Tag: Region Asias

The Chinese government’s efforts to shut down mosques have extended beyond Xinjiang, an area long criticized for the persecution of Muslim minorities. This expansion has reached the Ningxia region and Gansu province, areas with significant Hui Muslim populations. As per a Human Rights Watch report , which utilizes public documents, satellite imagery, and eyewitness accounts, indicates that these closures are part of an official strategy termed “consolidation.” In addition to closing mosques, local authorities have been altering mosque architectures to…

BOGOTA: Former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe will appear before the attorney general’s office next week over a 1997 paramilitary massacre, authorities said Thursday. While Uribe was governor of the Antioquia department, a group of 150 right-wing paramilitary members killed at least 15 people in the village of El Aro. Last week, paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso, at a hearing with Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace, said Uribe “always knew about the operation.” The country has for decades been convulsed by fighting…

With Russian tanks and troops descending on Ukraine in early 2022, Cyprus became a hotbed of financial activity. The island country has long been known as an offshore transit point for the fortunes of Russian billionaires, and as sanctions loomed over many of them last year, Cyprus financial services firms fielded a series of urgent demands to transfer funds and shareholdings, newly revealed records show. In one case, documents show that two Russian billionaires, Alexander Abramov and Alexander Frolov, needed…

BEIJING: A Chinese man wanted for allegedly embezzling millions of yuan (hundreds of thousands of dollars) from his company and then fleeing to Morocco was extraditedback to China on Saturday, the Ministry of Public Security said. The man, a financial executive at the company, used passwords for its bank accounts to transfer money to his personal account, the ministry said in a statement.It didn’t name the company but said that Shanghai police filed a case against the man in February…

U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of California  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, November 16, 2023 FRESNO, Calif. — A federal grand jury returned a three-count indictment today against Jia Bei Zhu, aka Jesse Zhu, Qiang He, and David He, 62, a citizen of China who formerly resided in Clovis, charging him with distributing adulterated and misbranded medical devices in violation of the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and for making false statements to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S….

November 16, 2023 WASHINGTON — Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated eight individuals and six entities pursuant to Western Balkans-related Executive Order (E.O.) 14033 and Russia-related E.O. 14024. In a coordinated action, the U.S. Department of State also designated two individuals and 12 entities pursuant to E.O. 14024. “Russia has continued to use its influence in the Western Balkans to stymie the region’s integration into international institutions and organizations, as well as…

PARIS: France has issued an international arrest warrant for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, accused of complicity in crimes against humanity over chemical attacks in 2013, a judicial source and plaintiffs in the case said Wednesday. The judicial source told AFP Assad was also suspected of complicity in war crimes for the attacks, blamed by the opposition on the regime, that killed more than 1,400 people near Damascus in August 2013. International warrants were also issued for the arrests of Assad’s…

The “Israel on Campus Coalition” offered college students $250 “microgrants” to attend the “March for Israel” event in Washington, DC on Tuesday. “The ‘Israel on Campus Coalition’ is funded by ‘pro-Israel’ billionaires such as Bernie Marcus, founder of Home Depot, and Jan Koum, founder of WhatsApp,” Michael Tracey reported. A group called “Israel on Campus Coalition” gave “microgrants” for people to attend yesterday’s “March for Israel” event in DC. The “Israel on Campus Coalition” is funded by “pro-Israel” billionaires such as…

A senior Ukrainian military officer with deep ties to the country’s intelligence services played a central role in the bombing of the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines last year, according to officials in Ukraine and elsewhere in Europe, as well as other people knowledgeable about the details of the covert operation. The officer’s role provides the most direct evidence to date tying Ukraine’s military and security leadership to a controversial act of sabotage that has spawned multiple criminal investigations and…

Backgrounder. Imran Khan is a former Pakistani cricket player, politician, philanthropist, and prime minister of Pakistan (2018–22). He became a national hero by leading Pakistan’s national team to a Cricket World Cup victory in 1992 and later entered politics as a critic of government corruption in Pakistan. Khan’s calls for investigations into government corruption, along with supporting evidence released in the Panama Papers, led to the resignation of Nawaz Sharif, Pakistani businessman and politician who served as prime minister in…

Consider the source (and the timing)… No lesser deep-state mouthpiece than The Washington Post just dropped a bombshell with the revelation that Ukrainian Colonel Roman Chervinsky “was integral to the brazen sabotage operation” on the Nord Stream pipeline, “according to officials in Ukraine and elsewhere in Europe, as well as other people knowledgeable about the details of the covert operation.” The bombing, dubbed a “dangerous assault on Europe’s energy infrastructure” by US and Western officials at the time, marked a critical juncture in the ongoing…

Halifax, Canada — A dangerous encounter between a Chinese jet fighter and a Canadian helicopter over the South China Sea has called attention to Canada’s heightened interest in the Western Pacific, including participation in patrols through the disputed Taiwan Strait. In the October 29 incident, first reported by CNN, a helicopter was flying off the deck of the frigate HMCS Ottawa over international waters east of the Paracel Islands when the Chinese warplane began circling the helicopter, firing flares and at…

  A US nuclear-powered Ohio-class submarine is in the Middle East to help prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spiraling into a broader conflict, the Pentagon said Monday.   The US Central Command posted a picture of the submarine the day before on social media platform X that appeared to show it transiting Egypt’s Suez Canal. It is “now in the Fifth Fleet area of operations,” Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder told journalists, referring to an area that includes the…

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin pledged Monday in his first message to the force to forge ahead with plans to redefine the service as it faces a faster-paced, less-predictable era of war. Allvin’s letter — an initial blueprint for the newly installed leader as he begins a four-year term — indicates the chief will continue a multibillion-dollar technology modernization push and deployment reforms designed to best China and move on from two decades at war in the…

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned Russian national Ekaterina Zhdanova for laundering millions in cryptocurrency for various individuals, including ransomware actors. Zhdanova used her expertise in cryptocurrency and blockchain networks to move money through various platforms such as Garantex (sanctioned in April 2022 for aiding the Hydra Market) to evade “Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism” (AML/CFT) controls. A report from blockchain analysis firm Chainalisys provided additional information about Zhdanova’s public businesses, which may or may not be part of her…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s thinly veiled call to “go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and donkey” is being taken literally. ]Netanyahu declaring invasion: “You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible” 1 Samuel 15:3 “Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay…