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This is VOA News. Reporting by remote, I'm David Byrd.
Two Myanmar citizens were arrested Friday on charges alleging that they conspired to oust Myanmar's ambassador to the United Nations, who opposes the military junta that seized power earlier this year by injuring or even killing him.
U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said in a release Friday that the two men plotted to seriously injure or kill Myanmar's ambassador in an attack that was to take place on American soil.
According to court documents in White Plains, New York, federal court, a Thailand arms dealer who sells weapons to the Myanmar military hired the pair to hurt the ambassador to try to force him to step down. If that didn't work, the ambassador was to be killed, according to authorities.
Myanmar's military overthrew the country's civilian government in early February.
The first Afghan city fell to the Taliban Friday when the militants overran Zaranj, the provincial capital of Nimruz in southwestern Afghanistan. The U.N. Security Council took up the matter on Friday.
U.N. special Envoy for Afghanistan Deborah Lyons told the council that the war has "entered a new and deadlier and more destructive phase."
"The Taliban campaign during June and July to capture rural areas has achieved significant territorial gains. From this strengthened position, they have begun to attack the larger cities."
At the White House, spokesperson Jen Psaki said the path of violence will not bring the Taliban "the legitimacy" it is seeking.
"They do not have to stay on this trajectory. They could choose to devote the same energy to the peace process as they are to their military campaign. We strongly urge them to do so."
The council's meeting came hours after the Taliban ambushed and killed the director of Afghanistan's government media center in Kabul, the latest killing of a government official just days after an assassination attempt on the country's acting defense minister.
This is VOA News.
