[JustTheNews] Feds arrested more than 17,300 migrants colonists with past convictions of other crimes attempting to cross the border illegally in last year.
Federal law enforcement officers arrested more than 17,300 migrants colonists with past convictions of other crimes attempting to cross the border illegally last fiscal year. That's up from 9,447 in fiscal 2020.
The federal government's fiscal year runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.
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Ensuring that Pakistan’s generals and senior politicians will have the Afghan hinterland sanctuary that they schemed so hard to get against a future successful Indian military invasion.
[ToloNews] Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi will lead a delegation heading to Pakistain on Wednesday, the foreign ministry said today.
This is the first time since the collapse of the former government that a delegation of the Islamic Emirate is officially visiting Islamabad.
The Foreign Ministry front man Abdul Qahar Balkhi said ministers and working groups from the ministries of finance and trade will be in the delegation.
"A senior delegation led by FM Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi will travel to Pakistain on Nov 10. Delegation will discuss enhancing ties, economy, transit, refugees and expanding facilities for movement of people, and will include Ministers and working groups from Finance and Trade Ministries," he said in a tweet.
Anaamullah Samangani, deputy front man of the Islamic Emirate, said the visit is being made following a visit to Kabul by Pak Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Wormtongue Qureshi ...a Pak political shape-changer. He is undistinguished except for his habit of periodically needing to have his lips reattached... last month.
According to Samangani, Muttaqi will met with senior Pak officials on a number of issues.
"In this visit, talks will be held with different Pak officials on expanding ties between the two countries, economic and transit and easing people's travel in crossings between the two countries," he said.
Meanwhile, ...back at the argument, Livia grabbed for Jane's hair to make her point. Jane elbowed her in the face in rebuttal... Russia’s TASS news quoted President Vladimir Putin ...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances... ’s special envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov saying that an "Extended Troika" meeting on Afghanistan would be held in Islamabad on November 11.
According to Kabulov, Russia, the United States and Pakistain will attend and no one has been invited from Kabul to the meeting.
The last Troika meeting was held in Moscow in October during which delegates from Russia, Afghanistan and Pakistain attended while the United States did not.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
11/10/2021 00:00 ||
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[11124 views]
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[KhaamaPress] President of World Bank David Malpass said that it is unlikely for them to resume direct aid to Afghanistan citing challenges in the payment system of the country.
As good an excuse as any to not throw good money after bad.
The World Bank suspended its financial aid to Afghanistan at the end of August this year after the Taliban ...Arabic for students... took over the entire country.
Speaking at the Center of Strategic and International Institute David Malpass said that there is not the ability to have money actually flow given what the government is doing in Afghanistan.
The Taliban are not only deprived of the foreign aid from World Bank and similar organizations but also of the billions of assets now frozen in the central banks of the United States.
Though the US has lifted sanctions on humanitarian aids to Afghanistan, the Taliban have repeatedly been asking for the release of over $9 billion assets of Afghanistan.
Not only the Taliban and people of Afghanistan but Pakistain, Russia, and China have also demanded the money to be unfrozen as they belong to the people of Afghanistan, not the government.
International aid organizations have also demanded the money to be spent on humanitarian spares through them to prevent the worst humanitarian disaster awaiting the people in Afghanistan.
The Talibs wanted to run the place. I say let them have what they fought for, good and hard.
[ToloNews] The United States is worried about an uptick in attacks by 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.... 's affiliate in Afghanistan and remains deeply concerned about al Qaeda's ongoing presence there, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Tom West said on Monday.
West spoke to news hounds by telephone from Brussels, where he briefed NATO
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[JustTheNews] Millions of Afghans could face starvation this winter, according to director of U.N.'s World Food Program.
With Afghanistan facing a humanitarian crisis this winter in the wake of the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from the country, Taliban ...Arabic for students... officials are warning — or threatening — that unless Western governments and financial institutions release frozen foreign reserves and aid funds, the West could be flooded with a tide of Afghan migrants colonists.
Roughly $430 million is being held at the German Commerzbank and $94 million in the Bundesbank, Germany's central bank. Another $660 million is being held by the Bank for International Settlements, a conglomerate of worldwide central banks located in Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... The bulk of the contested funds, roughly $9.5 billion held by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, is frozen by the U.S. Treasury Department and is unlikely to be released any time soon.
In 2020, Afghan reserves including gold and U.S. dollars held in U.S. and European banks totaled $9.6 billion, according to the World Bank.
"Total reserves comprise holdings of monetary gold, special drawing rights, reserves of IMF members held by the IMF, and holdings of foreign exchange under the control of monetary authorities," the World Bank explains.
Since the Taliban takeover, the World Bank has withheld financial aid. The International Monetary Fund has also withheld drawing rights to $347 million.
The IMF is "guided by the views of the international community," the fund said in August. "There is currently a lack of clarity within the international community regarding recognition of a government in Afghanistan, as a consequence of which the country cannot access the Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) or other IMF resources."
At the end of August, Taliban leaders attempted to access its central bank's reserves, only to learn that they couldn't access them, the Financial Times reported.
"The money belongs to the Afghan nation," Afghanistan's Finance Ministry spokesperson Ahmad Wali Haqmal told Rooters. "Just give us our own money. Freezing this money is unethical and is against all international laws and values."
Despite a windfall of billions of dollars' worth of U.S. military equipment and weaponry left behind by the Biden administration, the same old faces in slightly different places, the same old ideas, the same old graft ...knaves, footpads, and adjusters employed by the Biden Crime Family. They leave a trail of havoc everywhere they turn their attention, be it the nation's borders, the Keystone XL Pipeline, or epidemics, sometimes on purpose, most times through sheer arrogant ineptitude. They learnt this stuff in college, you know... , the "situation is desperate, and the amount of cash is dwindling," Afghan Central Bank board member Shah Mehrabi told Rooters.
[AlAhram] Morocco's national carrier Royal Air Maroc (RAM) said Tuesday it would start regular direct flights to Israel, taking off a year after the kingdom normalized ties with Tel Aviv.
[JPost] Israeli Ambassador to the United Kingdom Tzipi Hotovely was evacuated from the London School of Economics after students and other pro-Palestinian activists prevented her from attending a debate, Kan News reported early Wednesday morning.
#US-trained Afghan pilots and other personnel boarded a US-brokered flight out of Tajikistan, ending a nearly three-month detention ordeal that began when they escaped there in their aircraft during the #Taliban takeover, Afghan sources say.https://t.co/vPEYM5px8v
“It's a relief,” said David Hicks, a retired US brigadier general who is helping lead a charity called Operation Sacred Promise working to evacuate and resettle Afghan air force personnel.
The Afghan personnel in Tajikistan represented the last major group of US-trained pilots who fled abroad and were still known to be in limbo.
The group of evacuees included a US-trained Afghan pilot at an advanced stage of pregnancy, who had expressed fear for her unborn baby in an interview with.
The group flew to Tajikistan in military aircraft at the end of the war, was detained by Tajik authorities and had been awaiting a US relocation - hoping the transfer to the Middle East will lead to eventual US resettlement.
Rooters detailed accounts from the pregnant pilot and other members of the group about their frustrations with their detention, and was first to report US plans to relocate them.
The Pentagon estimated that the expected group of evacuees totaled about 191 - larger than the more than 150 Afghans previously known to be at two sites in Tajikistan. It did not explain the figures.
Afghan air force personnel flew dozens of military aircraft to Tajikistan and to Uzbekistan in August as the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... swept to power.
In September, a US-brokered deal allowed a larger group of Afghan pilots and other military personnel to be flown out of Uzbekistan to the United Arab Emirates.
Even before the Taliban's takeover, the US-trained, English-speaking pilots had become prime targets of the Taliban because of the damage they inflicted during the war. The Taliban tracked down the pilots and assassinated them off-base.
Afghanistan's new rulers have said they will invite former military personnel to join the revamped security forces and that they will come to no harm. But pilots who spoke with Rooters say they believe they will be killed if they return to Afghanistan.
#1
At least, US trained pilots are not flying for the Taliban.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/10/2021 3:53 Comments ||
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#2
I'm glad they actually got them out. To where, who knows. I suspect the Klingons have a project somewhere.
The happy part is that this means that the equipment that they flew or maintained becomes unusable.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
11/10/2021 10:20 Comments ||
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#3
This turns out to be the second batch flown out. The first group were all pilots, and the plane went to UAE. Don't know if any moved on from there.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
11/10/2021 13:53 Comments ||
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Follow up to this report from two days ago. Only new information.
[AnNahar] Cypriot police have formally charged an Azeri man
...Orkhan Asadov, who claims to merely be the expensive muscle for an anonymous Muslim loan shark named Mohammed with a preference for Israeli borrowers, despite the Glock handgun and silencer in his car, the Russian passport, and the Hezbollah photos on his phone. His henchmen were four Pakistani food delivery drivers, one of whom is linked to an Iran-backed Shiite Pakistani paramilitary in Syria, and a Cypriot of Lebanese descent ...
on suspicion that he planned to carry out the contract killings of Israelis living in Cyprus, a law enforcement official said on Tuesday.
The official said that the 38-year-old suspect will go on trial next month on eight charges including conspiracy to commit murder, belonging to a criminal enterprise and illegal possession of firearms and ammunition. The suspect also faces a terrorism-related charge.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release details about the case, said the Azeri's arrest last month during which a pistol was found in his possession came in the 'nick of time' as police believe he was about to carry out the killings.
Police had acted on a tip-off about the suspect's activities from a "foreign agency," the official said.
At least two pistols seized by police have been linked to the Azeri man. One of the weapons was handed over to police by the Lebanese suspect.
The Azeri man had been living on both sides of Cyprus' ethnic divide and would often shuttle between the breakaway Ottoman Turkish Cypriot north and the internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south, the official said.
Authorities have kept court proceedings under wraps, barring journalists from attending and releasing no information about the case. The trials of all six suspects will be held behind closed doors.
[OneIndia] China has delivered to Pakistan the largest and most warship with stealth capabilities. The Chinese state media reported that the commissioning of the warship highlights the Sino-Pakistan all weather strategic cooperative partnership.
The PNS Tughril is the first of the four Type 054 frigates being constructed for the Pakistan Navy, is a technologically advanced and highly capable platform with enormous surface to surface, surface to air and underwater firepower, besides extensive surveillance potentials, the Global Times reported.
Designed and built by the China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited, the frigate was delivered to Pakistan in a commissioning ceremony in Shanghai. Compared to the previous ships the new one has better air defence capabilities. It is equipped with a new radar system and a large amount of missiles with a longer range, Zhang Junshe, a senior research fellow at the PLA Naval Research Academy, told the Global Times.
[JPost] Speaking about Egypt’s role, Shoukry said that his country has tried to fill that gap through collaborations with the US and the EU.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on Tuesday that Egypt has welcomed the Abraham Accords as a positive development, "one that should be encouraging of Israel to proceed to engage in peace negotiations."
Shoukry spoke with Ambassador James Jeffrey at the Wilson Center as part of his visit to Washington.
"The potential of regional integration, the disappearance of the perceived threat, is, I’m sure, reinforcing to the approach toward resolving the Palestinian Israeli conflict, definitively and finally," he said.
"Egypt led the way, more than 40 years ago and creating peace opened the door for Jordan and, subsequently, unfortunately much later, came the Abraham Accords, which is again in the same line," Shoukry continued. "We believe that dispelling the ideas of a potential threat is the way forward to achieve comprehensive peace across the region, and we hope that it will have that impact, but we recognize and have recognized over the last two years that there is a lack of engagement on both of the Israeli and the Palestinian side."
Speaking about Egypt’s role, Shoukry said his country has tried to fill that gap through collaborations with the United States and the European Union.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/10/2021 00:00 ||
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[11126 views]
Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
#1
Sameh Shoukry is not open about the religion he practices, but almost certainly is of a Christian Coptic family. That continues the tradition of Coptic Foreign Ministry factotums that at least began with Boutrous Ghali.
[JPost] Like it's a bad thing. Trump and Kushner saw how this worked against peace Donor funding fell by 38% in the last year, after standing at $488 million in 2020. The Word Bank blamed the sharp decline in 2021 on the lack of donations from Arab countries in the Gulf.
If you want to be friends with Israel, you can’t support the Palestinian Authority or Hamas.
Direct annual donor funding to the Palestinian Authority has dropped by a billion dollars over the last thirteen years, according to a World Bank report issued Tuesday that warned the PA faced a $1.36 billion deficit this year.
The PA’s financial situation "remains fragile due to high public spending and very low external financing," the World Bank wrote in the document that was released in advance of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee meeting in Norway on November 17.
The group of 15 countries and international entities oversee donor funding for the Palestinians, including for humanitarian projects. It is also one of the few forums that bring Palestinians and Israelis together in direct dialogue.
According to the World Bank, direct donor funding to the PA has dropped by 85% in the last 13 years, from $1.2b. in 2008 when it was at an all-time high, to $184 million this year — an all-time low.
Donor funding fell by 38% in the last year, after standing at $488m. in 2020. The World Bank blamed the sharp decline in 2021 on lack of donations from Arab countries in the Gulf, a delay in European Union financial support, and low contributions to the World Bank’s Multi Donor Trust Fund.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/10/2021 00:00 ||
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[11126 views]
Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[REGNUM] Indonesian police have detained five suspected terrorist group members in East Java, Indonesian law enforcement spokesman Ahmad Ramadan said during a news conference.
The detentions reportedly took place in several areas of the province. The detainees are suspected of smuggling weapons, training militants for a terrorist organization, as well as links with Islamists. During the searches, the police seized some donations that could have been used to fund the militants.
It is noted that the investigation into this case is ongoing. The terrorist group is suspected of a series of bombings in Indonesia. In particular, it is alleged that Islamists were involved in the bombings of two nightclubs in Bali, which killed 202 people.
That’d be Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), Abu Bakar Bashir‘s old outfit. Then in 2014, as leader of Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), he pledged allegiance to ISIS, so it could be that the five are JAD/ISIS rather than JI/Al Qaeda. Perhaps another source will have that information at some point.
What appears to be damage sustained from last nights reported airstrike south of Tartus, #Syria. From initial analysis a single warehouse appears to be the primary target of this compound which also contains 6 buried hardened concrete shelters which don’t appear to be targeted. pic.twitter.com/G21e9n6Ow8
[IsraelTimes] A group of Jews from Brooklyn recently visited the Syrian capital Damascus with the support of the Assad regime, the Kan public broadcaster reports.
The 12 Jewish New Yorkers are natives of Syria who left the country decades ago, according to the report.
One group member claims the visit was partially to receive dental treatment because it is far cheaper in Syria than the US.
The visitors reportedly met privately with a handful of Jews who still live in Damascus and received a request to meet with senior government officials, although that meeting did not materialize.
The New Yorkers were welcomed by the city residents.
"Everyone understood from our language that we were Syrian Jews, everyone remembered us," one visitor tells Kan.
"We went to shops in every place. They got to know us and said to us, ’Welcome, this is your country, why aren’t you coming back? Look what happened to the country, please come back.’"
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.
...a Pak political shape-changer. He is undistinguished except for his habit of periodically needing to have his lips reattached...
...Arabic for 
...knaves, footpads, and 
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
