United News of Bangladesh

The death toll from Monday's 7.4-magnitude earthquake in Colombia has risen to 281, with 3,971 people injured and 379 missing, the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management said Thursday. The quake now affects 44,936 families and 102,105 people in 15 departments and 426 municipalities, the agency said.

Aug 14 (AP/UNB)--Clashes between Iran-backed Houthi rebels and government forces in Yemen raged overnight and into Thursday, raising fears that the country's civil war could reignite and open another front in the Middle East. Here’s a look at the latest developments in the Iran war and the wider Middle East. Full coverage can be found here. Yemeni soldier killed in clashes with Houthis At least one government soldier was killed and another critically wounded in clashes with the Houthis in the mountainous province of Taiz, Yemeni military officials told The Associated Press. The fighting came as part of a spate of recent Houthi attacks on government-held areas across the country. Dozens of government troops have been killed since last week, the Yemeni military said. The Houthis also said they launched another drone attack on an Aramco oil refinery in Saudi Arabia. Saudi officials did not immediately comment on the reported attack in the city of Jazan. Last weekend, the Houthis fired drones at the refinery, where the Saudi Energy Ministry reported a fire but no casualties. Last month, the Houthis announced a blockade of Saudi shipping, threatening another key trade route in the region. US carrier heads toward Middle East after issues reported on long-deployed USS Lincoln The Pacific-based aircraft carrier USS George Washington has begun heading toward the Middle East as reports have emerged of mental health and supply issues aboard the long-deployed USS Abraham Lincoln. The Lincoln has been supporting the U.S. war against Iran, and its deployment has included a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 260 days. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters on Thursday that reports of trouble on the carrier were “completely misrepresented.” Speaking during a trip to Panama, he said the U.S. military could maintain the blockade of Iranian ports indefinitely, “because we’ll rotate ships in and out, as we have and we’ll continue to.” The USS George Washington left port in Da Nang, Vietnam, last week, a Navy statement said. The carrier, along with a cruiser and a destroyer, have since been spotted crossing the Singapore Strait. A Navy official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail sensitive ship details, confirmed that the Washington was in the Strait of Malacca, which links the Pacific and Indian oceans and puts the carrier on a course to head into the Indian Ocean. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that the Washington would replace the Lincoln as one of the two aircraft carriers now stationed in the Middle East. The move would leave the waters of the Pacific without a U.S. carrier presence for an unknown period of time. — Konstantin Toropin in Washington Peace laureate calls for UN pressure to resolve Yemen conflict Hans Grundberg, the U.N. special envoy for Yemen, told the U.N. Security Council in a video briefing Thursday that Yemen is at greater risk of returning to large-scale conflict than at any time since a 2022 truce paused the fighting. Yemen faces “catastrophe” from rising hunger and from health services crumbling amid the fighting, said U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher. He said 6 million people in Yemen face emergency levels of food insecurity bordering on famine, “the highest number globally.” Yemeni Nobel peace laureate Tawakkol Karman told reporters outside the chamber that Houthi rebels bear the primary responsibility for the “collapse of the state” in her home country. But the human rights campaigner also blamed Iran for backing the Houthis, Saudi Arabia for its intervention on behalf of the government ousted by the Houthis, the United Arab Emirates for its involvement in the conflict and the international community for its failure to do enough to protect civilians. Karman was invited to brief the U.N. Security Council as an independent civil society voice on Yemen, but was blocked from speaking because of “strong opposition,” Danish Deputy Ambassador Sandra Jensen Landi said. Instead, Karman spoke to reporters outside the council chamber. Iran and Oman working to clean oil spills off their coasts Oil spills spreading off the coasts of Iran and Oman are raising concerns about environmental damage as oil shipments have come under fire in the Iran war. Iran said Thursday it's working to clean up an oil spill off Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. Images distributed by Iran’s semiofficial news agency ISNA showed oil fouling the island's beaches. While Iran hasn't said what caused the spill, the firm TankerTrackers.com says it appears to have started with an Iranian attack on a bulk carrier off Oman. Iran has repeatedly attacked shipping in the strait since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. Oman is responding to another spill in the Arabian Sea, coming from a tanker grounded off its southern coast. The tanker Caroline Bezengi — a sanctioned vessel believed to be part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” — has been grounded since reporting an explosion in June. No party has claimed responsibility and the cause is unknown. A British maritime risk and response company said Thursday it has been hired to salvage the tanker and stop the oil leak off Oman. Oil from the ship has been spreading for weeks, reaching shores hundreds of kilometers (miles) north of the vessel. JD Vance says Iran war will end with US in stronger position Vice President JD Vance appeared to be lowering expectations for the Strait of Hormuz to return to the way it was before the war. He predicted in an interview on Fox News Channel that the war will end with the U.S. in a stronger position, with Iran not having a nuclear weapon, and with the Strait of Hormuz “returned to a place where oil and gas prices are stable for the American people.” He did not say anything about the strait being open and toll-free for transiting ships, as he had in the past. Vance’s comments also seemed to suggest that the administration was more acutely focused on the economic impact of the war than the original aims of the war itself. “That’s goal number one: keep oil and gas cheap for Americans all over our country,” he said. The second goal, according to Vance, is to ensure that Iran will never get a nuclear weapon. Kushner will head to Middle East for talks on Gaza President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and negotiator Jared Kushner will travel to the Middle East next week to try to advance plans for an end to the conflict in Gaza after a deal recently announced by the Trump administration ran into Israeli opposition. An official with the Board of Peace, the body Trump established to oversee the fragile ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, said Kushner, board high representative Nickolay Mladenov, and executive board member and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair would arrive in Israel on Sunday. The group will then travel to Cairo, where meetings of a Palestinian technocratic group set to assume control of Gaza under a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal have been taking place for the past several months, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because planning for details of the trip has not yet been finalized, The trip was reported earlier by Axios.

North Korea on Friday threatened to exercise its right to self-defense in a statement that slammed the upcoming U.S.-South Korean military drills as a war rehearsal that would be more provocative than last year. The U.S. and South Korean militaries are to start their annual large-scale drills Monday and have described the scope of this year’s training as similar to past years. The allies have said the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises are meant to strengthen their readiness against North Korean threats and reiterated that they are defensive in nature. The North Korean warning signals the country could conduct more weapons tests in coming days after its neighbors detected two ballistic missile launches off North Korea’s east coast in the past week. North Korea hasn’t commented on the launches, but outside experts assess they were likely meant to protest the U.S.-South Korean drills or upgrade weapons systems. In a statement carried by state media Friday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry called the U.S.-South Korean training “a rehearsal for an aggressive war” that is triggering a different level of instability in the region. “It is our consistent principle of ensuring security to respond to a new level of a threat with a new level of a deterrent,” the statement said. North Korea “will more clearly express its stance on the enemies to cope with any threats and challenges through the responsible and decisive exercise of the right to legitimate self-defense.”  

Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkiye are set to establish a joint political and military mechanism under the newly signed "Mecca Joint Defence Agreement," according to the Turkish Defence Ministry. The ministry announced during a weekly briefing in Ankara that the tripartite alliance, signed on August 7, will focus on deepening cooperation across their respective defence industries. This new framework will bring together the foreign ministers, defence ministers, and military chiefs of the three nations to coordinate strategic efforts. Saudi, Turkey, Pakistan sign ‘Mecca Joint Defense Agreement’ In addition to political and military alignment, the pact includes plans for joint military exercises. Potential cooperation is also expected to extend to technology-sharing and joint production within the defence sector, the ministry added. With inputs from  Al Jazeera

Former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, the impatient, sharp-tongued reformer who helped ignite China’s explosive economic boom by forcing wrenching change on state industry in the 1990s and leading the country into the World Trade Organization, has died of illness, state media reported Wednesday. He was 97. Zhu died in Beijing at around 11 a.m. on Wednesday, the official news agency Xinhua reported. Once sent into rural exile to do manual labor for praising reforms in other communist countries, Zhu pushed through a dizzying array of changes as premier, China’s top economic post, from 1998 to 2003 under former President Jiang Zemin. Zhu clashed with Communist Party conservatives and state industry bosses as he pushed state-owned companies to become efficient and profitable. That cost millions of layoffs, but helped propel China to overtake Japan as the second-largest economy behind the United States in 2010. Building on former leader Deng Xiaoping’s 1979 reforms, Zhu is credited with supplying the resourcefulness and tenacity to push through history-making changes such as China’s WTO membership, which helped to transform China into the world’s biggest exporter. Those changes helped to keep economic growth above 8% a year from 2000 to 2010, peaking at 14.2% in 2007. A spiky personality who fought corruption and conservatives Named premier in 1998 at age 69, Zhu became a popular figure by criticizing official bungling and graft and accepting blame when the government fell short. His demanding style earned him the nicknames Boss and Zhu Fengzi, or Madman Zhu. “I have prepared 100 coffins here — 99 for corrupt officials and one for myself,” Zhu said in 1998, according to the party newspaper People’s Daily. Zhu ranked No. 3 in the party hierarchy behind Jiang and Li Peng, chairman of the ceremonial legislature, the National People’s Congress. But he was a technician without his own power base. Zhu complained that allowed officials to ignore his orders. Zhu made his name as a deputy premier in the 1990s by crushing inflation. He enforced price controls and cut off loans to money-losing state companies, rebuffing resistance by local leaders — a pattern Zhu would repeat as he fought conservatives over the pace of reform. Zhu led efforts to secure WTO membership following marathon negotiations that began in the 1980s. That status would enshrine free trade as a national commitment, giving Zhu a tool to force local officials to stop protecting favored companies. Zhu’s campaign was nearly derailed when he went to Washington in 1999 with market-opening concessions to win U.S. endorsement of the WTO bid. The Clinton administration rejected the offer as inadequate, while his political enemies at home accused him of offering too much, but Zhu survived and China went on to join the body in December 2001. Zhu launched China’s home ownership boom in 1998 with an initiative to sell apartments owned by state companies. Families rushed to buy, and within a decade the majority of urban housing was privately owned. Still, Zhu was less an advocate of free enterprise than a skilled bureaucrat who carried out party orders to whip state industry into shape. Zhu showed no interest in privatizing the economy. He played a key role in drafting plans in the 1990s to turn banks, airlines, oil companies and other enterprises into profit-oriented corporations but to retain government ownership. Zhu stood out for admitting official failings Born Oct. 23, 1928, in Mao Zedong’s home province of Hunan, Zhu paid an early price for his willingness to take risks and speak out. After a start as an economic planner, his career went into a 22-year eclipse when he was labelled a “rightist” in 1957 for praising reforms in Hungary and Yugoslavia. He was banished to the countryside during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution to do manual labor. Rehabilitated in 1979, Zhu rose swiftly, becoming deputy Shanghai party secretary in 1987 and mayor the next year. As mayor in 1989, Zhu gained a reputation for moderation when he placated protesters and pledged not to call in the military. “He managed to defuse, with considerable subtlety, a tense political situation that could have developed into localized violence or worse if the military had felt it necessary to intervene,” wrote Australian diplomat Shelley Warner in the 1991 book “The Pro-Democracy Protests in China: Reports from the Provinces.” Zhu’s boss, Jiang, would soon be called to Beijing by Deng and made party leader. Zhu was named deputy premier in 1991 and joined the party’s ruling Standing Committee in 1993. Zhu broke with the leadership’s stance of infallibility by admitting and taking blame for official failings. In 1998, after summer floods killed 4,150 people and officials were accused of embezzling money meant for anti-flood dikes, Zhu complained some barriers were no stronger than bean curd. Three years later, he apologized on national television for his Cabinet’s failure to protect the public after an explosion in a schoolhouse in southern China killed at least 42 people, most of them children. Zhu enlivened the party’s bland image by cracking jokes in public, sometimes at his own expense. Laughter erupted at a 1999 news conference when he said a recent photo “made me look like a dead man.” One of Zhu’s proudest triumphs as deputy premier was to craft a tax system that required local officials to hand more revenue to Beijing. He said in 1996 that he deserved a Nobel Prize in economics for that. Zhu rarely appeared in public after leaving office as premier. Zhu was married to Lao An, a fellow Hunan native. Their son, Yunlai, also known as Levin Zhu, is a former CEO of China International Capital Corp., a government-owned investment bank. Their daughter, Yanlai, led a charity organization supporting schoolchildren that was backed by Zhu Rongji.

Thailand's government has pledged to tighten gun controls and take stronger action against illegal firearms after two deadly shootings near Bangkok within a week renewed calls to curb gun violence. Thailand has one of Asia's highest rates of gun ownership despite having relatively strict firearm laws. Both recent shootings took place in Nonthaburi province, northwest of Bangkok, increasing pressure on authorities to strengthen enforcement. A student opened fire at his high school and family home on Friday, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 20 before apparently taking his own life, police said. Three days later, a former lawmaker was arrested after a shooting at a government office left one person dead and another injured. Government spokesperson Lalida Persvivatana said Wednesday that authorities were working to strengthen gun regulations, crack down on illegal firearms and increase public awareness about the responsibilities and limits of gun ownership. "The ultimate goal is to find ways to remove guns from people's daily lives as much as possible and make Thai society safer," she said in a statement. Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul on Tuesday ordered an urgent review of the country's gun regulations. The review includes suspending new firearm purchase permits and checking existing permits, according to a statement from the Government House. He also instructed the Interior Ministry to propose amendments to the gun control laws within 60 days. The proposed changes are expected to improve firearm registration, tighten controls on the gun trade and increase penalties for violations. Illegal possession of firearms in Thailand can carry one to 10 years in prison and fines of up to 20,000 baht ($600). However, critics say weaknesses in enforcement have allowed illegal guns to remain a problem. According to data collected in 2017 by the Small Arms Survey and GunPolicy.org, Thai civilians owned about 15 firearms for every 100 people. The figure was far higher than in neighboring Malaysia, where there were fewer than one firearm per 100 people. Thailand recorded 3.49 firearm-related deaths per 100,000 people in 2023, according to World Population Review data. While the rate is lower than in parts of Latin America and the Caribbean, it remains relatively high in Asia. In Southeast Asia, only the Philippines had a higher rate. Mass shootings remain relatively uncommon in Thailand, but the country has seen several high-profile gun attacks in recent years, increasing concerns over firearm violence and the enforcement of gun laws.  

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday said Tehran is ready to expand and deepen cooperation with Pakistan in various fields. He made the remarks during a meeting with visiting Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, highlighting the “excellent relations and deep bonds” between the two countries, according to a statement on the Iranian president’s official website. Pezeshkian said Iran and Pakistan share strong historical, cultural and people-to-people ties. He also welcomed Pakistani officials’ efforts to strengthen solidarity and relations with Iran. The Iranian president said Tehran is willing to further expand ties with Pakistan in areas of mutual interest and create opportunities for joint cooperation. He added that stronger bilateral ties and closer cooperation would help protect the interests of both countries and contribute to regional peace, stability and security. Naqvi said his visit to Tehran was aimed at following up on agreements reached during a recent visit to Pakistan by Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni. Describing Pakistan-Iran ties as “strong, age-old and unbreakable,” Naqvi said Islamabad is committed to further expanding relations with Tehran. The Pakistani minister arrived in Tehran earlier Tuesday and was received by his Iranian counterpart. Later, he met Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi and discussed diplomatic and bilateral issues, Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported. In recent months, Pakistan has played a mediating role between Iran and the United States, helping the two sides exchange messages and pursue peace efforts. With Islamabad’s mediation, Tehran and Washington signed a memorandum of understanding in June aimed at ending their conflict.

More than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians detained by Russia since the start of the war remain deprived of their liberty, many without access to communication and on grounds that violate international law, the United Nations estimates. Claudia Fuentes Julio, the U.N. assistant secretary-general for human rights, told an informal Security Council meeting Monday that Russian authorities continue to subject Ukrainian civilian detainees and prisoners of war to widespread and systematic torture and ill-treatment, including sexual violence. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, U.N. human rights officials have interviewed 910 Ukrainian POWs and 403 civilian detainees after their release. The U.N. has not been granted access to detention facilities in Russia. More than 95% of interviewed Ukrainian POWs and 85% of civilian detainees reported torture or ill-treatment, often repeatedly. They also described sexual violence, food shortages and inadequate medical care. The U.N. human rights office has documented the executions of 129 Ukrainian POWs at the beginning of their captivity and the deaths of 48 others in custody due to torture, denial of medical treatment or other inhumane detention conditions, Julio said. The Security Council also heard accounts from former detainees, including Crimean Tatar activist Leniie Umerova and Ukrainian soldier Khuan Leyva Garsiya. Garsiya, who spent 1,183 days as a POW after surrendering at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, said he was tortured and abused because of his Cuban background and education in the United States. He described beatings, freezing, electrocution and sexual abuse, saying two friends were beaten to death in detention. Umerova said she was detained after attempting to enter Russia from Georgia to visit her seriously ill father in Crimea. She said Russian authorities held her on fabricated charges and transferred her between seven facilities in six months. Julio also said U.N. monitors interviewed 816 Russians and 57 third-country nationals who were captured while serving in Russian forces in Ukraine. About half reported torture or ill-treatment, mainly during initial captivity and interrogation. However, conditions in Ukrainian detention facilities generally complied with international humanitarian law and had improved since 2022, she said. Russia's deputy U.N. Ambassador Maria Zabolotskaya rejected the allegations, saying Russian forces comply with international humanitarian law. She accused NATO countries of using the meeting as part of a disinformation campaign against Russia. Ukraine's deputy U.N. Ambassador Volodymyr Pavlichenko said Russia was unwilling to discuss the return of prisoners of war and civilian detainees, including abducted children.

Lebanon's parliament on Tuesday voted to abolish the death penalty, making the country the first in the Arab world to replace capital punishment with life imprisonment accompanied by hard labor. The Mediterranean nation has maintained an unofficial moratorium on executions since January 2004. However, courts have handed down dozens of death sentences since then, though they were later suspended or commuted. A majority of the 128-member parliament voted in favor of abolishing the death penalty, with Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc opposing the move. Justice Minister Adel Nassar, who attended the parliamentary session, described the decision as a "historic step" for Lebanon. Rights groups that have long urged Lebanon to formally end executions welcomed the vote. Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the country was "marking a final break" from a punishment that should never be imposed. "Capital punishment is unique in its cruelty and finality and is plagued with arbitrariness, prejudice, and error," he said. However, questions remain over how the new punishment of hard labor will be applied, as some lawmakers said its details have yet to be clearly defined. Hard labor is already included in Lebanese law and court rulings, but it has rarely been enforced in recent years because of the country's financial crisis, limited resources and overcrowded prisons. The abolition comes as parliament is also debating a controversial general amnesty law, the largest such measure since the end of Lebanon's 15-year civil war in 1990. The proposed law could reduce prison terms or lead to the release of some convicted militants and drug dealers, with certain exceptions. Families of Lebanese soldiers and security personnel killed or attacked by Islamist militant groups have repeatedly protested against the amnesty proposal. Some said they wanted those responsible for killing their relatives to face execution rather than receive reduced prison sentences. Hezbollah did not immediately comment on Tuesday's vote. Lebanon's various religious institutions also remained silent, although some of their religious court systems permit the death penalty.

Three crew members were reportedly killed on Tuesday after Yemen's Houthi group attacked a commercial vessel passing through the Bab al-Mandab Strait, according to a pro-government Yemeni media outlet. Initial information indicated that the attack killed two Pakistani nationals and one Indonesian on the ship, Aljoumhouriya TV of the pro-government National Resistance Forces reported. The report did not identify the vessel or specify the weapon used in the attack. No information was immediately available on the extent of damage to the ship or the condition of the remaining crew. The Houthis have yet to comment on the reported attack. The incident comes amid a recent Houthi escalation of attacks on commercial shipping in waters off Yemen, as well as missile and drone strikes against government-held areas and targets in neighboring Saudi Arabia. On July 20, the Houthis announced a ban on Saudi-linked shipping in the Red Sea, citing what they described as a Saudi blockade of Houthi-held areas. Yemen has been mired in conflict since late 2014, when the Houthis seized much of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa. A Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 in support of the internationally recognized Yemeni government.