United News of Bangladesh

Militants killed six Pakistani soldiers during a shootout in the northwest, the army said Saturday. It’s the latest unrest in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan and is a base for armed groups including the Pakistani Taliban. The troops died in an overnight operation in North Waziristan on Saturday, according to an army statement. The statement also said six militants were killed. The army said a separate operation killed two militants in Swat, also in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. One of them was said to be involved in an attack on a convoy of foreign ambassadors in the area earlier this month. Also Saturday, cellphone services remained suspended in Islamabad as it entered a second day of a lockdown aimed at thwarting rallies in support of ex-leader Imran Khan. He is in prison on multiple charges. Shipping containers have blocked off the city’s entry and exit points, but videos from Khan’s political party showed his supporters piled into vehicles and attempting to head toward Islamabad. The chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Ali Amin Gandapur, and others in the convoy worked throughout the night to remove shipping containers from the road, the party said. Khan’s PTI party said it plans to hold a rally in Lahore.

At least 31 suspected Maoist rebels were killed in a battle with Indian troops in central India, police said Saturday. The fighting erupted on Friday when counterinsurgency troops, acting on intelligence, cornered nearly 50 suspected rebels in the Abhujmaad forest area along the border of Narayanpur and Dantewada districts in Chhattisgarh state, said state police Inspector General Pattilingam Sundarraj. Sundarraj said the operation was launched on Thursday, and the battle began the next day, lasting about nine hours. He said search operations were continuing in the area and that the troops had recovered some arms and ammunition, including automatic rifles. There were no reports of casualties among the troops. There was no immediate statement from the rebels. Indian soldiers have been battling the Maoist rebels across several central and northern states since 1967, when the militants, also known as Naxalites, began fighting to demand more jobs, land and wealth from natural resources for the country’s poor indigenous communities. The insurgents are inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong. Years of neglect have isolated many local villagers, who face a lack of jobs, schools and health care clinics, making them open to overtures by the rebels. The rebels speak the same tribal languages as many local villagers and have promised to fight for a better future especially in Chhattisgarh, one of India’s poorest states despite its vast mineral riches. Authorities say at least 171 militants have been killed so far this year in Chhattisgarh. Friday’s fighting was the deadliest clash this year. In April, government forces killed at least 29 suspected Maoist rebels in in Chhattisgarh, three days ahead of the start of India’s national election. The rebels have ambushed police, destroyed government offices and abducted officials. They’ve also blown up train tracks, attacked prisons to free their comrades and stolen weapons from police and paramilitary warehouses to arm themselves.

Flooding in northern Thailand forced many residents of the city of Chiang Mai and its outskirts to seek safety on higher ground on Friday, with members of the animal world under similar threat. Evacuations were underway at the Elephant Nature Park, which houses around 3,000 rescued animals, including 125 elephants, 800 dogs, 2,500 cats, 200 rabbits and 200 cows. Flood waters caused by heavy rainfall swept through the park on Thursday. Heavy seasonal monsoon rains and the effects of Typhoon Yagi combined to cause serious flooding in many parts of Thailand, with the northern region particularly badly hit. Video posted online by the park vividly illustrated that care and compassion are not solely human traits. The video shows several of the park’s resident elephants fleeing through rising, muddy water to ground less inundated. Three of them dash through the deluge with some ease but, according to the park, a fourth one is blind and was falling behind. It showed greater difficulty passing through wrecked fencing. Its fellows appear to call out to it, to guide it to their sides. Efforts to evacuate more animals were hampered by the high water, while more rain is forecast.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un threatened to use nuclear weapons and destroy South Korea permanently if provoked, state media reported Friday, after the South’s leader warned that Kim’s regime would collapse if he attempted to use nuclear arms. The exchange of such rhetoric between the rival Koreas is nothing new, but the latest comments come during heightened animosities over the North’s recent disclosure of a nuclear facility and its continuation of missile tests. Next week, observers say North Korea's rubber-stamp parliament is expected to constitutionally declare a hostile “two-state” system on the Korean Peninsula to formally reject reconciliation with South Korea and codify new national borders. During a visit to a special operation forces unit on Wednesday, Kim said his military “would use without hesitation all the offensive forces it possesses, including nuclear weapons,” if South Korea attempts to use armed forces encroaching upon the sovereignty of North Korea, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. “If such a situation comes, the permanent existence of Seoul and the Republic of Korea would be impossible,” Kim said, using South Korea’s official name. Kim’s statement was a response to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s speech at his country’s Armed Forces Day on Tuesday. Unveiling South Korea’s most powerful Hyunmoo-5 ballistic missile and other conventional weapons that could target North Korea, Yoon said the day that North Korea tries to use nuclear weapons would be the end of the Kim government because Kim would face “the resolute and overwhelming response” of the South Korean-U.S. alliance. Read:  North Korea discloses a uranium enrichment facility as Kim calls for more nuclear weapons Kim responded that Yoon’s address fully betrayed his “bellicose temerity” and showed “the security uneasiness and irritating psychology of the puppet forces.” In a derisive comment, Kim called Yoon "an abnormal man,” saying that “the puppet Yoon bragged about an overwhelming counteraction of military muscle at the doorstep of a state that possesses nuclear weapons.” On Thursday, Kim’s sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, also ridiculed South Korea's showcasing of the Hyunmoo-5 missile, saying there there’s no way for South Korea to counter the North Korea’s nuclear forces with conventional weapons. Since adopting an escalatory nuclear doctrine in 2022, Kim has repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons preemptively. But many foreign experts say it's still unlikely that he would use his nuclear arms first because his military is outmatched by the U.S. and its allied forces. In July, South Korea and the U.S. signed a defense guideline on integrating South Korea's conventional capabilities with the U.S. nuclear forces to better deal with North Korea's advancing nuclear program. South Korea has no nuclear weapons. Read more: North Korea launches multiple ballistic missiles after Kim vowed to bolster war readiness Animosities between the Koreas are at the worst point in years with Kim's provocative run of missile tests and the South Korean-U.S. military exercises intensifying in a cycle of tit-for-tat. All communication channels and exchange programs between the rivals remain stalled since 2019, when a broader U.S.-North Korea diplomacy on ending the North's nuclear program collapsed. In January, Kim called for rewriting North Korea’s constitution to eliminate the idea of a peaceful unification between the war-divided countries and to cement the South as an “invariable principal enemy.” He also reiterated that his country does not recognize the Northern Limit Line, a western sea boundary that was drawn by the U.S.-led U.N. Command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. He called for the new constitution to include a clear definition of the North’s territories. North Korea has traditionally insisted upon a boundary that encroaches deeply into waters currently controlled by South Korea. Read more: North Korea's Kim vows to make his nuclear force ready for combat with US On Friday, South Korea’s military said North Korea was again flying balloons likely carrying trash across the border into South Korea. Since late May, North Korea has launched thousands of rubbish-carrying balloons toward South Korea, prompting South Korea to resume anti-Pyongyang propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts at border areas.

Three years after the 30-year-old South Korean woman received a barrage of online fake images that depicted her nude, she is still being treated for trauma. She struggles to talk with men. Using a mobile phone brings back the nightmare. “It completely trampled me, even though it wasn’t a direct physical attack on my body,” she said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. She didn't want her name revealed because of privacy concerns. Many other South Korean women recently have come forward to share similar stories as South Korea grapples with a deluge of non-consensual, explicit deepfake videos and images that have become much more accessible and easier to create. It was not until last week that parliament revised a law to make watching or possessing deepfake porn content illegal. Most suspected perpetrators in South Korea are teenage boys. Observers say the boys target female friends, relatives and acquaintances — also mostly minors — as a prank, out of curiosity or misogyny. The attacks raise serious questions about school programs but also threaten to worsen an already troubled divide between men and women. Deepfake porn in South Korea gained attention after unconfirmed lists of schools that had victims spread online in August. Many girls and women have hastily removed photos and videos from their Instagram, Facebook and other social media accounts. Thousands of young women have staged protests demanding stronger steps against deepfake porn. Politicians, academics and activists have held forums. “Teenage (girls) must be feeling uneasy about whether their male classmates are okay. Their mutual trust has been completely shattered,” said Shin Kyung-ah, a sociology professor at South Korea’s Hallym University. The school lists have not been formally verified, but officials including President Yoon Suk Yeol have confirmed a surge of explicit deepfake content on social media. Police have launched a seven-month crackdown. Recent attention to the problem has coincided with France’s arrest in August of Pavel Durov, the founder of the messaging app Telegram, over allegations that his platform was used for illicit activities including the distribution of child sexual abuse. South Korea's telecommunications and broadcast watchdog said Monday that Telegram has pledged to enforce a zero-tolerance policy on illegal deepfake content. Police say they’ve detained 387 people over alleged deepfake crimes this year, more than 80% of them teenagers. Separately, the Education Ministry says about 800 students have informed authorities about intimate deepfake content involving them this year. Experts say the true scale of deepfake porn in the country is far bigger. The U.S. cybersecurity firm Security Hero called South Korea “the country most targeted by deepfake pornography” last year. In a report, it said South Korean singers and actresses constitute more than half of the people featured in deepfake pornography worldwide. The prevalence of deepfake porn in South Korea reflects various factors including heavy use of smart phones; an absence of comprehensive sex and human rights education in schools and inadequate social media regulations for minors as well as a “misogynic culture” and social norms that “sexually objectify women,” according to Hong Nam-hee, a research professor at the Institute for Urban Humanities at the University of Seoul. Victims speak of intense suffering. In parliament, lawmaker Kim Nam Hee read a letter by an unidentified victim who she said tried to kill herself because she didn't want to suffer any longer from the explicit deepfake videos someone had made of her. Addressing a forum, former opposition party leader Park Ji-hyun read a letter from another victim who said she fainted and was taken to an emergency room after receiving sexually abusive deepfake images and being told by her perpetrators that they were stalking her. The 30-year-old woman interviewed by The AP said that her doctoral studies in the United States were disrupted for a year. She is receiving treatment after being diagnosed with panic disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder in 2022. Police said they've detained five men for allegedly producing and spreading fake explicit contents of about 20 women, including her. The victims are all graduates from Seoul National University, the country’s top school. Two of the men, including one who allegedly sent her fake nude images in 2021, attended the same university, but she said has no meaningful memory of them. The woman said the images she received on Telegram used photos she had posted on the local messaging app Kakao Talk, combined with nude photos of strangers. There were also videos showing men masturbating and messages describing her as a promiscuous woman or prostitute. One photo shows a screen shot of a Telegram chatroom with 42 people where her fake images were posted. The fake images were very crudely made but the woman felt deeply humiliated and shocked because dozens of people — some of whom she likely knows — were sexually harassing her with those photos. Building trust with men is stressful, she said, because she worries that “normal-looking people could do such things behind my back.” Using a smart phone sometimes revives memories of the fake images. “These days, people spend more time on their mobile phones than talking face to face with others. So we can’t really easily escape the traumatic experience of digital crimes if those happen on our phones,” she said. “I was very sociable and really liked to meet new people, but my personality has totally changed since that incident. That made my life really difficult and I’m sad.” Critics say authorities haven’t done enough to counter deepfake porn despite an epidemic of online sex crimes in recent years, such as spy cam videos of women in public toilets and other places. In 2020, members of a criminal ring were arrested and convicted of blackmailing dozens of women into filming sexually explicit videos for them to sell. “The number of male juveniles consuming deepfake porn for fun has increased because authorities have overlooked the voices of women” demanding stronger punishment for digital sex crimes, the monitoring group ReSET said in comments sent to AP. South Korea has no official records on the extent of deepfake online porn. But ReSET said a recent random search of an online chatroom found more than 4,000 sexually exploitive images, videos and other items. Reviews of district court rulings showed less than a third of the 87 people indicted by prosecutors for deepfake crimes since 2021 were sent to prison. Nearly 60% avoided jail by receiving suspended terms, fines or not-guilty verdicts, according to lawmaker Kim's office. Judges tended to lighten sentences when those convicted repented for their crimes or were first time offenders. The deepfake problem has gained urgency given South Korea's serious rifts over gender roles, workplace discrimination facing women, mandatory military service for men and social burdens on men and women. Kim Chae-won, a 25-year-old office worker, said some of her male friends shunned her after she asked them what they thought about digital sex violence targeting women. “I feel scared of living as a woman in South Korea,” said Kim Haeun, a 17-year-old high school student who recently removed all her photos on Instagram. She said she feels awkward when talking with male friends and tries to distance herself from boys she doesn't know well. “Most sex crimes target women. And when they happen, I think we are often helpless," she said.

A former Singaporean cabinet minister was sentenced Thursday to a year in prison after he pleaded guilty to charges of receiving illegal gifts, in a rare criminal case involving a minister in the Asian financial hub. Former Transport Minister S. Iswaran had pleaded guilty last week to one count of obstructing justice and four of accepting gifts from people with whom he had official business. He was the first minister to be charged and imprisoned in nearly half a century. Justice Vincent Hoong, in his ruling, said holders of high office “must be expected to avoid any perception that they are susceptible to influence by pecuniary benefits,” according to Channel News Asia. “I am of the view it is appropriate to impose a sentence in excess of both parties’ positions,” Hoong was quoted as saying. The defense had asked for no more than eight weeks in prison, while the prosecution had pushed for six to seven months imprisonment. Iswaran, 62, was initially charged with 35 counts, but prosecutors proceeded with only five, while reducing two counts of corruption to receiving illegal gifts. Prosecutors said they will apply for the remaining 30 charges to be taken into consideration for sentencing. No reasons were given for the move. Iswaran received gifts worth over 74,000 Singapore dollars ($57,000) from Ong Beng Seng, a Singapore-based Malaysian property tycoon, and businessperson Lum Kok Seng. The gifts included tickets to Singapore’s Formula 1 race, wine and whisky and a luxury Brompton bike. Ong owns the right to the local F1 race, and Iswaran was chair of and later adviser to the Grand Prix’s steering committee. The Attorney-General’s Chambers said it will decide whether to charge Ong and Lum after the case against Iswaran has been resolved. Singapore ’s ministers are among the world’s best-paid. Although the amount involved in Iswaran’s case appeared to be relatively minor, his indictment is an embarrassment to the ruling People’s Action Party, which prides itself on a clean image. The last Cabinet minister charged with graft was Wee Toon Boon, who was found guilty in 1975 and jailed for accepting gifts in exchange for helping a businessperson. Another Cabinet minister was investigated for graft in 1986, but died before charges were filed. Iswaran had resigned just before he was charged. His trial comes just over four months after Singapore installed new Prime Minister Lawrence Wong after Lee Hsien Loong stepped down after 20 years.

Israel's ground incursion into Lebanon to battle Hezbollah militants left eight Israeli soldiers dead Wednesday, while the region braced for further escalation as Israel vowed to retaliate for Iran’s ballistic missile attack a day earlier. The Israeli military said seven soldiers were killed in two separate attacks, without elaborating. The assaults were among the deadliest against Israeli forces in months. Another seven troops, including a combat medic, were wounded. Earlier, the military had announced that a 22-year-old captain in a commando brigade was killed in Lebanon, the first Israeli combat death since the start of the incursion. The announcements came on the eve of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year. In Gaza, where the nearly yearlong war that triggered the widening conflict rages on with no end in sight, Israeli ground and air operations in a hard-hit city killed at least 51 people, including women and children, Palestinian medical officials said. Israel has continued to strike what it says are militant targets across Gaza nearly a year after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack ignited the war. The escalation on multiple fronts has raised fears of a wider war in the Middle East that could further draw in Iran — which backs Hezbollah and Hamas — as well as the United States, which has rushed military assets to the region in support of Israel. Hezbollah says its fighters clashed with Israeli troops Hezbollah, widely seen as the most powerful armed group in the region, said its fighters clashed with Israeli troops in two places inside Lebanon near the border. The Israeli military said ground forces backed by airstrikes had killed militants in “close-range engagements” without saying where. Israeli media reported infantry and tank units operating in southern Lebanon after the military sent thousands of additional troops and artillery to the border. Hezbollah said its fighters wounded and killed a group of Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon after detonating an explosive device, but the militants did not elaborate on the number of dead and wounded. The two attacks announced Wednesday followed other assaults on Israeli forces earlier in the year. In June, an explosion in southern Gaza killed eight Israeli soldiers. In January, 21 Israeli troops were killed in a single attack by Palestinian militants in central Gaza. the deadliest single attack on Israeli forces since Israel-Hamas war erupted. The Lebanese army said Israeli forces advanced some 400 meters (yards) across the border and withdrew “after a short period,” its first confirmation of the incursion. The Israeli military has warned people in and around 50 villages and towns to evacuate north of the Awali River, some 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the border and much farther than the northern edge of a U.N.-declared zone intended to serve as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah after their 2006 war. Hundreds of thousands have already fled their homes as the conflict has intensified. Israel has said it will continue to strike Hezbollah until it is safe for tens of thousands of its citizens displaced from homes near the Lebanon border to return. Hezbollah has vowed to keep firing rockets into Israel until there is a cease-fire in Gaza with Hamas. Israeli strikes have killed over 1,000 people in Lebanon over the past two weeks, nearly a quarter of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry. Meanwhile, Israel lashed out at the United Nations on Wednesday, declaring Secretary-General António Guterres persona non grata, or banned from entering the country. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz accused him of failing to unequivocally condemn Tuesday night's Iranian missile attack. Guterres released a brief statement after the barrage that read: “I condemn the broadening of the Middle East conflict, with escalation after escalation. This must stop. We absolutely need a cease-fire.” The move deepens an already wide rift between Israel and the United Nations. Palestinians describe massive raid in Gaza The Health Ministry in Gaza said at least 51 people were killed and 82 wounded in the operation in Khan Younis that began early Wednesday. Records at the European Hospital showed seven women and 12 children, as young as 22 months old, were among those killed. Another 23 people, including two children, were killed in separate strikes across Gaza, according to local hospitals. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Residents said Israel had carried out heavy airstrikes as its ground forces staged an incursion into three neighborhoods in Khan Younis. Mahmoud al-Razd, who had four relatives among those killed, described heavy destruction and said first responders had struggled to reach destroyed homes. “The explosions and shelling were massive,” he told The Associated Press. “Many people are thought to be under the rubble, and no one can retrieve them.” Israel carried out a weekslong offensive earlier this year in Khan Younis that left much of Gaza's second-largest city in ruins. Over the course of the war, Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to areas of Gaza as militants have regrouped. On Oct. 7, Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 hostage. Some 100 have not yet been released, around 65 of whom are believed to be alive. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters but says a little more than half were women and children. The military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence. Iran fires missiles to avenge attacks on militant allies Iran launched at least 180 missiles into Israel on Tuesday in what it said was retaliation for a series of devastating blows Israel has landed in recent weeks against Hezbollah, which has been firing rockets into Israel since the war in Gaza began in solidarity with Hamas. Israelis scrambled for bomb shelters as air-raid sirens sounded and the orange glow of missiles streaked across the night sky. The Israeli military said it intercepted many of the incoming Iranian missiles, though some landed in central and southern Israel and two people were lightly wounded by shrapnel. Several missiles landed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where one of them killed a Palestinian worker from Gaza who had been stranded in the territory since the war broke out. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate, saying Iran “made a big mistake tonight and it will pay for it.” U.S. President Joe Biden said his administration is “fully supportive” of Israel and that he’s discussing with aides what the appropriate response should be. Iran said it would respond to any violation of its sovereignty with even heavier strikes on Israeli infrastructure. Iran said it fired Tuesday’s missiles as retaliation for attacks that killed leaders of Hezbollah, Hamas and its own paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. It referenced Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, both killed in an Israeli airstrike last week in Beirut. It also mentioned Ismail Haniyeh, a top leader in Hamas who was assassinated in Tehran in a suspected Israeli attack in July.

Pakistani security forces have killed at least six insurgents in a raid on their hideout in the country's restive southwest, officials said Wednesday. The raid targeted members of the Baloch Liberation Army in Harnai, a district in Balochistan province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan. It wasn’t immediately clear when the raid took place. Balochistan has for years been the scene of a long-running insurgency, with several separatist groups staging attacks that target mainly security forces in their quest for independence. The province also has an array of militant groups that are active there. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi praised security forces for the raid. The outlawed Baloch Liberation Army killed dozens of civilians and security forces in attacks across the province in August. On Sunday, gunmen stormed a camp of construction workers in the province's Musa Khel district, torching bulldozers and other machinery. Initially, police said the attackers kidnapped 20 laborers but later it turned out they were unharmed and had fled the scene to escape the assailants.

Thai police arrested the driver of a bus carrying young students and teachers that caught fire and killed 23 in suburban Bangkok, as families arrived in the capital Wednesday to help identify their loved ones. The bus carrying six teachers and 39 students in elementary and junior high school was traveling from Uthai Thani province, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) north of Bangkok, for a school trip in Ayutthaya and Nonthaburi provinces Tuesday. The fire started while the bus was on a highway north of the capital and spread so quickly many were unable to escape. Trairong Phiwpan, head of the police forensic department, said 23 bodies were recovered from the bus. The recovery work and confirmation of the total dead had been delayed earlier because the burned vehicle, which was fueled with natural gas, remained too hot to enter for hours. Flooding deaths in Nepal reach 193 as recovery work is stepped up The families were driven from Uthai Thani in vans to the forensic department at the Police General Hospital in Bangkok on Wednesday to provide DNA samples for the identification process. Kornchai Klaiklung, assistant to the Royal Thai Police chief, told reporters the forensics team was working as fast as it could to identify the victims. The driver, identified by the police as Saman Chanput, surrendered Tuesday evening several hours after the fire. Police said they have charged him with reckless driving causing deaths and injuries, failing to stop to help others and failing to report the accident. The driver told investigators he was driving normally until the bus lost balance at its front right tire, hit another car and scraped a concrete highway barrier, causing sparks that ignited the blaze, Chayanont Meesati, deputy regional police chief, told reporters. The driver said he ran to grab a fire extinguisher from another bus that was traveling on the same trip but could not put out the fire, and ran away because he panicked, Chayanont said. Police said they are investigating whether the bus company followed all safety standards. In an interview with public broadcaster Thai PBS, bus company owner Songwit Chinnaboot said the bus was inspected for safety twice a year as required and that the gas cylinders had passed safety standards. He also said he would compensate the victims’ families as best as he could. Three students are hospitalized, and the hospital said two of them were in serious condition. A 7-year-old girl suffered burns on her face, and a surgeon said doctors were doing their best to try to save her eyesight.

Myanmar has deported over 50,000 illegal foreigners from October 2023 to August 2024, the state-run media the Mirror reported on Wednesday. During this period, a total of 54,433 individuals from 28 countries and regions were expelled in accordance with established procedures, the report said. During an event to mark the 60th anniversary of Myanmar Police Force Day on Tuesday, Chairman of Myanmar's State Administration Council Min Aung Hlaing also said the establishment of a network of Border Liaison Offices (BLOs) with five neighboring countries is intended to obtain information in advance and effectively combat cross-border crimes. He also urged the holding of BLOs meetings to facilitate timely information sharing and exchange, the report added.