United News of Bangladesh

Bollywood singer Babul Supriyo on Wednesday became a minister in the West Bengal government, as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee rejigged her Cabinet in the wake of the cash-for-jobs scam. Apart from 50-year-old Supriyo, four other new faces --  Snehashish Chakraborty, Partha Bhowmik, Udayan Guha and Pradip Majumder -- were inducted into the Cabinet by Mamata. All of them were administered the oath of office this afternoon. The Cabinet reshuffle comes barely a week after Mamata sacked Partha Chatterjee, one of her senior ministers, from the Cabinet as well as from all posts of her ruling Trinamool Congress party following his arrest in the school teachers' recruitment scam. Chatterjee held several portfolios in the state Cabinet, including Commerce and Industry, IT and electronics, and Industrial Reconstruction. He was also the Trinamool Congress party's general secretary. Read:Bollywood singer Babul Supriyo to become minister in Bengal govt? Supriyo joined the Trinamool Congress party in September 2021, two months after he was dropped as a federal minister by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  After joining politics and India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) some eight years ago, he became India's junior Urban Development Minister and Heavy Industries Minister in the Modi government's first tenure. He was the junior Environment Minister in the second term. Born Supriya Baral, he entered Bollywood as a playback singer in the mid-nineties and has sung for many films since then. He has also done playback singing in 11 Indian languages during his musical career.

Sri Lanka's new president said Wednesday that his government is preparing a national policy roadmap for the next 25 years that aims to cut public debt and turn the country into a competitive export economy as it seeks a way out of its worst economic disaster. President Ranil Wickremesinghe in his speech to Parliament said Sri Lanka needs long-term solutions and a strong foundation to stop a recurrence of economic crises. Massive public protests have blamed Wickremesinghe's ousted predecessor, Gotabaya Rajapakasa, and his powerful family for years of mismanagement and corruption that have bankrupt the nation and led to unprecedented shortages of essential imports like fuel, medicine and cooking gas. But many are still skeptical of Wickremesinghe and accuse him of trying to protect the former leader and his relatives. Sri Lanka announced in April that it is suspending repayment of foreign loans. Its total foreign debt is $51 billion, of which it must pay $28 billion by 2027. Wickremesinghe said his government had initiated negotiations with the International Monetary Fund on a four-year rescue plan and had commenced the finalization of a debt restructuring plan. Read:Sri Lankans bide time as leaders seek fix for economic woes “We would submit this plan to the International Monetary Fund in the near future, and negotiate with the countries who provided loan assistance. Subsequently negotiations with private creditors would also begin to arrive at a consensus,” he said. He said the government's aim is to create a surplus in the primary budget by the year 2025 and to bring down public debt, currently at 140% of GDP, to less than 100% by 2032. “The economy should be modernized. Economic stability should be established and transformed into a competitive export economy. In this context, we are now preparing the necessary reports, plans, rules and regulations, laws and programs,” he said. “If we build the country, the nation and the economy through the national economic policy, we would be able to become a fully developed country by the year 2048, when we celebrate the 100th anniversary of independence,” Wickremesinghe said. Wickremesinghe was elected president last month to complete the rest of Rajapaksa’s five-year term, which ends in 2024. Rajapaksa fled the country after protesters, furious over the economic hardships, stormed his official residence and occupied several key government buildings. Wickremesinghe has since cracked down on protests and sought amity among political parties, saying only an all-party government can solve the country's problems. “The expectation of all the citizens of the country at this juncture is for all their representatives in Parliament to work together in order to build the country,” he said.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was believed headed for Taiwan on Tuesday on a visit that could significantly escalate tensions with Beijing, which claims the self-ruled island as its own territory. Pelosi is on an Asian tour this week that is being closely watched to see if she will defy China’s warnings against visiting the island republic, a close U.S. ally. China has vowed to retaliate if Pelosi becomes the highest U.S. elected official to visit Taiwan in more than 25 years, but has given no details. Speculation has centered on threatening military exercises and possible incursions by Chinese planes and ships into areas under Taiwanese control. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Washington’s betrayal “on the Taiwan issue is bankrupting its national credibility.” “Some American politicians are playing with fire on the issue of Taiwan,” Wang said in a statement. “This will definitely not have a good outcome ... the exposure of America’s bullying face again shows it as the world’s biggest saboteur of peace.” A plane carrying Pelosi and her delegation left Malaysia on Tuesday after a brief stop that included a working lunch with Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, It was unclear where it was headed, although local media in Taiwan reported that Pelosi would arrive on Tuesday night. The United Daily News, Liberty Times and China Times — Taiwan’s three largest national newspapers — cited unidentified sources as saying she would spend the night in Taiwan. Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment. Premier Su Tseng-chang didn’t explicitly confirm Pelosi’s visit, but said Tuesday that “any foreign guests and friendly lawmakers” are “very much welcome.” Barricades were erected outside the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Taipei where Pelosi was expected to stay amid heightened security. China, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province to be annexed by force if necessary, has repeatedly warned of retaliation if Pelosi visits, saying its military will “never sit idly by.” “The U.S. and Taiwan have colluded to make provocations first, and China has only been compelled to act out of self-defense,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters Tuesday in Beijing. Hua said China has been in constant communication with the U.S. and made clear “how dangerous it would be if the visit actually happens.” Any countermeasures China take will be “justified and necessary” in the face of Washington’s “unscrupulous behavior,” she said. Unspecified hackers launched a cyberattack on the Taiwanese Presidential Office’s website, making it temporarily unavailable Tuesday evening. The Presidential Office said the website was restored shortly after the attack, which overwhelmed it with traffic. “China thinks by launching a multi-domain pressure campaign against Taiwan, the people of Taiwan will be be intimidated. But they are wrong,” Wang Ting-yu, a legislator with the Democratic Progressive Party, said on Twitter in response to the attack. China’s military threats have driven concerns of a new crisis in the 100-mile (140-kilometer) -wide Taiwan Strait separating the two sides that could roil global markets and supply chains. The White House on Monday decried Beijing’s rhetoric, saying the U.S. has no interest in deepening tensions with China and “will not take the bait or engage in saber rattling.” White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby underscored that the decision whether to visit Taiwan was ultimately Pelosi’s. He noted that members of Congress have routinely visited the island over the years. Read:China’s Xi warns Biden over Taiwan, calls for cooperation Kirby said administration officials are concerned that Beijing could use the visit as an excuse to take provocative retaliatory steps, including military action such as firing missiles in the Taiwan Strait or around Taiwan, or flying sorties into the island’s airspace and carrying out large-scale naval exercises in the strait. “Put simply, there is no reason for Beijing to turn a potential visit consistent with long-standing U.S. policy into some sort of crisis or use it as a pretext to increase aggressive military activity in or around the Taiwan Strait,” Kirby said. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also urged China to “act responsibly” if Pelosi proceeds with the visit. “If the speaker does decide to visit, and China tries to create some kind of a crisis or otherwise escalate tensions, that would be entirely on Beijing,” he told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York. “We are looking for them, in the event she decides to visit, to act responsibly and not to engage in any escalation going forward.” U.S. officials have said the U.S. military would increase its movement of forces and assets in the Indo-Pacific region if Pelosi visits Taiwan. U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its strike group were in the Philippine Sea on Monday, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations. The Reagan, the cruiser USS Antietam and the destroyer USS Higgins left Singapore after a port visit and moved north to their homeport in Japan. The carrier has an array of aircraft, including F/A-18 fighter jets and helicopters, on board as well as sophisticated radar systems and other weapons. Taiwan and China split in 1949 after the Communists won a civil war on the mainland. The U.S. maintains informal relations and defense ties with Taiwan even as it recognizes Beijing as the government of China. Beijing sees official American contact with Taiwan as encouragement to make the island’s decades-old de facto independence permanent, a step U.S. leaders say they don’t support. Pelosi, head of one of three branches of the U.S. government, would be the highest-ranking elected American official to visit Taiwan since then-Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1997. The flight tracking site Flightradar24 said Pelosi’s aircraft, a U.S. Air Force Boeing C-40C, was the most tracked in the world on Tuesday evening with 300,000 viewers. Pelosi has used her position in the U.S. Congress as an emissary for the U.S. on the global stage. She has long challenged China on human rights, and sought to visit Taiwan’s island democracy earlier this year before testing positive for COVID-19. Pelosi kicked off her Asian tour in Singapore on Monday as her possible visit to Taiwan sparked jitters in the region. Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong “highlighted the importance of stable U.S.-China relations for regional peace and security” during talks with Pelosi, the city-state’s Foreign Ministry said. This was echoed by Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi in Tokyo, who said stable ties between the two rival powers “are extremely important for the international community as well.” The Philippines urged the U.S. and China to be “responsible actors” in the region. “It is important for the U.S. and China to ensure continuing communication to avoid any miscalculation and further escalation of tensions,” said Foreign Affairs spokesperson Teresita Daza. China has been steadily ratcheting up diplomatic and military pressure on Taiwan. China cut off all contact with Taiwan’s government in 2016 after President Tsai Ing-wen refused to endorse its claim that the island and mainland together make up a single Chinese nation, with the Communist regime in Beijing being the sole legitimate government. On Thursday, Pelosi is to meet with South Korean National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin Pyo in Seoul for talks on security in the Indo-Pacific region, economic cooperation and the climate crisis, according to Kim’s office. Pelosi is also due to visit Japan, but it is unclear when she heading there.

Pakistani search teams found the wreckage of a helicopter that went down the previous day in the country’s flood-stricken southwest, the military said Tuesday. An army general and five others on board were killed, it said. The previous evening, the aircraft had lost contact with the air-traffic control tower in Baluchistan province, while flying on a relief mission in a flood-hit area in the southwest.. A military statement identified the deceased officer as regional commander Lt. Gen. Sarfraz Ali. It said that, according to an initial probe, the crash happened due to bad weather. The helicopter was part of aid efforts in the flood-affected in Baluchistan, where rains and flash floods since June have killed nearly 150 people.. The military provided no further details. Pakistan's President Arif Ali, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and other senior politicians offered their condolences to the victims' families Pakistan is currently using helicopters and boats to evacuate flood victims from various parts of the country, including Baluchistan and Rajanpur, a district in the eastern Punjab province. Read: Pakistan army helicopter crashes in Kashmir; 2 pilots killed Rains and flash floods have killed nearly 500 people across the country since June, when rains started lashing different parts of the country, triggering floods. Since then, rescue workers backed by the military have evacuated thousands of marooned people, including women and children, from various parts of Pakistan.   More rains are expected this week in Pakistan, where the monsoon season runs from July through September.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih jointly launched the 'Greater Male connectivity projects', after holding high-level talks in Delhi on Tuesday. "We have also decided to provide an additional line of credit of USD 100 million to the Maldives so that all projects can be completed in a timely manner," Modi said in his joint statement with President Solih. Both countries also sealed as many as six pacts on areas like cyber security, disaster management, and police infrastructure development, following the talks between the two leaders. Read: Modi holds talks with visiting Maldivian President "Maldives-India relationship goes beyond diplomacy. This visit is an affirmation of the close bond between our two countries," President Solih told the media. Earlier in the day, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted to describe the bilateral ties as "a partnership bound by the waves of the Indian Ocean, underpinned by close historical and cultural ties." President Solih arrived in Delhi on Monday on a four-day visit to India. A high-level business delegation is accompanying him. "A warm welcome to a close friend and maritime neighbour! President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih of Maldives arrives in New Delhi for an official visit," Indian External Affairs Ministry tweeted after his arrival. Read: Govt to probe allegation against diplomat Kazi Anarkoly: Shahriar "An opportunity to nurture the unwavering friendship between our two countries and lend further momentum to the multifaceted partnership,” the Ministry wrote. On Monday itself, President Solih held a meeting with Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who later said that "India's 'Neighbourhood First' policy and the Maldives' 'India First' policy are complementary". President Solih's visit comes barely a week after India gave its nod to a pact for judicial cooperation between the two countries. The Maldives is one of India's key maritime neighbours.

Sri Lankans who have endured months of fuel and food shortages are bracing for more pain as a newly installed government scrambles to find solutions to the Indian Ocean nation's economic emergency. Like many others, fish monger Gamini Mallawarachchi says he is pinning his hopes on President Ranil Wickremesinghe 's ability to revive the economy and restore stability after months of turmoil and protests. “Things are really, really bad now and my life is almost ruined,” said Mallawarachchi, who has given up on selling fish because he can't find fuel to get to the village where he used to buy it, and anyway his customers were buying less and less. Mallawarachchi said he views Wickremesinghe his “last hope.” Also read: Sri Lanka to host Asia Cup in UAE, ACC confirms “I think he will do something. With his experience and knowledge, I believe he has the capability,” said Mallawarachchi. “But, he must show some results before the end of this year, otherwise, he will also have to face protests from the people,” he said. Sri Lanka inched closer to ending its dire economic and humanitarian crisis with the July 20 appointment of Wickremesinghe's new government after months of protests and turmoil. But daunting hurdles lay ahead. Lawmakers backed him in extending a national emergency that gives the president broad powers to crack down on any violence. That may buy him time to try to reach a deal with the International Monetary Fund on a requested $3 billion bailout. Also read: Schools reopen in Sri Lanka after closure from fuel shortages By his own admission, that’s easier said than done. On Saturday, Wickremesinghe said he has pushed back by a month his aim of getting an agreement by early August since talks with the IMF stalled amid recent political turmoil. So far there are scant signs of progress in negotiations with Sri Lanka’s other creditors on more than $50 billion that it owes to lenders. “Because public debt is assessed as unsustainable,” the IMF’s approval would “require adequate financing assurances from Sri Lanka’s creditors that debt sustainability will be restored,” the lending agency said in a statement. That would require lenders, both public and private, to agree to accept smaller payouts on bonds, lower interest rates or extended repayment terms. IMF conditions also would likely involve tax increases, better safeguards against corruption and other reforms such as privatizing state-owned companies like the national airline. The World Bank issued a statement last week expressing “deep concern" over Sri Lanka and saying it wouldn't supply more funding, pending plans for “deep structural reforms" to address the causes of the crisis. “He’s in a bind,” said Tamanna Salikuddin of the U.S. Institute of Peace, an independent institute based in Washington, D.C. Austerity measures are a bitter pill to swallow for people who are going hungry and walking or biking to work because they cannot buy fuel. And raising taxes would likely undercut support from stalwarts in the ruling party who benefited from the tax cuts that helped deplete state coffers, she noted. In June, Wickremesinghe, who was then prime minister for the sixth time, suggested a conference of major donors such as India, China and Japan. Sri Lanka, whose foreign exchange reserves are largely exhausted, is seeking “bridge financing” to be able to buy fuel and other essential supplies to keep the economy running. “We have to hope that friendly countries will support Sri Lanka in the short term,” said political analyst Jehan Perera. On a visit last week to New Delhi, Samantha Power, administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development, contrasted India’s aid to China’s, and urged Beijing to do more. India’s government says it has provided more than $1.5 billion in credit for purchases of fuel, food, medicine and other essentials. Asked about Sri Lanka's debt impasse — and criticism that China's lending is not transparent — Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian accused the U.S. and other “western capital" of manipulating Sri Lanka's credit rating, speculating in its markets and preventing it from obtaining new financing. “We hope the U.S. can genuinely help Sri Lanka overcome the current difficulties, ease the debt burden and realize sustainable development instead of unscrupulously using every opportunity possible to shift the blame, smear other countries and seek geopolitical games," Zhao said. Official Chinese lending to Sri Lanka accounts for only about 10% of its debt but the amount of additional commercial borrowing from China is unclear. “Unless and until the rest of their debt is restructured I don’t see the Chinese doing anything,” said Salikuddin. “They never take the first step.” As talks with Sri Lanka’s lenders drag on, its people carry on, finding ways to get by and often waiting days in lines for gasoline, sometimes still returning home empty handed. “Even if a deal (with the IMF) is agreed, Sri Lanka still faces a tough road ahead as far as its economic recovery goes. By no means is it that a deal is agreed and things get back to normal very quickly,” Gareth Leather of Capital Economics said in a recent online briefing. The state-owned gas company has begun distributing cylinders of cooking gas — a mixture of propane and butane — but most people have to wait at least overnight to be able to buy them and the price has more than tripled since October. The government also has introduced an app to ration gasoline purchases: 4 liters (1 gallon) a week for motorcycles, 20 liters (5.3 gallons) a week for cars and 40 liters (10.6 gallons) a week for buses. The aim is to reduce the long queues at gas stations and crack down on a black market in fuel. Priority is being given to school buses, farming, fishing, tourism and public transport. Many people say they’ve cut back or virtually given up on eating fish and meat due to high prices. Milk powder is hard to come by and prices of most essentials including bread and lentils have tripled. “People will be more patient and will be prepared to wait as long as the acute shortages are dealt with,” said Perera. “Otherwise, it will be like a tinder box — you can see angry people on the roads every day in their cars, motorbikes. Angry people, it’s a tinder box situation, and a spark would lead to more turmoil.” Mallawarachchi, the fish monger, used to earn about 6,000 rupees ($16) a day. Now he's living off his savings. Sithum Udara, an office clerk, still goes to work, but what used to be a quick, comfortable commute by motorbike has become a misery of cramming onto buses or a train. “Going to office is a nightmare now. I am really fed up and I think this is the worst time of my life," Udara said. “I have no choice but to go to work." But Udara believes Wickremesinghe should be given “considerable time” to revive the economy and solve other problems. “He can't do it overnight; people must understand that reality." For now, a big part of the president's job is managing expectations. “The first thing he has to do is deliver on the economics,” Salikuddin said. “It’s the bankruptcy of the economy that brought people into the street,” she said.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi began high-level talks with visiting Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in the national capital on Tuesday. "Talks are currently underway between the two top leaders. On the agenda are various issues, including maritime ties, and both India and the Maldives are expected to sign a number of pacts, post-talks," sources said. President Solih arrived in Delhi on Monday on a four-day visit to India. A high-level business delegation is accompanying him. "A warm welcome to a close friend and maritime neighbour! President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih of Maldives arrives in New Delhi for an official visit," Indian External Affairs Ministry tweeted after his arrival. Read: Attack on interns: Osmani Medical College students suspend strike "An opportunity to nurture the unwavering friendship between our two countries and lend further momentum to the multifaceted partnership,” the Ministry wrote. On Monday itself, President Solih held a meeting with Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who later said that "India's 'Neighbourhood First' policy and the Maldives' 'India First' policy are complementary". President Solih's visit comes barely a week after India gave its nod to a pact for judicial cooperation between the two countries. The Maldives is one of India's key maritime neighbours.  

The doors of jihad opened for Ayman al-Zawahri as a young doctor in a Cairo clinic, when a visitor arrived with a tempting offer: a chance to treat Islamic fighters battling Soviet forces in Afghanistan. With that offer in 1980, al-Zawahri embarked on a life that over three decades took him to the top of the most feared terrorist group in the world, al-Qaida, after the death of Osama bin Laden. Already an experienced militant who had sought the overthrow of Egypt’s “infidel” regime since the age of 15, al-Zawahri took a trip to the Afghan war zone that was just a few weeks long, but it opened his eyes to new possibilities. What he saw was “the training course preparing Muslim mujahedeen youth to launch their upcoming battle with the great power that would rule the world: America,” he wrote in a 2001 biography-cum-manifesto. Also read: Biden: Killing of al-Qaida leader is long-sought 'justice' Al-Zawahri, 71, was killed over the weekend by a U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan. President Joe Biden announced the death Monday evening. The strike is likely to lead to greater disarray within the organization than did bin Laden’s death in 2011, since it is far less clear who his successor would be. Al-Zawahri was crucial in turning the jihadi movement to target the United States as the right-hand man to bin Laden, the young Saudi millionaire he met in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. Under their leadership, the al-Qaida terror network carried out the deadliest attack ever on American soil, the Sept. 11, 2001, suicide hijackings. The attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon made bin Laden America’s Enemy No. 1. But he likely could never have carried it out without his deputy. While bin Laden came from a privileged background in a prominent Saudi family, al-Zawahri had the experience of an underground revolutionary. Bin Laden provided al-Qaida with charisma and money, but al-Zawahri brought tactics and organizational skills needed to forge militants into a network of cells in countries around the world. “Bin Laden always looked up to him,” said terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman of Georgetown University. Also read: Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri killed in US missile attack When the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan demolished al-Qaida’s safe haven and scattered, killed and captured its members, al-Zawahri ensured al-Qaida’s survival. He rebuilt its leadership in the Afghan-Pakistan border region and installed allies as lieutenants in key positions. He also became the movement’s public face, putting out a constant stream of video messages while bin Laden largely hid. With his thick beard, heavy-rimmed glasses and a prominent bruise on his forehead from prostration in prayer, he was notoriously prickly and pedantic. He picked ideological fights with critics within the jihadi camp, wagging his finger scoldingly in his videos. Even some key figures in al-Qaida’s central leadership were put off, calling him overly controlling, secretive and divisive — a contrast to bin Laden, whose soft-spoken presence many militants described in adoring, almost spiritual terms. Yet he reshaped the organization from a centralized planner of terror attacks into the head of a franchise chain. He led the creation of a network of autonomous branches around the region, including in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, North Africa, Somalia and Asia. In the decade after 9/11, al-Qaida inspired or had a direct hand in attacks in all those areas as well as Europe, Pakistan and Turkey, including the 2004 train bombings in Madrid and the 2005 transit bombings in London. More recently, the al-Qaida affiliate in Yemen has proven itself capable of plotting attacks on U.S. soil with an attempted 2009 bombing of an American passenger jet and an attempted package bomb the following year. After Bin Laden was killed in a U.S. raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, al-Qaida proclaimed al-Zawahri its paramount leader less than two months later. The jihad against America “does not halt with the death of a commander or leader,” he said. The 2011 Arab Spring uprisings around the Mideast threatened a major blow to al-Qaida, showing that jihad was not the only way to get rid of Arab autocrats. It was mainly pro-democracy liberals and leftists who led the uprising that toppled Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak, the longtime goal al-Zawahri failed to achieve. But al-Zawahri sought to co-opt the wave of uprisings, insisting that they would have been impossible if the 9/11 attacks had not weakened America. And he urged Islamic hard-liners to take over in the nations where leaders had fallen. Al-Zawahri was born June 19, 1951, the son of an upper-middle-class family of doctors and scholars in the Cairo suburb of Maadi. From an early age, he was enflamed by the radical writings of Sayed Qutb, the Egyptian Islamist who taught that Arab regimes were “infidel” and should be replaced by Islamic rule. In the 1970s, as he earned his medical degree as a surgeon, he was active in militant circles. He merged his own militant cell with others to form the group Islamic Jihad and began trying to infiltrate the military — at one point even storing weapons in his private clinic. Then came the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat by Islamic Jihad militants. The slaying was carried out by a different cell in the group — and al-Zawahri has written that he learned of the plot only hours before the assassination. But he was arrested along with hundreds of other militants and served three years in prison. After his release in 1984, al-Zawahri returned to Afghanistan and joined the Arab militants from across the Middle East fighting alongside the Afghans against the Soviets. He courted bin Laden, who became a heroic figure for his financial support of the mujahedeen. Al-Zawahri followed bin Laden to his new base in Sudan, and from there he led a reassembled Islamic Jihad group in a violent campaign of bombings aimed at toppling Egypt’s U.S.-allied government. The Egyptian movement failed. But al-Zawahri would bring to al-Qaida the tactics that he honed in Islamic Jihad. He promoted the use of suicide bombings, to become al-Qaida’s hallmark. He plotted a 1995 suicide car bombing of Egypt’s embassy in Islamabad that killed 16 people — presaging the more devastating 1998 al-Qaida bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 200, attacks al-Zawahri was indicted for in the United States. In 1996, Sudan expelled bin Laden, who took his fighters back to Afghanistan, where they found a safe haven under the radical Taliban regime. Once more, al-Zawahri followed.

 As the sun was rising in Kabul on Sunday, two Hellfire missiles fired by a U.S. drone ended Ayman al-Zawahri's decade-long reign as the leader of al-Qaida. The seeds of the audacious counterterrorism operation had been planted over many months. U.S. officials had built a scale model of the safe house where al-Zawahri had been located, and brought it into the White House Situation Room to show President Joe Biden. They knew al-Zawahri was partial to sitting on the home's balcony. They had painstakingly constructed “a pattern of life," as one official put it. They were confident he was on the balcony when the missiles flew, officials said. Also read: Indonesia arrests key leader in al-Qaida linked group Years of efforts by U.S. intelligence operatives under four presidents to track al-Zawahri and his associates paid dividends earlier this year, Biden said, when they located Osama bin Laden’s longtime No. 2 — a co-planner of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. — and ultimate successor at the house in Kabul. Bin Laden's death came in May 2011, face to face with a U.S. assault team led by Navy SEALs. Al-Zawahri's death came from afar, at 6:18 a.m. in Kabul. His family, supported by the Haqqani Taliban network, had taken up residence in the home after the Taliban regained control of the country last year, following the withdrawal of U.S. forces after nearly 20 years of combat that had been intended, in part, to keep al-Qaida from regaining a base of operations in Afghanistan. But the lead on his whereabouts was only the first step. Confirming al-Zawahri’s identity, devising a strike in a crowded city that wouldn’t recklessly endanger civilians, and ensuring the operation wouldn’t set back other U.S. priorities took months to fall into place. That effort involved independent teams of analysts reaching similar conclusions about the probability of al-Zawahri’s presence, the scale mock-up and engineering studies of the building to evaluate the risk to people nearby, and the unanimous recommendation of Biden’s advisers to go ahead with the strike. “Clear and convincing,” Biden called the evidence. "I authorized the precision strike that would remove him from the battlefield once and for all. This measure was carefully planned, rigorously, to minimize the risk of harm to other civilians.” The consequences of getting it wrong on this type of judgment call were devastating a year ago this month, when a U.S. drone strike during the chaotic withdrawal of American forces killed 10 innocent family members, seven of them children. Also read: Pentagon chief: al-Qaida may seek comeback in Afghanistan Biden ordered what officials called a “tailored airstrike,” designed so that the two missiles would destroy only the balcony of the safe house where the terrorist leader was holed up for months, sparing occupants elsewhere in the building. A senior U.S. administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the strike planning, said al-Zawahri was identified on “multiple occasions, for sustained periods of time” on the balcony where he died. The official said “multiple streams of intelligence” convinced U.S. analysts of his presence, having eliminated “all reasonable options” other than his being there. Two senior national security officials were first briefed on the intelligence in early April, with the president being briefed by national security adviser Jake Sullivan shortly thereafter. Through May and June, a small circle of officials across the government worked to vet the intelligence and devise options for Biden. On July 1 in the White House Situation Room, after returning from a five-day trip to Europe, Biden was briefed on the proposed strike by his national security aides. It was at that meeting, the official said, that Biden viewed the model of the safe house and peppered advisers, including CIA Director William Burns, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and National Counterterrorism Center director Christy Abizaid, with questions about their conclusion that al-Zawahri was hiding there. Biden, the official said, also pressed officials to consider the risks the strike could pose to American Mark Frerichs, who has been in Taliban captivity for more than two years, and to Afghans who aided the U.S. war efforts who remain in the country. U.S. lawyers also considered the legality of the strike, concluding that al-Zawahri’s continued leadership of the terrorist group and support for al-Qaida attacks made him a lawful target. The official said al-Zawahri had built an organizational model that allowed him to lead the global network even from relative isolation. That included filming videos from the house, and the U.S. believes some may be released after his death. On July 25, as Biden was isolated in the White House residence with COVID-19, he received a final briefing from his team. Each of the officials participating strongly recommended the operation’s approval, the official said, and Biden gave the sign-off for the strike as soon as an opportunity was available. That unanimity was lacking a decade earlier when Biden, as vice president, gave President Barack Obama advice he did not take — to hold off on the bin Laden strike, according Obama's memoirs. The opportunity came early Sunday — late Saturday in Washington — hours after Biden again found himself in isolation with a rebound case of the coronavirus. He was informed when the operation began and when it concluded, the official said. A further 36 hours of intelligence analysis would follow before U.S. officials began sharing that al-Zawahri was killed, as they watched the Haqqani Taliban network restrict access to the safe house and relocate the dead al-Qaida leader’s family. U.S. officials interpreted that as the Taliban trying to conceal the fact they had harbored al-Zawahri. After last year’s troop withdrawal, the U.S. was left with fewer bases in the region to collect intelligence and carry out strikes on terrorist targets. It was not clear from where the drone carrying the missiles was launched or whether countries it flew over were aware of its presence. The U.S. official said no American personnel were on the ground in Kabul supporting the strike and the Taliban was provided with no forewarning of the attack. In remarks 11 month ago, Biden had said the U.S. would keep up the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan and other countries, despite pulling out troops. “We just don’t need to fight a ground war to do it.” “We have what’s called over-the-horizon capabilities," he said. On Sunday, the missiles came over the horizon.

A Japanese video journalist has been detained by security forces in Myanmar while covering a protest against military rule in the country’s largest city, pro-democracy activists said Sunday. Toru Kubota, a Tokyo-based documentary filmmaker, was arrested on Saturday by plainclothes police after a flash protest in Yangon, according to Typ Fone, a leader of the group Yangon Democratic Youth Strike, which organized the rally. Like many activists, he uses a pseudonym for protection against the military authorities. Myanmar’s army seized power in February last year by ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, and has since cracked down hard on dissent. According to a detailed tally compiled by Myanmar’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, at least 2,138 civilians have been killed by the security forces and 14,917 arrested since the military takeover. Last week, the military government drew sharp international criticism after announcing that it had hanged four activists convicted of terrorism in secret trials. Typ Fone told The Associated Press that two protesters in Saturday’s march were also arrested and detained in a township police station. The arrests were also reported by several other anti-government groups. Japan's Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara on Monday said “a Japanese male citizen in his 20s” was arrested Saturday while filming a demonstration in Yangon and that he has since been detained by local police. Kihara said Japanese embassy officials have been requesting his early release, while “doing utmost” for his safety and information gathering. An official from the Japanese Embassy told The Associated Press earlier that a Japanese national was reported detained, but declined to reveal details. The man is being held for questioning at a police station in Yangon and the embassy was taking action to release him, said the official, who asked not to be identified because was not authorized to share information with the media. Read: Widespread condemnation of Myanmar's execution of prisoners State-run daily newspapers, which usually report on arrests of pro-democracy protesters, did not mention it. However, pro-military accounts on the Telegram messaging app said the Japanese man was arrested not for taking pictures but for participating in the protest by holding a banner. Typ Fone said that photos of Kubota with the banner uploaded to the Telegram channels were taken after he had been arrested, indicating they were done under duress. During the march, about a dozen protesters chanted slogans opposing the military takeover, and shortly after, scattered into the crowds in the surrounding streets. “He was taking a picture with his camera from a short distance from our strike yesterday,” Typ Fone said of Kubota. “When we finished the strike and dispersed, he was arrested by the security forces in plainclothes and put into a Probox car.” The vehicle is typically used by taxis in Yangon, and Typ Fone said the car in question also had the markings of a taxi. According to a portfolio of Kubota’s work online, his primary focus was on ethnic conflicts, immigrants and refugee issues, and he has tried to highlight the conditions of “marginalised, deprived communities.” It says he has worked with media companies such as Yahoo! News Japan, VICE JAPAN and Al Jazeera English. Virtually all independent journalism in Myanmar is carried out underground or from exile. The military government has arrested about 140 journalists, about 55 of whom remain detained awaiting charges or trial. Kubota is the fifth foreign journalist to be detained, after U.S. citizens Nathan Maung and Danny Fenster, who worked for local publications, and freelancers Robert Bociaga of Poland and Yuki Kitazumi of Japan, all of whom were eventually expelled. Most of those still detained are being held under the charge of causing fear, spreading false news, or agitating against a government employee. The charges carry up to three years in prison.