• Rahman’s return energises BNP supporters for February elections.
• Rahman cleared of corruption charges following Hasina’s ouster.
• Attacks on media and violence spark fears for peaceful vote.
  

Bangladesh Nationalist Party acting chairman Tarique Rahman returned to Dhaka on Thursday after nearly 17 years in exile, a homecoming the party hopes will energise supporters with Rahman poised to be the top contender for prime minister in the February 12 elections.

Hundreds of thousands of supporters lined the route from the capital’s airport to the reception venue, waving party flags and carrying placards, banners, and flowers, while chanting slogans welcoming Rahman, as senior BNP leaders received him at the Dhaka airport under tight security.

Rahman, 60, the son of ailing former prime minister Khaleda Zia, has lived in London since 2008 and led the BNP as acting chairman since 2018.

Dressed in a light grey, finely checkered blazer over a crisp white shirt, Rahman waved to the crowd with a gentle smile.

He had been unable to return while facing multiple criminal cases at home. Rahman was convicted in absentia on charges that included money laundering and in a case linked to an alleged plot to assassinate former prime minister Sheikh Hasina but the rulings were overturned after Hasina was ousted last year in a student-led uprising, clearing the legal barriers to his return.

His homecoming also carries personal urgency, with Khaleda Zia seriously ill for months. Party officials said Rahman would travel from the airport to a reception venue before visiting his mother.

The political landscape has shifted sharply since Hasina’s removal from power, ending decades in which she and Khaleda Zia largely alternated in office. A December survey by the U.S.-based International Republican Institute suggested the BNP is on course to win the largest number of parliamentary seats, with the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party also in the race.

Hasina’s Awami League party, which has been barred from the election, has threatened unrest that some fear could disrupt the vote.

Bangladesh is heading into the polls under an interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. While authorities have pledged a free and peaceful election, recent attacks on media outlets and sporadic violence have raised concerns, making Rahman’s return a defining moment for the BNP and the country’s fragile political transition.

• Lawyers review files around clock to protect victims: DOJ.
• New disclosures fuel political pressure ahead of midterm polls.
• FBI and Manhattan prosecutors locate vast cache of records.
  

The US Justice Department has found more than a million more documents potentially tied to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, delaying a full release for weeks while officials redact details to protect victims, DOJ said on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump’s administration began releasing files related to criminal investigations of Epstein, the late American financier who was friends with Trump in the 1990s, to comply with a law passed by Congress last month.

Republicans and Democrats in Congress passed the law over Trump’s objections, requiring that all documents be released by December 19 while allowing partial redactions to protect victims.

Releases so far have contained extensive redactions, angering some Republicans and doing little to defuse a scandal threatening the party ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

In a message shared on social media on Wednesday, the Justice Department said more than a million additional documents potentially related to Epstein had been uncovered by the FBI and the US Attorney’s office in Manhattan, without elaborating on when or how the documents were found.

“We have lawyers working around the clock to review and make the legally required redactions to protect victims, and we will release the documents as soon as possible,” the department said. “Due to the mass volume of material, this process may take a few more weeks.”

• Boat carrying around 100 people capsizes near Mbour.
• 32 survivors reported, others flee before rescuers arrive.
• President Faye offers condolences, search for survivors continues.

At least 12 people died on Wednesday after a boat filled with migrants seeking to reach Europe sank off the coast of Senegal, security sources said.

The coastal west African country is one of the main departure points for the thousands of Africans who for years have been taking the perilous Atlantic route to reach Europe, primarily via the Spanish Canary Islands, aboard overcrowded and often dilapidated boats.

The latest sinking came in the waters off the town of Mbour when a boat loaded with around 100 people capsized, a security source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

“Twelve bodies were retrieved,” the source said.

A second security source confirmed the toll to AFP.

“There were 32 survivors. The others probably fled” before rescue services arrived on the scene, one source told AFP.

President Bassirou Diomaye Faye expressed condolences to the families of the victims in a social media post on Wednesday.

“We share their sorrow and their pain while the search continues to find any survivors,” he said.

On Tuesday, police intercepted 123 migrants aboard a boat in Senegal’s Thies region.