[Khaama (Afghanistan)] In a meeting today with the officials of private universities, the Acting Minister of Higher Education expressed his optimism on the exercise of baring female students from universities, saying, "there has been no opposition to the education of girls as per the recent decree of this ministry"
The minister assured the officials of the private universities in solving the many challenges they are faced with. He further added the current administration is not opposing the education of the new generation but believes in developing a comprehensive system in accordance with the Islamic Sharia and the national values of the country. "Otherwise they'll start thinking for themselves and wearing pants and stuff"
This happens as the Ministry of Higher Education on Wednesday, December 21, announced a decree banning girls’ university education in public and private universities, accompanied by worldwide condemnations — calling for revoking the act and allowing Afghan women and girls to access education and work.
In order to overcome the problems of the private universities, Mr. Nadim spoke of forming a joint commission between the Ministry of Higher Education and private university professors — reiterating these sectors should prepare in accordance with the legal provisions of the ministry.
To sympathize with female university students and protest against the gender-based apartheid policy of the ruling regime, a number of male students from private and public universities have gone on strike, chanting the slogan "education for all or none". Additionally, to show solidarity with Afghan women being deprived of getting an education, some university lecturers have resigned from their positions.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2022 00:00 ||
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#1
Could somebody ask him if men can get pregnant? I want to drop a plumb line to see if he is woke.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/27/2022 11:33 Comments ||
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[ToloNews] The Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MoIC) said that Afghanistan has exported dried fruits worth of $270 Million over the past 9 months.
The MoIC said more facilities provided will be provided to investors to improve the export of dried fruits to other countries.
The dry fruits that have been sent to various countries include pine nuts, pistachio and raisins.
"We have had several shipments of export. We had exports to Europe, Canada and Australia which showed a sharp rise compared to the previous year," said Akhundzada Abdul Salam, a front man for the MoIC.
The Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Investment (ACCI) said the Afghan dried fruits are still being exported at high costs, but efforts are underway to decrease the costs.
According to ACCI, Afghan dried fruits have been exported to the US and Europe.
"We want to provide further facilities and ways of exporting our fruits through the air corridor and other options," said Mohammad Yunus Mohmand, the acting head of the ACCI.
Investors said the Islamic Emirate should activate the air corridor so that they can export more products abroad.
"Unfortunately, today, our export with many countries has been facing a lot of problems including lack of business relations, banking system, and even challenges within air corridor," said Zalmay Azimi, an investor.
Earlier, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce said that more than 3,000 tons of pine nuts have been exported to other countries in the past eight months.
They’ve done so before, but then discovered how lucrative the trade is. And that Pakistan’s ISI is involved.
[ToloNews] The Ministry of Interior reported that poppy cultivation has been banned nationwide since the establishment of the Islamic Emirate and that no one is allowed to farm poppy on their lands.
Preventing the cultivation of poppy is part of the counter-narcotics campaign of the ministry, said Nafi Takor, front man for the ministry.
"The Ministry of Interior has been fighting in the field of poppy cultivation and trafficking for a year and the fight will continue to avoid this bad phenomenon," he said.
Following the issuance of the decree banning the cultivation of poppy, some farmers said that cotton production is a good alternative to cultivating poppy and requested assistance from the Islamic Emirate in this respect.
"Last year, farmers cultivated poppy but this year, they haven’t," said Raz Mohammad, a farmer.
"We started cotton cultivation when poppy farming was banned. Over the past 10 days, the price of cotton has dropped from 1,000 Afs to 800 Afs," said Ata Mohammad, a farmer.
Analysts said that poppy cultivation is still underway in Afghanistan and the government should stop it.
Earlier, the United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... reported that 85 percent of the world’s opium is currently produced in Afghanistan and there is no obstacle to its smuggling.
#1
Pushing for substitutive economic aid?
Still a huge market but the organic opioid craze is shifting to fentanyl which can be manufactured cheaper in greater volume with 'better' quality controls, closer to the point of consumption.
#5
I ran across a remark, don't remember when or where, that suggested Biden's abrupt AFG pullout was caused by the rise in popularity of fentanyl as the heroin trade was no longer economically sustainable.
#8
On a destroyer in the 90’s I spent some time in the Caribbean tracking obvious drug runners on my surface search radar. It seemed like if they handed me the firing key to the harpoon console, I could make the War on Drugs a whole lot more interesting and successful in about 15 minutes. At the time I understood that my fantasy fell apart because executing people through summary justice was not the American Way, which hadn’t been cancelled at that time.
The idea that it is not part of the American Way to summarily whack people seems a whole lot less sure 30 odd years down the pike.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/27/2022 12:36 Comments ||
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[ToloNews] At least four international organizations have suspended their operations in Afghanistan in the wake of the Islamic Emirate’s ban on female staff members from working in non-governmental organizations.
Norwegian Refugee Council, Save the Children, Care Organization and International Rescue Committee are those international organizations that have suspended their operations so far.
"We cannot effectively reach children, women, and men in desperate need in Afghanistan without our female staff," said NRC.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth ordered the entire 614th quadrant searched. The Green Lensman must be found!... Save the Children said that beyond the impact on the delivery of lifesaving assistance, this will affect thousands of jobs in the midst of an enormous economic crisis.
"Whilst we gain clarity on this announcement, we are suspending our programmes, demanding that men and women can equally continue our lifesaving assistance in Afghanistan," Save the Children said.
Care International Organization in Afghanistan expressed deep concern about the Islamic Emirate’s decision to ban women from working in NGOs.
"Without women aid workers, NGOs may not be able to reach women, girls, & families, cutting access to aid for half of a population already suffering from a hunger crisis," said the organization.
"For IRC our ability to deliver services rely on the female staff at all levels of our organization. If we are not allowed to employ women, we are not able to deliver to those in need. Therefore, the IRC is currently suspending our services in Afghanistan," the International Rescue Committee in Afghanistan announced stopped their activities.
A number of organizations Islamic Relief, UNICEF, and MSF Afghanistan, announced that without their female staff they are not able to do work.
The Ministry of Economy in a statement on Saturday ordered all national and international non-government organizations to suspend their female staff members until the next announcement.
The announcement of the Islamic Emirate faced widespread reactions at national and international levels.
Christian Aid on Monday became the fifth foreign aid group to suspend operations in Afghanistan after the country's Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... rulers ordered all NGOs to stop women staff from working.
The UK charity was "rapidly seeking clarity on this announcement and urging the authorities to reverse the ban", head of global program Ray Hasan said in a statement.
"Whilst we do this, we are unfortunately pausing the work of our program," he added.
[AlAhram] A Tunisian rights group condemned Sunday a "repressive and inhumane" government decision to deport a group of migrants colonists who had been evacuated from a defunct refugee camp.
The 25 men from Egypt, Niger, Nigeria and Sudan had sought asylum in Tunisia after fleeing violence in neighbouring Libya in 2011, but their requests were denied, said Romdhane Ben Amor of the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights (FTDES).
He said their repatriation would "put their lives at risk".
The Tunisian cabinet approved on Friday the expulsion "as soon as possible of a group of migrants colonists residing illegally in Tunisia", the government said in a statement.
Since 2017, the migrants colonists have been living in a youth centre in Marsa, a suburb of the capital Tunis, "hindering its activities" by "categorically refusing to leave", it added.
The group, aged 30 to 32, moved to the youth centre after being evacuated from the Choucha refugee camp in southern Tunisia, FTDES said in statement Sunday, expressing its "indignation at the repressive and inhumane decision by the government".
The FTDES "warns against any attempts to forcefully impose a solution on a vulnerable group that has suffered for more than 10 years", it said.
It urged civil society groups to mobilise against "discriminatory policies" that affect undocumented migrants colonists, who have also been "neglected by United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... agencies and the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... The UN refugee agency UNHCR opened the Choucha camp in early 2011 to shelter those fleeing conflict amid the fall of Libya's former leader Moamer Qadaffy.
At its peak, Choucha hosted around 18,000 refugees.
But in 2013, UNHCR decided the close the camp while hundreds of its remaining residents were awaiting resettlement in third countries.
Some have left Tunisia, while others were offered accommodations in cities in the North African nation.
Several dozen migrants colonists refused to leave Choucha, demanding their asylum requests be granted. They were finally removed in 2017.
If we could just get them to stop eating bugs, and each other. [C4ISRnet] An upcoming military exercise involving U.S. Africa Command and more than a dozen countries will for the first time feature elements of cyber.
The Justified Accord 23 event, or JA 23, kicks off in mid-February and will allow the U.S. military to work with African forces on matters tied to the digital domain, a highly influential and contested space, the Army announced Dec. 21.
Specifically, time will be spent sharpening incident detection, intelligence collection, containment and eradication abilities. Participants include Kenya and Uganda.
“Cyberspace is an increasingly important aspect of our daily lives and it effects both our civilian and military operations,” Lt. Col. Kendra Tippett, with the Army Southern European Task Force, Africa, said in a statement. “It is critical we understand the threats in cyberspace and effectively defend against them.”
Justified Accord is an annual multinational training meant to improve readiness, promote stability and foster international partnerships, including through civic or humanitarian projects. While the Pentagon pours countless resources into competition with China and Russia, it is also keeping an eye on the African continent, a hotbed for militant groups such as al-Qaida, al-Shabaab, Boko Haram and the Lord’s Resistance Army.
“Working together in cyberspace with our African partners and sharing our best practices will ultimately enhance our ability to defend against malign actors who seek to degrade critical infrastructure and impede military and civilian operations,” Tippett said.
Hackers have long targeted the U.S. military and its contractors in an attempt to blunt effectiveness on the battlefield and siphon sensitive information that could assist technological development.
Foreign militaries and companies face the same hazards.
“Cyber threats have become part of everyday life, and Africa is not immune,” Bruce Barry, Army Cyber Command exercise planner, said in a statement. “The more we exchange cybersecurity best practices with our African partner nations, the better we and our partners will be postured to protect both civilian and military networks that are critical to our combined security.”
[Rudaw] A spokesperson for the Iraqi army on Monday revealed that they had killed over 200 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.... (ISIS) fighters only in 2022.
Major General Tahsin al-Khafaji, spokesperson for the Joint Operations Command, told Rudaw on Monday that "the number of ISIS fighters in Iraq is low and those existing are Iraqis." He added that the group has exploited the security gas between the Iraqi army and Kurdish Peshmerga forces in disputed areas.
"Over 200 snuffies have been killed through aerial attacks, with most of them being ISIS leaders," said the spokesperson.
Several Iraqi soldiers were killed in two separate attacks by ISIS in Kirkuk and Diyala recently.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/27/2022 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] IDF and police field commanders tell ToI they have managed to foil around 80% of attempts this year, seizing nearly 500 guns; but along the eastern frontier, challenges persist.
In the past year, the Israel Police and the Israel Defense Forces, with some assistance from the Shin Bet security agency, have managed to foil dozens of smuggling attempts along the 309-kilometer (192-mile) border Jordan shares with Israel and the West Bank, counting over 480 weapons seized.
For comparison, in 2020 and 2021 combined, just 276 firearms were seized along the eastern border, Lt. Col. Amichai Hod, the commander of the Lions of the Jordan Battalion, told The Times of Israel during a tour of the border last month.
Unlike Israel’s other frontiers — with Egypt, Lebanon Hezbollahstan ...the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity™, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade... , and Syria — its border with Jordan is relatively unguarded due to its sheer length, and lacks significant fencing in many areas, making it an obvious channel for large-scale smuggling.
Hod’s battalion is part of the IDF’s Jordan Valley Brigade, which is tasked with defending about 150 kilometers of the eastern frontier, from the northern part of the Dead Sea in the West Bank to the Hamat Gader hot springs in the Golan Heights. This stretch is thought to be where most smuggling incidents occur, due to its proximity to both Jordanian and Paleostinian towns.
The IDF’s Yoav Brigade, meanwhile, is responsible for the sparsely populated southern section, from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea resort city of Eilat, where few smuggling attempts are recorded.
Officials say the weapons that make it over the border — likely tens of thousands over the past decade — have fueled a surge in violence in the Arab community, and have been used by Paleostinian turbans shooting at soldiers and civilians in the West Bank at almost unprecedented levels in recent months.
[An Nahar] Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... chief Jebran Bassil has recently met with Marada Movement the personal militia of Suleiman Franjieh, president of Lebanon at the outbreak of the civil war, currently Syrian toadies, but you never know when that could change... chief Suleiman Franjieh and caretaker PM Najib Mikati despite the political campaigns he has waged against them in recent weeks, a media report said on Monday.
"Bassil did not hesitate to fulfill the request of a common friend by meeting his invitation to have lunch with Mikati at his banquet and later to meet with Franjieh," Asharq al-Awsat newspaper quoted a political source as saying.
The source identified the common friend as a businessman who had previously sponsored similar meetings.
"Bassil met with Mikati on December 15, on the eve of the consultative ministerial meeting that he (the caretaker PM) hosted the next day at the Grand Serail," the source said.
If confirmed, the meeting between Franjieh and Bassil would be the first between them since the iftar banquet that they attended in Ramadan at an invitation from Hezbollah chief Sayyed His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah ...The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... , prior to the May 15 parliamentary elections.
According to the report, the Mikati-Bassil meeting ended without positive results and the dispute between them over the powers of the caretaker cabinet has continued.
Bassil’s meeting with Franjieh was meanwhile limited to "exchanging views over a number of issues" without tackling the presidential file.
"It was Franjieh who suggested keeping the presidential elections file out of the agenda of the meeting that gathered him with Bassil, because he does not intend to take unilateral steps after having entrusted Nasrallah with coordinating with Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri ...Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the Amal Shiite party aligned with Hezbollah, a not very subtle sock puppet of the Medes and Persians... over the presidential file," the source added.
Bassil had confirmed Sunday upon leaving the Christmas Day mass in Bkirki that he has been "making a lot of meetings" that the press is not knowing about.
"You have busted us with only a few ones," Bassil told news hounds.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2022 00:00 ||
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[Rudaw] Mazloum Abdi, general commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Monday warned that the 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.... (ISIS) is making "dangerous preparations" in Raqqa city following a recent deadly attack against the SDF by the terrorist group.
Abdi said that ISIS attacked his forces in Raqqa city early Monday, killing six fighters and injuring many others.
"These moves by the snuffies coincide with the ongoing Ottoman Turkish threats to target the security and stability of the region," added the commander, referring to Ankara’s latest aerial offensive against the SDF in Rojava. The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund... has also threatened to carry out a ground campaign.
ISIS grabbed credit for the attack in Raqqa on Monday, saying six SDF fighters were killed and 10 others were maimed.
"Information received from Raqqa indicates dangerous preparations by ISIS cells. We must not tolerate it," warned Abdi.
SDF temporarily paused anti-ISIS operations late November after Turkey launched its latest operation. It has resumed military activities against the group, including joint patrols with the global coalition against ISIS.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/27/2022 00:00 ||
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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.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] In a meeting today with the officials of private universities, the Acting Minister of Higher Education expressed his optimism on the exercise of baring female students from universities, saying, "there has been no opposition to the education of girls as per the recent decree of this ministry"
[ToloNews] At least four international organizations have suspended their operations in Afghanistan in the wake of the Islamic Emirate’s ban on female staff members from working in non-governmental organizations.
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
[C4ISRnet] An upcoming military exercise involving 
...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 
...the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity™, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade...
...Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the Amal Shiite party aligned with Hezbollah, a not very subtle sock puppet of the Medes and Persians...
...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund...
