DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh’s ailing former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia left the nation's capital for London on Tuesday for medical treatment, said one of her advisers.
Zahiruddin Swapan, an adviser to Zia, told The Associated Press by phone that the three-time former premier and head of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party left Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport late Tuesday on an air ambulance.
“Our senior leaders left the airport seeing her off,” Swapan said.
Her ailments include liver cirrhosis, cardiac disease and kidney problems, according to her physician.
Zia left behind a South Asian nation grappling with uncertainty over its political future after her archrival, former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was ousted in a student-led mass uprising in August. Zia and Hasina are the most influential political leaders in Bangladesh.
An interim government headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus is running the country and plans to hold elections in December this year or in the first half of 2026.
Zia was sentenced to 17 years in jail under Hasina’s rule following two corruption cases stemming from 2001-2006 when she was prime minister. Her supporters say the charges against her were politically motivated, an allegation Hasina’s administration denied. Under Yunus, Zia was acquitted in one of the cases in November and an appeal in the second case was being heard on Tuesday.
Zia, 79, was freed from prison on bail under Hasina through a government order and had been undergoing medical treatment in Bangladesh. But Hasina’s administration did not allow her to travel abroad for treatment despite requests seeking approval.
The special air ambulance was sent by Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. Hundreds of her supporters gathered outside her residence in the city's upscale Gulshan area to see her off.
Zia’s motorcade took nearly three hours to cross about a 10-kilometer (6-mile) stretch of road to get to the airport from her residence in Dhaka’s Gulshan area as thousands of her desperate supporters greeted her on the way, creating traffic chaos. Her hours-long journey to the airport was broadcast live by television stations.
Enamul Haque Chowdhury, a close aide of Zia, told reporters that the air ambulance had arrived from Doha to take her to London, where her eldest son and heir apparent Tarique Rahman has been in exile since 2007. Rahman is the acting chairman of Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party and is expected to lead the party toward the election. The country’s dynastic politics have long focused on the families of Hasina and Zia.
Zia is the wife of late President Ziaur Rahman, a former military chief. He rose to prominence during years of tumultuous politics after Hasina's father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country's independence leader, was assassinated along with most of his family members in a military coup in 1975. Zia's husband was also killed in 1981 in another military coup after he formed his political party and ruled the country as president for three years. Hasina's father led Bangladesh's independence war against Pakistan, aided by India, in 1971.
Zia’s personal physician, A.Z.M. Zahid Hossain, said Qatar’s emir arranged the special aircraft with medical facilities for the former prime minister, whose ailments include liver cirrhosis, cardiac disease and kidney problems.
Her departure follows dramatic political developments since last August, when Hasina’s 15-year rule ended. Hasina fled into exile in India as she and her close aides faced charges of killing hundreds of protesters during a mass protest movement that began in July.
Zia’s departure could create a symbolic vacuum in the country’s politics amid efforts by a student group that led the anti-Hasina protest to form a new political party. In the absence of Hasina and her secular Bangladesh Awami League party, the rise of Islamist political parties and other Islamist groups has been visible in the Muslim-majority country of 170 million people.
Zia's party has been bargaining with the Yunus-led government for an election sometime this year. Yunus said his government wants to make some major reforms before the election.
Bangladesh's ailing former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, right, leaves in a car on her way to the airport in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to travel to London for medical treatment, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)
Supporters of Bangladesh's ailing former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia shout slogans before Zia left Dhaka, Bangladesh, to travel to London for medical treatment, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)
FILE- Bangladesh's former prime minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson Khaleda Zia, center, leaves after a court appearance in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Dec. 28, 2017. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad, File)
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — A developing winter storm threatens to drop snow, sleet and freezing rain on parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas as frigid air that escaped the Arctic plunges temperatures to subfreezing levels in some of the southernmost points of the U.S.
National Weather Service meteorologists predicted wintry precipitation across the southern Plains region starting Wednesday night, with snow likely in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Farther south, snow could transition to sleet and freezing rain, which meteorologists warn could result in hazardous driving conditions.
An arctic blast descended on much of the U.S. east of the Rockies over the weekend, causing hundreds of car accidents and thousands of flight cancellations and delays. Several communities set up warming shelters this week, including one at a roller rink in Cincinnati and another in the Providence, Rhode Island, City Council chambers.
As the cold front moved south, a cold weather advisory was issued for the Gulf Coast and pushed the low temperature in El Paso, along the Texas border with Mexico, to 31 degrees (minus 0.5 Celsius). The National Weather Service predicted a wind chill factor ranging from 0 to 15 degrees (minus 18 to minus 9 Celsius) early Wednesday.
The polar vortex of ultra-cold air usually spins around the North Pole, but it sometimes ventures south into the U.S., Europe and Asia. Some experts say such cold air outbreaks are happening more frequently, paradoxically, because of a warming world.
As points north and east dug out of snow and ice Tuesday, communities in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas were preparing. In Texas, crews treated the roads in the Dallas area amid forecasts of 1 to 3 inches (about 3 to 8 centimeters) of snow on Thursday, along with sleet and rain. National Weather Service meteorologist Sam Shamburger said up to 5 inches (13 centimeters) of snow was expected farther north near the Oklahoma line.
Kevin Oden, Dallas’ director of emergency management and crisis response, said Tuesday, “Our city is in a preparedness phase.”
The storm could make roads slick Friday as 75,000 fans head to AT&T Stadium in Arlington to see Texas play Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl. Arlington spokesperson Susan Shrock said crews are ready to address any hazardous road conditions around the stadium.
“They’re going to have the salt brine, they’ll have sand and they’ll have equipment on standby,” she said.
A Tuesday night statement from AT&T Stadium and the Cotton Bowl said officials have been meeting with city and transportation officials and that “plans are in place to assure a safe environment for everyone in and around AT&T Stadium on game day.”
Parts of southeastern Georgia and northern Florida endured unusually frigid temperatures overnight into Tuesday and were under freeze warnings into Wednesday.
In northern Florida, with Valentine's Day just a month away, the main concern for growers fearful of cold weather is the fern crop used for floral arrangements.
Major damage to citrus trees, which typically occurs when temperatures drop to 28 degrees (minus 2 degrees Celsius) or below for several hours, was less likely. Florida’s commercial citrus groves are primarily south of the central part of the peninsula.
An area stretching from the central Plains through the Ohio Valley into the mid-Atlantic region is likely to receive more snow and ice for a few days, which could cause the ground covering to melt and refreeze to form treacherous black ice on roadways, forecasters said.
Hundreds of car accidents were reported in Virginia, Indiana, Kansas and Kentucky earlier this week, and a state trooper was treated for injuries after his patrol car was hit.
Three people died in vehicle crashes in Virginia, according to state police. Other weather-related fatal accidents occurred Sunday near Charleston, West Virginia, and Monday in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Kansas, where over a foot (30 centimeters) of snow fell in places, had two deadly weekend crashes.
Nearly 100,000 customers remained without power Tuesday night in states to the east of Kansas including Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia, according to the tracking website PowerOutage.us. That was down from more than 200,000 earlier in the day.
More than 5,000 flights into or out of the U.S. were delayed Tuesday, according to tracking platform FlightAware. On Monday, more than 2,300 flights were canceled and at least 9,100 more were delayed.
Virginia’s state Capitol and General Assembly buildings will stay closed Wednesday after a weather-related power outage caused a malfunction in the water system, officials said Monday. The closure postponed lawmakers’ first working day of the legislative session. A boil-water notice that was issued for Richmond's 200,000 residents could be lifted Wednesday, Mayor Danny Avula said.
Fingerhut reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Associated Press reporters Bruce Schreiner in Shelbyville, Kentucky; Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky; Brian Witte in Annapolis, Maryland; Julie Walker in New York; Joshua A. Bickel in Cincinnati; Jamie Stengle in Dallas; Jeff Martin in Atlanta; Michael Schneider in Orlando; Michael Casey in Boston; Hallie Golden in Seattle; and Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Washington, contributed.
Read more of the AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment
A brine truck leaves the Texas Department of Transportation Dallas Southwest lot as crews prepare the roads ahead of a winter storm expected to hit the North Texas region, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Cedar Hill, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Cary Fallath, the BMW Store lot technician, clears snow from new cars in Silverton, Ohio, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
The BMW Store lot technician Cary Fallath clears snow from new BMWs in Silverton, Ohio, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
A man uses a blower to clear snow from a sidewalk as a winter storm sweeps over the intermountain West and across the country Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in southeast Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
A sign warns drivers of ice prevention operations ahead of a winter storm expected to hit the North Texas region later this week, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
A man uses a snowblower to clear a sidewalk as a winter storm sweeps over the intermountain West and across the country Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
A motorist clears now off a four-wheel-drive vehicle before taking to the roads as a winter storm sweeps over the intermountain West and across the country Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Motorists survey damage done to a utility vehicle in a crash at an intersection as a winter storm sweeps over the intermountain West and across the country Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in southeast Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
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Workers labor on a brine truck at the Texas Department of Transportation Dallas Southwest lot as crews prepare the roads ahead of a winter storm expected to hit the North Texas region, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Cedar Hill, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
A worker is bundled up in near-freezing temperatures as he loads into a salt spreading truck at the Texas Department of Transportation Dallas Southwest lot as crews prepare the roads ahead of a winter storm expected to hit the North Texas region, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Cedar Hill, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Cary Fallath, the BMW Store lot technician, clears snow from new cars in Silverton, Ohio, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
People board a bus to an overnight shelter during a winter storm, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
Taylor Mcilwain uses a snow brush to clear snow from around her car in Cincinnati, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Ben Sisarsky pitches snow over a fence as he clears his girlfriend's parking spot with a borrowed snow shovel in Cincinnati, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Cary Fallath, the BMW Store lot technician, clears snow from new cars in Silverton, Ohio, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
A freeze warning sign is stands outside of an apartment complex ahead of a winter storm expected to hit the North Texas region, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
A man wearing a Venezuelan flag starts a moped as snow begins to fall again, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
A worker clears snow from an apron before guiding a Delta Air Lines jet at the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Romulus, Mich., Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
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