[ToloNews] A number of women who run shops at a market in Balkh said the vice and virtue department has ordered them to close their shops by next Thursday.
The women said shops were their only source of income and they were supporting their families through their small businesses.
Pasthun Afghan is one of the first women, who invested in a shop at the "City Walk" market in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, Balkh province.
"Last Thursday, a member of the vice and virtue department came and asked us that we have one week to take away our shops and sit at home," she said.
"We are forced to collect our commodities; otherwise, they will be wasted. This will also affect our economy," said Yasamin, a shopkeeper.
Local officials said that women-only markets are still open.
The shopkeepers called on local officials to reverse their decision.
"I have built this shop after many difficulties and it cost expensive. We built handmade products and the women, who come for shopping here, felt safe and comfortable," said Massoud, a shopkeeper.
"When we come to the market, we try to do shopping from female shopkeepers instead of men and we feel comfortable," said Sanam Sarwari, a resident of Mazar-e-Sharif.
An official of the provincial department, Sayed Zahir, told TOLOnews that the shops were closed due to co-working with men and lack of observing hijab by women.
"We are trying to make a bidding between two to three markets so that they can facilitate a good opportunity for our sisters," he said.
This comes after women were banned from working in non-governmental organizations in Afghanistan, a decision that triggered global reactions.
[Garowe] The United States has embarked on serious equipping of the Somali National Army [SNA] Special Forces commonly known as Danab as the country enters the crucial phase in the fight against al-Shabaab ...... the personification of Somali state failure... hard boyz who control large swathes of rural central and southern Somalia.
Since September 2022, Somalia has been conducting operations against al-Shabaab in central and southern parts of the country, leading to significant progress, including but not limited to killing the group's leaders, seizing strategic towns, and arresting a number of bad boys.
On Sunday, the US embassy in Mogadishu said it has given weapons worth $9 million which includes heavy machine guns; support and construction vehicles, explosive ordinance disposal kits, medical supplies, and maintenance equipment to the Somali army which are critical components in the war.
This package, the US noted, is for Danab battalions, including those operating in Hirshabelle and Galmudug ...a semiautonomous region in central Somalia, bordering Puntland on the north. Galmudug is not trying to obtain international recognition as a separate nation, but rather considers itself autonomous within the larger Somali federalism, for what that's worth... states which President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud says could liberate the regions in the coming months from the bad boys. al-Shabaab lost most parts of the territories they were in charge of.
"$9 million in weapons, vehicles, and equipment from the United States will support the successful campaign by SNA Force to liberate Somalia’s communities from al-Shabaab. Grateful to Minister Mohammed Nur and SNA CDF Odowaa for their partnership," the US said in a statement.
The United States has been supporting the special forces through aerial surveillance including bombarding areas that are dominated by the al-Shabaab hard boyz during special operations. The Danab forces also work closely with the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... Transition Mission in Somalia [ATMIS].
Danab commandos who are estimated to be about 1,300 have been conducting operations across Somalia and are credited for rescuing people in buildings targeted by al-Shabaab bad boys. The US believes that the special forces would magically help the country regain stability in the near future.
Somalia has been fighting al-Shabaab hard boyz for the last 16 years.
BUT for the same amount, we could offer airfare and typical room and board in Somalia to the BLoM Para-Military types, willing to head to there, to help peacefully reconcile the situation .😏
Truly we live in a time of miracles. Thank you, President Trump!
[AnNahar] The United Arab Emirates will begin teaching about the Holocaust in history classes in primary and secondary schools across the country, the country's embassy in the U.S. says.
The embassy provided no details on the curriculum and education authorities in the Emirates, a federation of seven sheikhdoms, did not immediately acknowledge the announcement on Monday.
However, by candlelight every wench is handsome... the announcement comes after the UAE normalized relations with Israel in 2020 as part of a deal brokered by the administration of President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and whatever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... "In the wake of the historic (hashtag)AbrahamAccords, (the UAE) will now include the Holocaust in the curriculum for primary and secondary schools," the embassy said in a tweet, referring to the normalization deal that also saw Bahrain and ultimately Morocco also recognize Israel.
Ambassador Deborah E. Lipstadt, the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, praised the announcement in her own tweet.
"Holocaust education is an imperative for humanity and too many countries, for too long, continue to downplay the Shoah for political reasons," Lipstadt wrote, using a Hebrew word for the Holocaust. "I commend the UAE for this step and expect others to follow suit soon."
The announcement comes ahead of a planned meeting of the Negev Forum Working Groups in Abu Dhabi this week, which grew out of the normalization. The meeting will see officials from Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Morocco, the UAE and the U.S. attend. Egypt has diplomatically recognized Israel for decades.
The Holocaust saw Nazi Germany systematically kill 6 million European Jews during World War II. Israel, founded in 1948 as a haven for Jews in the wake of the Holocaust, grants automatic citizenship to anyone of Jewish descent.
Other Arab nations have refused to diplomatically recognize Israel over its decades-long occupation of land Paleostinians want for a future state.
The announcement by the UAE also comes after it and other Arab nations condemned an ultranationalist Israeli Cabinet minister for visiting a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site for the first time since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new far-right government took office.
The site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Moslems as the Noble Sanctuary, is the holiest site in Judaism, home to the ancient biblical Temples. Today, it houses the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam. Since Israel captured the site in 1967, Jews have been allowed to visit but not pray there.
[Garowe] Legislators from the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... [EU] parliament have supported a Somali man facing a life sentence in Greece, with the politicians insisting that the victim was illegally convicted by authorities in the European country, which is home to many immigrants colonists.
In 2021, Mohammad Hanad Abdi was sentenced to 142 years for allegedly crossing over in a dinghy from The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... to the nearby Greek island of Lesbos the previous year. Greece is battling to control the influx of illegal immigrants colonists to the country.
During the trial, Abdi insisted that he only steered the dinghy after it had been abandoned by a Ottoman Turkish smuggler when crossing over. As they crossed over, two people drowned while 33 others were rescued, accounts supported by many survivors who vindicated him.
The politicians had been brought to attention over draconian sentencing guidelines in Greece introduced in recent years as part of an effort to fight illegal migration into the European Union. Most of the immigrants colonists cross from North Africa to Europe, with a number risking their lives along the Mediterranean Sea.
Stelios Kouloglou, a leftist politician from Greece in the European Union parliament, is pushing for the re-examination of many convictions which he insists are wrongful. In December 2022, Akif Razouli and Amir Zahiri from Afghanistan who was sentenced to 50 years in jail were released upon successful appeal.
"International solidarity is vital for these refugees, who are victims of this unjust practice by the Greek government to condemn innocent people with excessive sentences," Kouloglou said in an online post before the trial.
Already, over 15 European Union parliament have supported the campaign to have Greece release several people who have been wrongly convicted. Greece's center-right government has described its migration policy as "strict but fair," arguing that tough sentencing for smugglers is a key part of the country’s border defense policy, AP reports.
[ToloNews] Ottoman Turkish media reported that at least 500 Afghan refugees have been deported by Ankara and that more than 5,000 others are in detention, who will also be deported soon.
TOLOnews reached out to some of the deportees, who complained about mistreatment of Ottoman Turkish forces with them.
Bilal, a second year student of the faculty of political science, said that he went to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... seven months ago to find a job but he was reported.
"We didn't have the right to talk. They would just beat us until they get tired," Bilal said.
"They tightened our hands and feet. They wouldn’t feed us well. They would give two peices of bread with food for four people," said Akram, an Afghan national deported from Turkey.
Anadolu Agency said that Ankara is due to deport nearly 20,000 refugees, of whom over 5,000 are Afghans.
"The government of Turkey had severed the conditions for Afghan refugees and no refugee can take asylum under the current situation," said Maazullah Sultan Oghlo, an Afghan refugee in Turkey.
The Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation said that the Islamic Emirate has held talks with Ottoman Turkish officials about the situation of Afghan refugees there.
"We are in contact to stop the process of deportation of Afghans," said Abdul Mutalib Haqqani, a front man for the ministry.
"The international law for the refugees suggests host countries to treat well with refugees," said Abdul Malik Afghan, a refugees rights activist muppet.
Earlier, Ottoman Turkish media reported that out of 124,000 undocumented refugees, 68,000 of them were Afghans in 2022.
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[KhaamaPress] A former Afghan special force, Abdul Wasi Safi, "needs immediate medical intervention at the US border. "He was bleeding from his ears and is in extreme pain, According to his attorney, tweeted on 8 January by Sara Blame Morgan."
His brother, Samiullah Safi, a former US Army interpreter, told SBM, "He fought shoulder to shoulder, combat to combat, day and night, against the common enemy of Afghanistan and the United States."
After the regime changed and the fall of Afghanistan, he was forced to flee his homeland. By then, he had travelled to South America and trekked north, hoping to seek legal asylum in the United States.
However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... when he reached the US, he was arrested by border patrol agents and has been held in a detention facility on the US-Mexico border since September, as reported by Storyteller SBM.
As he was promised safety from the current regime, "he now faced deportation back to Afghanistan," the report further stated.
His brother Samiullah expressed his concern over the deportation of Abdul to Afghanistan and said, "I am sure they will not just kill him; they will probably hang him on a square so that to be a good example for so many others", he stated.
On the other hand, "Afghan special forces who served alongside American troops in Afghanistan, fled to Iran ...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979... after the collapse of the former government in the country, are now being recruited by the Russian military to fight in Ukraine", News Agency that Dare Not be Named reported on October 2022.
[Dawn] Amid an uptick in murderous Moslem attacks in the country, renowned holy mans in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa issued a fatwa (religious decree) denouncing terrorism, it emerged on Monday.
The development comes as terrorism is again rearing its head in the country, especially in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... Pakistain has seen a rise in terrorist attacks across the country, believed to have been planned and directed by the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... Pakistain (TTP) leaders based in Afghanistan.
The TTP, which has ideological linkages with the Afghan Taliban, executed more than 100 attacks last year, most of which happened after August when the group’s peace talks with the Pakistain government began to falter. The ceasefire was formally ended last year on Nov 28 by the TTP.
The 14-page fatwa, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, has been signed by 16 religious scholars from difference schools of thought, including Maulana Qari Ehsanul Haq, Mufti Subhanallah Jan, Dr Maulana Attaur Rehman, Maulana Hussain Ahmed, Maulana Dr Abdul Nasir, Mufti Mukhtarullah Haqqani, Maulana Tayyab Qureshi, Maulana Salmanul Haq Haqqani, Maulana Rehmatullah Qadri, Maulana Umar bin Abdul Aziz, Allama Abid Hussain Shakri, Mufti Mairajul Din Sarkani, Mufti Raza Mohammad Haqqani, Mufti Khalid Usmani, Mufti Sheikh Aijaz and Maulana Abdul Kareem.
KP Chief Khateeb Maulana Tayyab Qureshi, one of the signatories, said the Learned Elders of Islam had issued the fatwa to answer some questions related to jihad.
Speaking to Dawn.com, he said: "Recently some so-called Learned Elders of Islam tried to create chaos using Islam. After that, it became our responsibility to issue the fatwa."
In the decree, the scholars condemned "spreading chaos and riots" in an Islamic state".
They also termed those "declaring war and picking up weapons against" authorities to be "perpetrators deserving of punishment".
The fatwa also said that "not every person has the right to declare jihad" and that it could only be declared by the head of an Islamic state.
It further said that a soldier or police official killed by the enemy during battle was a martyr, adding that there was "no doubt about his martyrdom".
[Dawn] Only the head of an Islamic country is entitled to declare jihad, and anyone involved in revolt against the state is required to be "crushed" in light of the principles of Islam.
Amid a surge in terrorist attacks, the significant announcement came in form of an edict which was issued on Monday with signatures of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s 16 religious scholars on it.
The holy mans said that the head of the Islamic country will announce jihad since this is one of the basic components of the Islamic country.
"According to the teaching[s] of Islam, all the citizens of the Islamic country have to respect the law, and refusing to follow the Constitution [of the Islamic country] is prohibited according to the Shari’ah," read the decree, a copy of which is available with Dawn.
Protection of an Islamic country is the responsibility of all its citizens. "Since Pakistain is an Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... , there is no doubt that all, including the military and police deployed to defend the country, when killed in the battle against enemies, are deaders," the decree read.
The decree noted that a so-called religious scholar in Islamabad as well as some enemies and some anti-state elements have been issuing provocative and controversial statements.
"Obeying [the directions issued by the] head of the State is compulsory under the Islamic principles and those refusing to follow, is [rising in] revolt," the decree read, adding "it is compulsory for all the citizens to follow the head of the state and the Constitution".
Anyone who took up arms against the state or the [Pak] armed forces would be considered an bad boy, it said, adding that such an act had been forbidden and anyone involved in revolt is required to be crushed in light of the principles of Islam.
According to the scholars, there is no doubt that the Western democracy is against the teachings of Islam. However, man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... they added, ’if someone declares the parliament’s decision submissive to the Holy Koran, he should not be called as misled’.
The decree read that shaving the beard was forbidden in Islam but "it does not mean if somebody shaves the beard is a non-Moslem", adding that once there was a time when wearing a tie and pants was considered dress of the Westerners but it had now become common among Moslems.
"No religious scholar has termed wearing a tie and pants against Islam and this is the reason why religious scholars have justified wearing pants at offices," the 14-page edict read.
The decree has been signed by Sheikhul Hadis Maulana Qari Ehsanul Haq of Darul Uloom Sarhad, Mufti Subhanullah Jan from Madressah Darwesh Imdadul Uloom, Dr Maulana Ataur Rehman from Tafheemul Koran Mardan, Maulana Hussain Ahmad from Wifaqul Madaris Arabia, Maulana Dr Abdul Nasir from Tanzeemul Madaris Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Mufti Mukhtarullah Haqqani and Maulana Salmanul Haq Haqqani from Jamia Daraul Uloom Akora Khattak, Chief Khateeb KP Maulana Tayyab Qureshi, provincial nazim ...small time big shot, the chief elected official of a local government in Pakistan, such as a district, tehsil, union council, or village council... of Tanzeemul Madaris Maulana Rehmatullah Qadri, Maulana Umar Bin Abdul Aziz from Wifaqul Madaris Aslafia, Allama Abid Hussain Shakiri from Jamia Arif-Al-Hussaini Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistain's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire... , Mufti Mairajuddin Sarkani from Jamia Amania Peshawar, Mufti Raza Muhammad Haqqani from Jamia Taleemul Koran Peshawar, Mufti Khalid Usmani from Jamia Islamia Kohat, Mufti Sheikh Aizaj from Jamia Masjid Ahl-e-Hadis Fawara Chowk Peshawar and Maulana Abdul Karim from KP Ulema Council.
[AlAhram] Sweden said Monday it had launched talks with the United States about deepening defence collaboration as The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund... continues to block the Nordic country's NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... membership.
Sweden's defence ministry said that the two nations were negotiating a deal for "even closer cooperation with the United States both bilaterally and within the framework of NATO".
Exactly what the so-called Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) will cover is being negotiated "but it makes it easier for American troops to operate in Sweden," Defence Minister Pal Jonson said in a written statement to AFP.
"It could entail storage of military supplies, investments in infrastructure to enable support and the legal status of American troops in Sweden," Jonson said.
"The negotiations are started because Sweden is on its way of becoming an ally of the United States, through the NATO membership," the minister added.
Sweden and Finland broke with decades of military non-alignment and applied to join the US-led defence alliance last year in response to Russia's February invasion of Ukraine.
Turkey has refused to ratify their NATO applications, accusing both countries of providing a safe haven for outlawed Kurdish groups it deems "terrorists".
Most of Turkey's demands have involved Sweden because of its more robust ties with the Kurdish diaspora.
Ankara has notably demanded that Sweden extradite people Turkey accuses of terrorism or of having played a part in the 2016 attempt to topple President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than there are in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really most important... During a security conference in Sweden on Sunday, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who met with Erdogan in Turkey in December, said some of Ankara's demands could not be accepted by Sweden.
"Turkey has confirmed that we have done what we said we would do, but it also says that it wants things that we can't, that we don't want to, give it," Kristersson said.
[AlAhram] It's time for Sweden to join NATO because it has done what's necessary to secure Turkiye's approval for membership, the military alliance's secretary-general said Monday.
"I have said that time has come to bring to an end the ratification process for Sweden,'' Jens Stoltenberg told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet in an interview.
In May, Sweden and neighboring Finland dropped their longstanding policies of military nonalignment and applied to join NATO following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The move requires the unanimous approval of the alliance members. Turkiye's has held up the process while pressing the two Nordic countries to crack down on groups it considers to be terrorist organizations and to extradite people suspected of terror-related crimes.
Last month, Ottoman Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Sweden was not even "halfway'' through fulfilling the commitments it made to secure Ankara's support
. His remarks came after a Swedish court ruled against extraditing a man wanted by Turkiye for alleged links to a 2016 failed coup.
Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has said that Sweden has lived up to its commitments and that the decision now "lies with Turkiye.''
"We have a very good process together with Finland and Turkiye and are doing exactly what we said, which Turkiye is now confirming,''
Kristersson said on Sunday, the first day of the three-day People and Defense conference in Salen, a ski resort in central Sweden. The event was attended by Stoltenberg and Swedish foreign policy and security experts.
"Legislation banning participation in terrorist organizations is being implemented, and Turkiye is known to name individuals it wants extradited. It is also known that Sweden has legislation that is clear and means that it is up to the courts. We also do not extradite Swedish citizens to any country.''
There was no immediate reaction from Turkiye to the comments by Stoltenberg and Kristersson.
The parliaments of 28 NATO countries have already ratified Sweden and Finland's membership. Turkiye and Hungary are the only members that haven't yet given their approval.
Under the memorandum, the two countries agreed to address Turkiye's security concerns, including requests for the deportation and extradition of Kurdish bandidosforces of Evil and people linked to a network run by US-based Moslemholy manFethullah Gülen ... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world. Gülen and Erdogan used to be really good friends, but only one of them could be sultan, and Gülen lost... The Ottoman Turkish government accuses Gulen of criminal masterminding the 2016 coup attempt, which he denies.
However, a hangover is the wrath of grapes... Sweden's top court has refused to extradite journalist Bulent Kenes, whom Turkiye accuses of being among the coup plotters.
Kenes, who received asylum in Sweden, was the editor of the English-language Today's Zaman newspaper which was owned by the Gulen network and was closed down as part of Ankara's crackdown on the group.
[AlAhram] Sweden will be part of the European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI) and participate in air policing over the Baltics, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said late on Sunday.
The Scandinavian country, which last year decided to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... ), is also prepared to participate in air policing above the Black Sea and Iceland, Swedish Television (SVT) quoted Kristersson as saying at an annual defense and security policy conference in Salen, some 430 km northwest of Stockholm.
Spearheaded by Germany, the ESSI, launched at a NATO defense ministers' meeting in October 2022, aims to create a European air and missile defence system through the common acquisition of air defence equipment and missiles by European nations, and to strengthen NATO's Integrated Air and Missile Defence, according to NATO.
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#1
Lots on Turkey, little on Russia.
"Sweden: a history of neutrality ends after 200 years …
https://theconversation.com/sweden-a-history-of...
WebMay 26, 2022 · Sweden’s neutrality began after a disastrous loss of territory to Russia during the Napoleonic wars in 1812...…
[AnNahar] The Paleostinian prime minister accused Israel's new ultra-nationalist government of blocking "even the most non-violent mostly peaceful ways of fighting the occupation," according to an interview published Monday, after Israel retaliated for the Paleostinians' successful effort to enlist U.N. help.
Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh's comments to Haaretz came amid a flurry of punitive steps by Israel since taking office late last month, most recently banning the Paleostinian flag from public spaces. Israel has stripped Paleostinian officials of VIP privileges and broken up a meeting of Paleostinian parents discussing their children's education.
Late on Sunday, Israel's security minister ordered the police to ban the Paleostinian flag, a symbolically fraught move after what one Israeli rights group reported was the deadliest year of the conflict in decades.
Continued on Page 49
[Rudaw] The United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... Security Council agreed Monday to extend a crucial cross-border aid mechanism into rebel-held northwest Syria by six months, calming fears of a potential "catastrophe" and ensuring the continued delivery of aid to vulnerable people in the region.
"The UN Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution to extend a mechanism that delivers lifesaving aid into NW #Syria from #Turkiye," the UN news service tweeted.
The cross-border mechanism at the Bab al-Hawa crossing is the only way UN aid, including food, medicine, water, and other critical resources can be delivered to northwest Syria without having to traverse through areas controlled by the Syrian government. The mandate has been in effect since 2014 and briefly expired on July 10 before being reinstated with a six-month extension a day later.
"The decision to confirm the extension of that authorization for an additional six months comes as humanitarian needs have reached the highest levels since the start of the conflict in 2011, with people in Syria grappling with a harsh winter and a cholera outbreak," Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for UN Secretary-General António Guterres ...Portuguese politician and diplomat, ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations. Previously, he was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005 and 2015. He was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002 and was the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party from 1992 to 2002. He served as President of the Socialist International from 1999 to 2005. In both a 2012 and 2014 poll, the Portuguese public ranked him as the best Prime Minister of the previous 30 years... , said following the extension on Monday.
The province of Idlib in northwest Syria is the last pocket of rebel-held territory in the region and is mainly controlled by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... (HTS), which has been internationally recognized as a terrorist organization. The area’s residents also suffer from dire economic conditions and heavily rely on the aid mechanism for basic necessities.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) hailed the extension of the aid mechanism but expressed concern that a six-month extension is inadequate and "will once again be short-lived."
"Knowing this assistance will continue is a small reprieve for families struggling to survive," IRC President David Miliband said.
Earlier this month, top leaders of the UN urged for the extension of the resolution, claiming that if the UN Security Council fails to extend it, "the consequences will be catastrophic for 4.1 million people in non-Government-controlled areas."
The previous one-day expiry of the mechanism was due to Russia’s vetoing of an extension, with Moscow sharing strong ties and being a key backer of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... ’s government in its quest to crush rebel forces and retake control of the country’s territory. Russia has aimed to reduce the cross-border aid into the rebel-held northwest and seeks to eliminate it entirely.
According to the UN, the humanitarian assistance provided through the cross-border mechanism reached "an average of 2.7 million people every month" in 2022.
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY - ENGLISH (@NPA_English) January 9, 2023
A US citizen, who is detained in Roj Camp, in northeast Syria, with other Islamic State Organization (ISIS) family members, said on Sunday she had been “brainwashed” before joining ISIS.
The 28-year-old Hoda Muthana told the News Movement, in an interview in Roj camp, that she still hopes to return to the US even if she will serve prison time, and then advocate against the extremist ISIS.
Roj camp, the second dangerous camp after Hawl Camp, is run by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), it is a house for 806 families, including 2.800 individuals of Arabs and foreigners, mostly women and children of ISIS members who hail from 62 countries, according to previous a report published by North Press.
Muthana, who was born in New Jersey to Yemeni immigrants, was raised in a conservative Muslim household in Hoover, Alabama.
That’s proud dad Ahmed Ali Muthana, the former Yemeni diplomat who found America more congenial. In 2019 he sued the U.S. government to make them bring his little girl home. He was represented by the Constitutional Law Center for Muslims in America (CLCMA), funded by the Muslim Legal Fund of America...
Muthana said that she was brainwashed by online traffickers in order to join the group in 2014, as she was only 20 years old.
She may have been, but 20 is fully adult, not a silly schoolgirl. And once she got there, she cooperated enthusiastically, tweeting hard to persuade others to join her in the paradise of the Caliphate.
She regrets everything she did except for the child that she had with one of the three ISIS fighters that she got married to in Syria, according to her words.
The Australian and the Tunisian were each killed in turn, then she divorced the third one.
In 2014, she told her family she was going on a school trip, but instead, she flew to Turkey and crossed into Syria.
The US government stripped her from her citizenship in 2016.
A President Obama initiative...
She added that she cannot expose the atrocities that ISIS committed due to fear of reprisal inside the camp, but once she gets out, she will do.
Hassan Shibly, an attorney said, “She was brainwashed and taken advantage of.”
Mr. Shibly, esq. is a colourful character: “civil rights” lawyer and head of CAIR in Florida, which isn’t colourful, but then there were allegations of wife abuse, secret marriages, bullying, sexual harassment. All that came out after he started handling public relations for the Muthana family in 2015.
“She was absolutely misguided…she was a teenager who was the victim of a very sophisticated recruitment operation that focuses on taking advantage of the young, the vulnerable, and the disenfranchised,” he said.
Not a teenager if she was 20...
In November 2022, the US urged the repatriation of nationals of European countries from camps in northeast Syria, saying that it is “critical” to prevent the return of ISIS.
Update at 9:50 a.m. ET: Fox News gets in on the story, too — Mr. Shibly, esq. must be working his little tootsies off for the former diplomat. The article adds:
Once she arrived in Syria, Muthana says she was detained in a guest house reserved for unmarried women and children.
"I’ve never seen that kind of filthiness in my life, like there was 100 women and twice as much kids, running around, too much noise, filthy beds," she recalled.
She said the only way out was to marry an ISIS fighter, and she eventually married three, giving birth to a child.
The Islamic State at one time held swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria and at the height of their power became famous for brutal executions and terrorist attacks that they frequently boasted about on social media. During that time Muthana appeared to be a vocal supporter of the group in interviews with Buzzfeed News and on social media. Posts from 2015 on her Twitter account showed her encouraging more Americans to join the extremist group and carry out attacks at home, including drive-by shootings, vehicle rammings and targeting large gatherings on national holidays.
Muthana had her citizenship revoked in 2016 by the Obama administration, which argued her birthright citizenship could be canceled because her father was an accredited Yemeni diplomat at the time of her birth. That decision was maintained throughout the Trump administration, which continued to ban her from returning to the United States.
Attorneys representing Muthana have claimed the move was in error, arguing that her diplomatic accreditation ended before she was born. But U.S. courts have upheld the position of the government, while the Supreme Court declined her appeal to hear the case last year.
Hassan Shibly, an attorney for Muthana’s family, argues it is "absolutely clear that she was brainwashed and taken advantage of." He added that the family believes she should be allowed back to repay her debt to society and help others from "falling into the dark path that she was led down."
He has a Twitter account, where he posts things like this:
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[ToloNews] A number of women who run shops at a market in Balkh said the vice and virtue department has ordered them to close their shops by next Thursday.
...... the personification of Somali state failure...
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and whatever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979...
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistain's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire...
...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than there are in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really most important...
... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world. Gülen and Erdogan used to be really good friends, but only one of them could be sultan, and Gülen lost...
[AnNahar] The Paleostinian prime minister accused Israel's new ultra-nationalist government of blocking "even the most non-
...Portuguese politician and diplomat, ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations. Previously, he was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005 and 2015. He was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002 and was the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party from 1992 to 2002. He served as President of the Socialist International from 1999 to 2005. In both a 2012 and 2014 poll, the Portuguese public ranked him as the best Prime Minister of the previous 30 years...
