United News of Bangladesh

North Korea says it has test-fired cruise missiles designed for submarine launches as it continues to expand its military capabilities amid a prolonged freeze in diplomatic relations with the United States and South Korea. North Korean state media reported Thursday that the military tested two types of submarine-launched cruise missiles in waters off the country's east coast on Wednesday. The report described the weapons as strategic, suggesting they could be equipped with nuclear warheads, but did not specify whether they were launched from an actual submarine or an underwater test platform. The tests were aimed at assessing the readiness of the country's underwater combat systems, strengthening the Navy's ability to carry out strategic missions and demonstrating the reliability of its nuclear deterrent, state media said. South Korea's military did not immediately comment on the tests. The launches followed a recent series of weapons demonstrations, including tests of various hypersonic missile systems on Sept 20 and Oct 3. North Korea said those tests were intended to advance weapons designed to overwhelm missile defence systems in South Korea and Japan. North Korea has been developing various ballistic and cruise missiles designed for underwater launches for years. In recent months, it has also claimed progress in building a nuclear-powered submarine that it plans to equip with nuclear-capable weapons, as leader Kim Jong Un focuses on strengthening the Navy after a decade of expanding the country's ballistic missile programme. The potential acquisition of a submarine capable of operating stealthily for extended periods and launching missiles from underwater would raise concerns among neighbouring countries, as such launches would be difficult to detect in advance. However, questions remain over whether North Korea, a heavily sanctioned and impoverished country, has the resources and technology needed to develop such systems. In recent weeks, North Korea has also conducted live-fire drills and commissioned a new warship as Kim continues to showcase the country's nuclear weapons programme while rejecting US and South Korean offers to resume long-stalled diplomatic talks. Kim has halted all diplomacy and cooperation with South Korea in recent years, describing it as a permanent enemy amid a prolonged deadlock in broader nuclear negotiations with Washington. He has also rejected US President Donald Trump's calls to revive diplomatic engagement, which broke down in 2019. Pyongyang has called on Washington to abandon its “hostile” policy towards North Korea and drop demands for the country's denuclearisation as a precondition for talks.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have claimed that they struck a Saudi military aircraft, a Eurofighter Typhoon, with an air-to-air missile over Yemen’s Saada governorate. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a brief statement on X that the aircraft had taken off from Saudi Arabia’s Taif airbase and was “at risk of crashing” after being “struck directly”. Neither Saudi authorities nor independent sources have confirmed the attack so far. #From Middle East Eye 

Japan on Wednesday protested Russia’s arrest of a Japanese journalist on suspicion of espionage, demanding an explanation, access to the detainee and assurances of humane treatment. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said the journalist, who works for the Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper, was suspected of collecting information about Russia’s defence capabilities on behalf of a Japanese intelligence agency. Russia’s Foreign Ministry identified him as Yuki Imai. The FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said Imai was arrested on Sakhalin Island as he was preparing to leave Russia on Tuesday. The arrest has added to tensions between the two countries, which have deteriorated further following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s August visit to Iturup, one of four disputed Kuril Islands controlled by Moscow but claimed by Tokyo. Hokkaido Shimbun said the journalist had been reporting in Russia on a journalist visa and was scheduled to leave the country on Monday. The newspaper did not disclose his name. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday that Imai had been charged with espionage. She accused Japan of using journalists working in Russia to gather information that undermines Russian security. Zakharova also criticised Japan’s policies toward Russia and its military buildup, saying they threatened Moscow’s security interests in the Far East. The incident would further strain relations between the two countries, she added. In Tokyo, Kimitake Nakamura, head of the European Affairs Bureau at Japan’s Foreign Ministry, summoned Russian Ambassador Nikolay Nozdrev on Wednesday to protest the arrest and Moscow’s announcement of the case without explaining it to the Japanese government. Nakamura called for the journalist to receive humane and fair treatment and demanded that Japanese officials be allowed to meet him, according to a statement from the ministry. He also reiterated Japan’s territorial claim over the Kuril Islands, which Tokyo calls the Northern Territory, and protested a recent visit to Iturup by officials of a Chinese regional government and business representatives, describing it as unacceptable. Nozdrev said he would convey Japan’s concerns to Moscow, the Japanese ministry said. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara earlier said Tokyo had been unable to establish contact with the journalist and did not know his health condition. Russia had yet to respond to Japan’s requests for access to him, he added. “We’ll do everything we can for the protection of the Japanese citizen,” Kihara said. Despite the many outstanding issues between Japan and Russia, the two neighbouring countries need to maintain communication, he said, adding that Tokyo would take appropriate steps to protect its national interests. The Sakhalin region includes Sakhalin Island and the four southernmost islands of the Kuril chain, which Russia controls and Japan claims. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi protested Putin’s August visit to Iturup, describing it as another setback for relations already strained by Russia’s war in Ukraine. Tokyo imposed additional economic sanctions on Moscow earlier this month over the war. The Soviet Union seized the Kuril Islands from Japan in the final days of World War II. The territorial dispute has prevented the two countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending their wartime hostilities.

A new bridge linking China and North Korea is set to open on Thursday, more than a decade after the Chinese side was completed, in the latest indication of closer ties between the two countries. China's official Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday that the two sides would hold a ceremony to mark the opening of the New Yalu River Bridge. The massive, three-kilometre bridge will connect the northeastern Chinese city of Dandong with the North Korean city of Sinuiju. The bridge was originally scheduled to become operational in 2014, but the deadline passed without any opening. By September that year, the North Korean side ended at a dirt ramp, with no customs or immigration facilities in sight. The delay prompted an unusually critical report in the Global Times, a newspaper affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party, which quoted Dandong residents expressing frustration over the stalled project. They had hoped the bridge would bring economic benefits to their border city. Foreign analysts suggested at the time that Pyongyang was concerned about China's growing economic influence in North Korea. China remains North Korea's largest trading partner and a major ally, although Beijing has expressed disapproval of Pyongyang's missile tests over the years. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited Beijing in September 2025 to attend a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. It was the first time in decades that a North Korean leader had attended a Chinese military parade. The only existing bridge between the two countries was built in 1937, when Korea was under Japanese colonial rule. It carries a railway line as well as cars and trucks, but road traffic can cross in only one direction at a time.

Solar energy kits are increasingly helping keep the lights on in disaster-hit areas and humanitarian crises, including Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, as improving technology and falling costs make renewable energy more accessible. Every day, Mohammed Saber places a rectangular solar panel on the roof of the bamboo-and-tarpaulin shack where he and his family have lived for years after fleeing the Myanmar military's brutal crackdown on the Rohingya in 2017. The panel is part of a portable solar kit provided to the family as humanitarian aid six years ago. Since then, it has remained their primary source of electricity in the refugee camp in Teknaf, Bangladesh, making their daily lives much easier. "We can now charge our phones, cook with light, children can study at night and use fans during the hot season," said Saber, 35. From flood-affected areas of Nepal to refugee camps in Africa, solar energy is increasingly becoming part of disaster relief efforts as technology advances, prices decline and humanitarian organisations recognise electricity as a basic necessity. Experts say the need for renewable energy solutions has grown as climate change fuels and intensifies extreme weather events, while wars, sanctions and political instability continue to make fossil fuel prices volatile. Portable solar kits offer flexible solutions Sarah Rosenberg-Jansen, a research fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute, an independent research and policy institute specialising in sustainable development, said solar kits could be particularly valuable when disasters strike and humanitarian needs rise. These compact, all-in-one systems use solar panels and operate independently of the electricity grid, making them easy to transport and recharge, she said. "In emergency situations, solar kits can be deployed immediately," Rosenberg-Jansen said, adding that they are especially useful when floodwaters rise rapidly, front lines shift during conflicts or damaged roads make transportation difficult. The kits come in various forms, ranging from solar lanterns, torches and home systems to solar heating pads and electric cookstoves powered by solar energy, she said. Falling costs expand use of solar energy Rosenberg-Jansen said solar panels are less vulnerable to price shocks than fossil fuels, which can be expensive and difficult to transport to disaster-hit areas. Solar energy was considered a luxury just a few decades ago, but technological advancements and large-scale manufacturing have made it more affordable, she said. Yuriy Boyechko, chief executive officer of US-based nonprofit Hope For Ukraine, which provides solar kits to families in war-affected Ukraine, said the technology had also become easier to operate. "We have grandmas and grandpas who are around 75-80 years old ... receiving kits," Boyechko said. "It's just a matter of plug (in) and play." Solar-powered solutions are becoming increasingly common in humanitarian operations. On the outskirts of Karachi, Pakistan's economic hub, a tuberculosis clinic run by Doctors Without Borders relies on solar energy. In South Sudan's Renk county, the UN migration agency has installed solar-powered water filtration systems for families displaced by the war in neighbouring Sudan. Following massive floods in Nepal in August that killed 1,455 people and left 5,285 missing, including hundreds of foreign nationals, solar kits were distributed by local and international organisations, including Australia-based charity SolarBuddy. Funding shortages, bureaucracy hamper progress Despite the growing use of solar energy, integrating it into humanitarian operations remains challenging, said Mark Gibson of the Global Platform for Action (GPA), which promotes access to affordable, reliable and clean energy. Aid agencies have long relied on established systems, often involving diesel generators supplied through long-term leases and agreements. Switching to solar energy requires confidence in new technologies and the development of alternative distribution networks, sometimes in high-risk environments. Cuts in international donor funding have also weakened or eliminated some emerging practices, said Aimee Jenks, a programme leader at GPA. "Much of the technical expertise in the humanitarian sector on energy has been cut," she said. "That's now retracting a lot of progress." Although solar energy has become cheaper, its cost remains beyond the reach of many communities and humanitarian organisations. Boyechko said Hope For Ukraine expects to have distributed more than 3,200 solar kits by the end of 2026. However, funding constraints have limited the pace of distribution. "But it took us two years to get to that number, because of funding needs," he said. "We have a waiting list of about 20,000 families. We just cannot keep up with demand." While no energy source is without drawbacks, experts say the shift towards renewable energy could reduce dependence on polluting fossil fuels. For Saber, whose family is among more than one million refugees from Myanmar's Rohingya ethnic and religious minority now living in Bangladesh, the solar kit has made a tangible difference. "It's improved my family's life," he said.

Malaysia will remain committed to keeping its economy open and maintaining its status as a trading nation despite ongoing geopolitical tensions fracturing the global economy, Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Johari Abdul Ghani said on Tuesday. The global political and economic landscape is undergoing a profound transformation, with countries increasingly prioritizing the protection of domestic industries and strategic economic interests, often at the expense of global economic integration and the multilateral trading system, Johari said in his remarks at the EU-Malaysia Business Day 2026. As a highly open economy deeply integrated into global supply chains, Malaysia would continue to engage constructively with all its economic partners, he said, adding that Malaysia strongly believes that dialogue and cooperation must always take precedence over unilateral action.

A 59-year-old man stabbed at least eight people Tuesday at a shopping mall in the South Korean city of Incheon, police and fire officials said. One victim was in life-threatening condition and received surgery at a nearby hospital. The suspect attacked shoppers as he moved through the mall before business owners and bystanders subdued him, according to Incheon’s Namdong District Police Station and witnesses. The man has a history of violent offenses and mental illness and was required to wear an electronic monitoring anklet, according to South Korea’s Justice Ministry. The man’s name was not released, in keeping with South Korean practice for most criminal suspects. Witnesses told South Korean media that the attacker appeared to have knives tied to both hands and stabbed people in different parts of the mall while moving up and down the floors on an escalator. Nah Hyun-joon, who helped subdue the attacker using chairs with several other people, said he saw the man attack about four people in the second-floor food court before moving up to the third floor, where he stabbed at least one woman. Nah said the attacker then headed toward a multiplex movie theater on the fourth floor but was blocked by several people holding chairs at the top of the escalator. Nah said he and others trapped the man from below and eventually subdued him near the escalator’s third-floor entrance, pushing him down with chairs and removing his knives, before police arrived. “He just went around stabbing people,” Nah told OBS television. “He didn’t even say anything. He just stabbed whoever he saw." The injured were taken to nearby hospitals, including one woman in her 20s who underwent surgery after arriving in cardiac arrest, Incheon’s fire department said. The department didn’t provide details on the severity of the other injuries. The suspect was sentenced to four years in prison for attempted murder in 2015, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. He was placed under electronic monitoring in 2019 and had committed no repeat offenses while under supervision, the Justice Ministry said. The suspect was booked last month on suspicion of carrying a weapon after using a kitchen knife to puncture a protest sign outside a hospital where he had a dispute, and was receiving treatment for alcohol dependence and unspecified mental illnesses, according to the ministry. Earlier on the day of the attack, the suspect attended a counseling session from 10 to 11 a.m. and then met his probation officer from 11:20 to 11:55 a.m., the ministry said. The attack began at 1:40 p.m. The officer confirmed that the suspect had taken his medication and had lunch with him until 12:30 p.m. Authorities detected no attempts to destroy his monitoring device, the ministry said. “We sincerely apologize over the great public concern caused by the knife attack by an individual under electronic monitoring,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that it would review both the supervision of the suspect and broader electronic monitoring procedures.

At least four people were killed and 30 others injured when a passenger train derailed in central Pakistan early Tuesday, police and a Pakistan Railways spokesman said. The train was travelling from the southern port city of Karachi to the northwestern city of Peshawar when it went off the tracks in Sher Shah city in Punjab province, railway spokesman Kaleem Akhtar said. Rescuers recovered the bodies of all four victims and evacuated the injured from the train’s 14 carriages, he said. The injured were taken to a hospital for treatment, while emergency responders and paramedics were dispatched to the scene. President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed their grief over the deaths in separate statements and urged the authorities to ensure the best possible medical care for the injured. Train accidents are relatively common in Pakistan, where the railway system has suffered from decades of underinvestment, outdated tracks and ageing signalling systems. In 2023, 10 carriages of a passenger train derailed in southern Pakistan, killing 30 people and injuring more than 90 others.  

Kashish Rawat travelled to New Delhi on Saturday to join a protest without informing her parents. When the 22-year-old economics student arrived in the Indian capital, she found the streets transformed, with metal barricades blocking roads and police cracking down on young demonstrators. Officers beat some protesters, dragged others into buses and chased away the rest. Demonstrators recorded the police action on their phones, and the videos quickly spread across social media. The crackdown was aimed at preventing mostly young Indians from gathering to protest against a revision of voter lists that they say favours Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party. But it did not stop Rawat, who remained on the streets until evening while trying to stay out of the reach of police. “We are not going anywhere. We will come back again and make our voices heard,” she said. Protests led by India’s “Cockroach” youth movement intensified earlier this month over an ongoing review of voter lists that has removed more than 130 million names since last year. Critics say the exercise is politically motivated and risks disenfranchising millions more people. They have called for the resignation of Election Commission chief Gyanesh Kumar. The Election Commission, however, says the review is necessary to eliminate duplicate and ineligible entries. Modi has not publicly commented on the protests. Some leaders of his party have dismissed the demonstrators as “anarchists” and suggested, without providing evidence, that foreign powers are backing them. The dispute has struck at the core of Indian democracy — the right to vote. It has also raised questions about whether a generation that grew up under Modi, who has served as prime minister for more than 12 years, can turn its growing disillusionment into a sustained challenge to his Hindu nationalist government. “I don't see him as almighty,” Rawat said of Modi. “I see him as someone who we have elected. So I don't understand the reason why we should be scared of questioning that guy.” A test for India’s democratic institutions India’s democratic institutions have faced growing pressure under Modi, with critics accusing his government of weakening checks on executive power, restricting dissent and targeting religious minorities, particularly Muslims. Press freedom organisations have also expressed concern over pressure on independent media. The government rejects these allegations, maintaining that the country’s institutions remain strong and that law enforcement agencies act against violations of the law rather than dissent. For many young Indians, however, institutions they grew up trusting have failed to live up to their promises. They describe a political environment increasingly hostile to dissent, where challenging those in power can expose people to harm. The voter list controversy has intensified these frustrations, providing a common cause for a generation already dissatisfied with the political system. Earlier this summer, protesters forced the resignation of Modi’s education minister, offering a rare example of street demonstrations leading to political change. The mobilisation has since reflected a broader wave of youth-led protests in other countries, particularly in South Asia, where Generation Z demonstrators have challenged established political elites. For 19-year-old student Maya Ribeiro, the voter list controversy has raised concerns about a democratic right she had previously taken for granted. Ribeiro, a sociology student, joined Saturday’s demonstration with two friends. She said they had registered to vote because they considered participation in a democracy both a right and a responsibility. The prospect of more names being removed from voter lists, however, has left her worried that the right to vote cannot be taken for granted. She said the controversy had made the fight over the electoral process more urgent. “When we talk about the institution of voting, it is an important institution, but it is an institution that needs to be cleansed,” Ribeiro said. Police crackdown fuels anger among young protesters The extensive police crackdown has given young Indians another reason to protest, demonstrators said, describing the response to a planned rally as disproportionate in a democracy. Aryan Kajaniya, a 21-year-old philosophy student, said the dispute reflected wider disillusionment among young people with the country’s political system. He said he and other protesters were increasingly uncertain about how to exercise their right to freedom of expression when authorities could restrict gatherings and detain demonstrators. “People are actively trying to gather more information about what's going on in the capital. They are joining in from different cities, but the system is actively trying to suppress us,” he said. The movement’s influence extends beyond those taking part in street demonstrations. Many protesters said they did not identify with any particular organisation or political party but were motivated by shared concerns. Ribeiro said discussions among friends, debates at home and exchanges on social media had transformed private frustrations into collective action. After years of feeling powerless, the protests have given young Indians like her a renewed sense of political agency, they said. That change was evident during the “Cockroach” protests earlier this summer, when demonstrators broke a longstanding taboo by openly mocking Modi. “I do believe that we are at a point where we have been so disillusioned that we are now more resilient than ever,” Ribeiro said. Challenging Modi will require more than street protests Mounting a sustained challenge to Modi, an established figure in Indian politics for more than a decade, will be difficult. His Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party has built a formidable electoral organisation, while opposition parties have struggled to turn previous public discontent into a lasting nationwide challenge. The youth protests have yet to develop into a coherent political alternative. For many demonstrators, however, creating space to question the government has itself become a struggle, one that has carried personal costs. Rawat said politics had become a recurring source of tension within her family. She believes her parents’ views have been influenced by television coverage sympathetic to Modi’s party, and disagreements have sometimes led her to stop speaking to relatives. “I do still try my best to have a conversation with them, but I have been failing so far,” she said. For Ribeiro, the key question is whether young Indians can transform their anger into a sustained movement demanding transparency and accountability. She said the protests had helped young people recognise that their voices could make a difference. “I think for the first time in a very long time … I have felt a sort of renewed belief in what democracy can do,” Ribeiro said.

Pakistan on Monday urged Afghanistan's Taliban government to prevent militants from using Afghan territory to launch attacks inside Pakistan, warning again that the armed groups could eventually pose a threat to the Taliban's own rule. Tensions between the neighbouring countries have risen amid repeated border clashes and Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan, intensifying a longstanding dispute over militant activities. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said in September that it had documented more than 1,100 civilian deaths and injuries resulting from cross-border violence in Afghanistan this year. Speaking at a think tank event broadcast on Pakistani television, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said he had previously warned Afghan Prime Minister Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund about the threat during a visit to Kabul in July 2025. “I politely reminded him that if the Afghan authorities failed to take appropriate action against terrorist groups operating from their territory, the day would come when these very groups would threaten his government as well,” Dar said. He did not disclose how the Afghan authorities had responded. However, Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid rejected Pakistan's allegations in a post on X, accusing Pakistani officials of undermining negotiations and prioritising propaganda over solutions. “Blaming Afghanistan for its own failures by Pakistani officials is no solution to any problem,” Mujahid wrote. Pakistan's Information Ministry rejected Mujahid's remarks, saying on X that Islamabad remained committed to dialogue but that progress depended on Kabul fulfilling its counterterrorism commitments and taking verifiable action against militant sanctuaries and support networks. Pakistan has repeatedly accused Kabul of sheltering the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent, an affiliate of the global extremist network. The TTP is separate from, but closely allied with, Afghanistan's ruling Taliban. Dar did not explain why he believed the militants could eventually turn against the Afghan Taliban. The Afghan Taliban government has repeatedly denied providing safe havens to militants targeting Pakistan. Dar said Pakistan's diplomatic and economic efforts to improve relations with Kabul had produced no meaningful progress on its main security demand: action against militants operating from Afghan territory. “Good neighbourly relations are a two-way responsibility,” he said. “They cannot mean silently absorbing one attack after another.” Dar said he visited Kabul three times in 2025 as Pakistan pursued expanded trade, upgraded diplomatic representation to the ambassadorial level and explored a railway link connecting Pakistan with Central Asia through Afghanistan. He said Pakistan wanted Afghanistan to be stable and prosperous but could no longer overlook what he described as a persistent militant threat across the border. “Attacks inside Pakistan are planned, directed and launched from across the border,” he said. “Terrorists infiltrate through mountainous terrain, target our soldiers and civilians, and retreat to their sanctuaries.” Dar said Pakistan's military had completed nearly 95% of a fence along its more than 2,600-kilometre (1,600-mile) border with Afghanistan. Construction of the fence began in 2017 following cross-border militant attacks on Pakistani army posts. Describing the TTP as one of Pakistan's most serious security threats, Dar cited attacks on schools, mosques, markets and security installations. He also accused the separatist BLA of targeting civilians, security personnel and economic infrastructure. Pakistan says more than 2,800 militant attacks since January have killed or injured around 3,000 people. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, who spoke at the same event on Monday, blamed the rise in violence on militants based in Afghanistan, including the TTP. Citing UN and independent assessments, Tarar said Afghanistan was home to more than 6,000 TTP fighters and over 20,000 militants in total. He accused the TTP of using Afghan territory to recruit, train and plan attacks against Pakistan since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in 2021.