DHAKA, 01 March 2022, (TON): United States Air Force Airmen assigned to the 36th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron and Bangladesh Air Force members celebrated the kick-off of Exercise Cope South 2022.

A press said disseminated by US Embassy here said Exercise Cope South is a bi-annual Pacific Air Forces-sponsored bilateral tactical airlift exercise that provides an opportunity for the US and Bangladesh forces to train together to strengthen partnerships and enhance interoperability.”

More than 70 US Air Force Airmen, one US Space Force Guardian and approximately 300 BAF personnel, share best practices and complete combined training objectives during the exercise.

During the ceremony held on February 19, Bangladesh Air Force Air Vice Marshal Hasan Mahmood Khan, delivered a speech emphasizing the importance of the US Air Force and BAF partnership.

He said "this is a very instrumental exercise for Bangladesh armed forces, by which, definitely over the years gained a lot of professional competency.”

SANAA, 28 February 2022, (TON): Yemen’s army destroyed two explosives-laden boats launched by the Iran-backed Houthi militia at a target near the country’s northwestern region on the Red Sea.

Yemen’s Defense Ministry said “coastguards from the army’s Fifth Region destroyed the two boats while sailing from the country’s territorial waters to international waters in the Red Sea near the coastline of the northern province of Hajjah.”

The Arab coalition and Yemen’s army have repeatedly accused the Houthis of threatening international navigation and trade in the Red Sea, by launching explosive-laden boats and planting naval mines to target commercial ships.

The coalition have warned that the Houthis have refitted Yemeni ports on the Red Sea, including Hodeidah port, creating explosive boat and drone factories and smuggling imports of advanced weaponry from Iran.

The foiled Houthi attacks came on Sunday as the militia launched the deadly shelling of densely populated neighborhoods in the southern city of Taiz.

SEOUL, 28 February 2022, (TON): North Korea has accused the United States of being the root cause of the Ukraine crisis while defending Russia, in Pyongyang’s first official response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russia ordered troops into neighbouring Ukraine this week, prompting global outcry and punishing sanctions from the West, some directed against Russian President Vladimir Putin himself.

But North Korea, in a muted response issued in the form of a commentary posted on the Foreign Ministry’s website, said the United States was to blame for the unfolding disaster.

Washington has pursued “military supremacy in disregard of the legitimate demand of Russia for its security” according to the commentary, attributed to Ri Ji Song, a researcher at the North’s Society for International Politics Study.

The post uploaded on the North’s foreign ministry website said “the root cause of the Ukrainian crisis also lies in the high-handedness and arbitrariness of the US.”

Ri slammed said the US for holding a double standard saying it meddled in the internal affairs of other countries in the name of peace and stability but it denounces for no good reason self-defensive measures taken by other countries to ensure their own national security.

The post said “Gone are the days when the U.S. used to reign supreme.”

TUNIS, 28 February 2022, (TON): Thousands of young Arabs who took up studies in Ukraine, often fleeing violence back home, are appealing to be rescued from a new nightmare Russia’s full scale invasion of the country.

More than 10,000 Arab students attend university in Ukraine, drawn to the former Soviet republic by a low cost of living and, for many, the lure of relative safety compared with their own troubled homelands.

Many have criticised their governments for failing to take concrete measures to repatriate them, and sought refuge in basements or the metro system.

Few dared to cross the border into neighbouring Poland or Romania in search of sanctuary.

Ali Mohammed, an Iraqi student told AFP by telephone from the western city of Chernivtsi “we left Iraq to escape war but it’s the same thing in Ukraine.”

Mohammed said “he has been calling the Iraqi embassy in Kyiv around a dozen times a day since Russia launched the invasion but no one has picked up.”

NEW YORK, 28 February 2022, (TON): The UN Security Council is set to vote on a draft resolution, tabled by the UAE, calling on members to expand an arms embargo against the leaders of Yemen’s Houthis to include the Iran-backed militia as a whole.

The draft, seen by Arab News, urges all member states to respect and implement their obligations to prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer to, or for, the benefit of Houthis and those acting on their behalf or at their direction in Yemen, of arms and related materiel of all types.

It condemns “the continued supply of weapons and components to Yemen in violation of the targeted arms embargo” established by resolution 2216 which was adopted in 2015.

The text calls on member states to “increase efforts to combat the smuggling of weapons and components via land and sea routes, to ensure implementation of the targeted arms embargo.

Iran has provided the Houthis with training and a growing arsenal of sophisticated weapons and technology for anti-tank guided missiles, sea mines, explosive-laden unmanned aerial vehicles, ballistic and cruise missiles, unmanned maritime vehicles, and other weapons.

KYIV, 28 February 2022, (TON): In a dramatic escalation of East-West tensions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian nuclear forces put on high alert in response to what he called aggressive statements by leading NATO powers.

The order means Putin wants Russia’s nuclear weapons prepared for increased readiness to launch and raises the threat that Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and the West's response to it could boil over into nuclear warfare.

Amid the worrying development, the office of Ukraine’s president said a delegation would meet with Russian officials as Moscow’s troops drew closer to Kyiv.

Putin, in giving the nuclear alert directive, cited not only the alleged statements by NATO members but the hard-hitting financial sanctions imposed by the West against Russia, including the Russian leader himself.

RIYADH, 28 February 2022, (TON): The Kingdom’s defense ministry said “the Royal Saudi Land Forces continued the Al Samsam 8 joint exercise with the Pakistani Army in Pakistan.

During the past few days, the participants carried out several maneuvers that included special exercises in a number of areas, including encircling cities and liberating hostages.

They have also been trained ini irregular war operations, wh8ich will continue over the next few days.

The ministry said “the exercise aims to exchange information, expertise and concepts that will be positively reflected in raising combat efficiency in a variety of different environments.”

MINSK, 28 February 2022, (TON): Belarus held a referendum to adopt a new constitution that would ditch its non-nuclear status at a time when the country has become a launchpad for Russian troops invading Ukraine and marching on Kyiv.

The vote, almost certain to pass under the tightly controlled rule of President Alexander Lukashenko, could see nuclear weapons on Belarusian soil for the first time since the country gave them up after the fall of the Soviet Union.

It raises the stakes at a time when Lukashenko has fallen behind Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military assault on Ukraine after earlier playing an intermediary role between the two neighbours.

On Sunday, speaking at a polling station, Lukashenko said that he could ask Russia to return nuclear weapons to Belarus.

Lukashenko said “if you transfer nuclear weapons to Poland or Lithuania, to our borders, then I will turn to Putin to return the nuclear weapons that I gave away without any conditions.”

BOGOTA, 28 February 2022, (TON): The national mining agency said “an explosion at a coal mine in Colombia’s Boyaca province killed 11 people and left four missing.”

The ANM said “the accident occurred on Saturday night and was caused by a build up of methane gas at the mine, which is located in the Tasco municipality.”

Colombia’s mining industry includes huge open-pit and underground projects operated by multinational companies, as well as hundreds of small, informal deposits.

Accidents in the mining sector occur regularly as some enterprises are illegal, or do not properly enforce safety measures.

WASHINGTON, 28 February 2022, (TON): US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield called an unacceptable escalation the order of Russian President Vladimir Putin to transfer the deterrence forces in the Russian army to a special mode of combat duty in response to aggressive statements in the West.

Thomas-Greenfield quoted the agency as saying on CBS that this means that President Putin continues to escalate this war in a completely unacceptable manner, and we must continue to stop his actions in the strongest possible way.

The American diplomat said “we will continue here at the UN, as well as around the world, to use all possible levers that we have to expose his actions.”

Thomas-Greenfield noted that she learned about the decision of the Russian leader about the deterrence forces only during an interview from a question from a CBS journalist.

The US Ambassador to the UN said “but I’m not surprised by this information, because Putin has tried every possible means to really scare the world with his actions. It only means that we must step up our efforts here at the UN and elsewhere to hold him accountable.”