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DHAKA: Bangladesh’s interim government says it has no plans to ban the political party of ousted premier Sheikh Hasina, putting it at odds with the student revolutionaries who overthrew her in an uprising last year.
Hasina’s Awami League was accused of extensive human rights abuses during her 15-year tenure, including a violent crackdown on last year’s protest movement that killed more than 800 people.
Student leaders still grieving the deaths of their comrades have demanded the party, which played a pivotal role in Bangladesh’s bloody 1971 independence war under Hasina’s father, be outlawed.
But Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, the de facto leader of the caretaker government that took office after her toppling, said it had no intention of doing so.
“Professor Yunus stated that the interim government has no plans to ban the party,” said a government statement issued late Thursday.
“However, individuals within its leadership who are accused of crimes, including murder and crimes against humanity, will be tried in Bangladesh’s courts.”
A tribunal in Dhaka has already issued arrest warrants for Hasina, who took refuge in neighboring India after her toppling, and her allies.
A fact-finding mission from the UN rights office said last month that her government was responsible for systematic attacks and killings of protesters in an attempt to hold onto power last year.
It found “reasonable grounds to believe that the crimes against humanity of murder, torture, imprisonment, and the infliction of other inhumane acts have taken place.”
Since she was toppled, students have consistently demanded the party be banned ahead of elections for a new government, expected by June next year.
The interim government did ban the Awami League’s student wing last October, citing its involvement in violent attacks on last year’s protests, while leaving open the fate of its parent organization.
Hasnat Abdullah, one of the leading figures of a new student-backed political party, planning to contest the next polls, slammed the government’s decision.
“The Awami League has to be banned,” he wrote on Facebook.
Fellow student leader Nasir Uddin Patwary warned last month that failure to ban the party “will push Bangladesh toward civil war,” according to local newspaper Prothom Alo.
Shafiqul Rahman, the leader of Bangladesh’s main Islamist party Jamaat, likewise wrote on social media Friday that people would not accept the party’s “rehabilitation.”

LONDON: Britain’s Heathrow airport, Europe’s busiest, was shut down early Friday for 24 hours after a major fire at an electricity substation cut power to the sprawling facility west of London, officials said.
Airport authorities said they “expect significant disruption” over the coming days, with hundreds of flights and thousands of passengers affected.
“Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage,” the airport operator said in a statement on its website, adding it would be closed until just before midnight Friday (2359 GMT).
“Passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens.”
Online flight tracking service FlightRadar24 said Heathrow’s closure would affect at least 1,351 flights to and from the airport.
It said 120 flights to the airport were in the air when the closure was announced.

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What we know about London’s Heathrow airport

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London Fire Brigade said there had been a “significant” fire at a substation in Hayes, a nearby town in the London borough of Hillingdon, which caused the power outage.
It said 10 fire engines and around 70 firefighters were on the scene, while around 150 people had been evacuated from nearby properties.
Images on social media — which could not immediately be verified by AFP — showed huge flames and smoke rising from the substation.
Other videos, apparently shot inside Heathrow’s terminals, showed shuttered shops and deserted corridors, lit only by emergency lighting.
“The fire has caused a power outage affecting a large number of homes and local businesses, and we are working closely with our partners to minimize disruption,” said London Fire Brigade assistant commissioner Pat Goulbourne.
He said the blaze was first reported at 11:23 p.m. (2323 GMT).
“This is a highly visible and significant incident, and our firefighters are working tirelessly in challenging conditions to bring the fire under control as swiftly as possible,” a statement said.
British utility firm Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said on its website that an “unplanned outage” had left more than 16,000 homes without power in the area.

Heathrow handles more than than 80 million passengers a year and the operator says there are around 1,300 takeoffs or landings a day.
Seven United Airlines flights returned to their airport of origin or to other airports and all Friday flights to London Heathrow are being canceled, a spokesperson said.
In Sydney, Qantas said two flights en route to Heathrow — a non-stop flight from Perth and another via Singapore — had both diverted to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport.
It said two other flights scheduled to fly out of London on Friday were likely to be impacted.
In January, the government gave permission for Heathrow to build a third runway — which could be ready by 2035 — after years of legal wrangling brought on by complaints from local residents.
Five major airports serve the capital and towns nearby.
But capacity is stretched, especially at Heathrow whose two runways each measure almost four kilometers in length, while the airport covers a total area 12.3 square kilometers.
It opened in 1946 as London Airport before being renamed Heath Row, a hamlet demolished two years earlier to make way for the construction.
Situated 25 kilometers (15 miles) west of central London, the present Heathrow serves 200 destinations in more than 80 countries, with passengers having access to four terminals.
Among its main flight destinations last year were Dublin, Los Angeles, Madrid and New York.