet controversial leader, Zia was assassinated in 1981 in an abortive military coup. (more...)

In the news

• A tsunami triggered by an earthquake strikes the Solomon Islands (flag pictured), killing at least 15 and leaving thousands homeless.
• Iranians protest outside the British embassy in Tehran in response to the ongoing dispute over the capture of Royal Navy personnel off the Iraq-Iran coast.
• Michael Phelps breaks five world records in swimming at the 2007 World Aquatics Championships in Melbourne, Australia, becoming the first swimmer to win seven gold medals at a single championship; seven other world records are also broken.
• Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks receives the first sentence from the Guantanamo military commission, and the first conviction in a U.S. war crimes trial since World War II.
• In Mauritania, Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi is declared the winner of the presidential election, the final stage of the transition to civilian rule since the military coup of 2005.
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