President of Maldives quits

The first democratically-elected president of the Maldives has resigned and been replaced by his vice president after the police and army clashed in the streets amid protests over the arrest of a top judge.

Mohammed Waheed Hassan, who previously worked as a top Unicef official, was sworn in as the new Maldivian president in the afternoon. Soon after, the judge was released.

In a televised address, Hassan promised to protect his predecessor, Mohamed Nasheed, from retribution and called for the street chaos to stop.