Bangladesh's first female prime minister Khaleda Zia dies aged 80

International desk:

Khaleda Zia, Bangladesh's first female prime minister and an arch-rival of ousted leader Sheikh Hasina, has died from a prolonged illness. She was 80 years old.

Zia intended to run for parliament in February, when the country will vote for the first time since a popular revolution in late 2024 unseated Hasina.

Thrust into the political limelight following the assassination of her husband, then-president Ziaur Rahman, she went on to become Bangladesh's first female PM in 1991.