Hillary backs GB independence

---

WASHINGTON, March 9 (AFP): US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton backed Grameen Bank's (GB) independence in a call to Muhammad Yunus after the authorities in Bangladesh fired him from the bank he founded to help the poor, her spokesman said Wednesday. "Clinton spoke yesterday with Dr. Muhammad Yunus and expressed support for the independence of the GB in Bangladesh," Clinton spokesman Philip Crowley said on the microblogging website Twitter. Clinton ended up making the telephone call Tuesday to Yunus after he cancelled a scheduled trip to Washington because of the legal challenge he filed in Bangladeshi courts, Crowley said earlier. "We continue to follow developments closely and await clarification from the government of Bangladesh and Grameen Bank," Crowley told reporters on Tuesday. "We hope that a mutually satisfactory compromise can be achieved that will ensure Grameen Bank's autonomy and effectiveness," he said. Yunus, the Bangladeshi winner of the 2006 Nobel peace prize, earlier lost a high court appeal after being sacked from his own bank in a bitter clash with the country's authorities. The 70-year-old, who is celebrated worldwide for tackling poverty through his pioneering "microfinance" cash loans to small farmers and villagers, was fired last week on the orders of Bangladesh's central bank. Backed by a high-profile international campaign amid allegations of a political vendetta, he defied the order by returning to work at Grameen Bank's headquarters and lodging an appeal he will now take to the Supreme Court. The central bank -- which is nominally independent from the government -- removed Yunus on the basis that he had been in his position illegally since failing to seek its approval when he was reappointed indefinitely in 1999.