Bangla gives Nobel Peace winner hero's welcome

Dhaka, Dec 19: Muhammad Yunus, banker to the poor and 2006Nobel Peace Prize winner, returned to a hero's welcome in theBangladesh capital today after a visit to Norway to pick up the award.

Yunus and the Grameen Bank he founded were cited for their work tolift millions out of poverty by giving loans to the desperately poor,especially women in rural Bangladesh.

The award, announced earlier in the year, was welcome news in theimpoverished South Asian nation which gets regularly hit by nature'sfury -- droughts, cyclones and floods.

Yunus left an airport reception perched on the back of a lorry andwaved to the thousands of cheering well-wishers as his large motorcademade its way through the city's streets to the Grameen Bankheadquarters, television showed.

Yunus and Grameen Bank representative Mosammat Taslima Begumreceived gold medals and diplomas from the Nobel Committee at aceremony in Oslo on December 10.

The prize created by the Swedish philanthropist and inventor ofdynamite Alfred Nobel comes with a cheque for 10 million Swedish crowns($1.47 million), to be shared by the winners.

''We must work hard in all sectors including politics to keep upthe image that we have created by achieving the Nobel Peace Prize,''Yunus told a news conference on Tuesday.

Reuters