Khaleda Zia

Bangladesh's president dissolved parliament on Tuesday, clearing the way for new elections to replace the longtime prime minister who resigned and fled the country following weeks of demonstrations against her rule that descended into violent unrest.

Bangladesh votes Sunday in an election guaranteed to give Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina her fifth term in office, after a boycott by opposition parties whose ranks have been decimated by mass arrests.

Authorities in Bangladesh have executed a killer of the country's independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, nearly 45 years after the brutal assassination, a prison official said.

Bangladesh's Supreme Court on May 5 rejected a final appeal by the leader of the top Islamist party against a death sentence for atrocities committed during the 1971 war of independence, lawyers said, meaning he could be hanged at any time. 

Bangladesh's Supreme Court upheld the death penalty for a top Islamist party leader on Jan. 6 for atrocities committed during the country's war of independence from Pakistan more than four decades ago, a government lawyer said. 

Bangladesh executed two opposition leaders on Nov. 22 for war crimes committed during the 1971 war to break away from Pakistan, a senior police official said, in a move likely to draw an angry reaction from supporters.

Bangladesh's Supreme Court on Nov. 18 rejected final appeals from two opposition leaders against death sentences for atrocities committed during the 1971 war of independence, rulings that are likely to spark protests by their supporters.

The death toll from weeks of political violence in Bangladesh passed 100 on Monday, when police found four bullet-riddled bodies in the capital Dhaka.
      
Police said the four men were lynched after they were found carrying petrol bombs, frequently used in opposition protests.