Nobel laureate to enter politics

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Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus has announced that he is forming his own political party.

Mr Yunus said he hoped the movement, Nagarik Shakti (Citizen's Power), would be formally launched later this month.

He plans to have candidates standing in every seat in general elections which were postponed indefinitely in January.

The vote was put off after violence between supporters of Bangladesh's two largest political parties. No date has been set for fresh elections.

'Banker to the Poor'

On Sunday, Mr Yunus said he had had enough of "the politics of disunity and divisions" in Bangladesh.

"I am now determined with my decision to join politics by floating a new political party which aims to present a fresh democratic culture to the nation," the state-owned BSS news agency quoted him as saying.

The former economics professor has said he is disillusioned with the country's two main political parties - the Bangladeshi Nationalist Party and the Awami League - and that he wants to find "honest" parliamentary candidates.

Mr Yunus and the Grameen Bank he founded were awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize last October for their efforts to lift millions of poor people out of poverty - earning him the nickname "Banker to the Poor".

His microfinance model has been copied in over 100 countries from the US to Uganda.

A state of emergency is in place in Bangladesh and an interim government is in charge while fresh elections are organised.

The state of emergency was triggered by weeks of violence ahead of the 22 January poll.

Analysts had feared martial law if there was a total break down of order. Bangladesh has a history of military takeovers.