[KhaamaPress] According to reports, the United States urged speeding up the visa process for Afghans who have worked for the U.S. government in Afghanistan.
The reports added that those Afghans who have worked with U.S. Government for the past 20 years, now reportedly their lives seem to be in danger after the withdrawal of foreign troops.
America plans to increase the number of visa services by five times in Afghanistan, Rooters reported.
Patrick Leahy ...Democrat Senator-for-Life from Vermont, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, source of more leaks than a plumber could keep up with... , United States Senator urged speeding up the Special Visas due to increases in Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... threats for Afghans who have worked with the U.S. government.
Rooters added that the United States plans to issue between 1,000 to 1,400 visas per month to vulnerable Afghans, but the embassy has issued only 237 visas in the past three months.
Because... ummm...
[ARABNEWS] Afghanistan is currently facing a fresh wave of coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... disease (COVID-19) cases, with much higher rates of infection and death compared to the last wave. The official statistics provided by the Ministry of Public Health are believed to be far less than the actual number of positive cases and fatalities, as only a very small percentage of the population actually reaches out to government hospitals for testing and treatment, given the poor condition of government-run health centers. Most people with symptoms visit private hospitals and clinics instead. The dilemma is that those with symptoms are less interested in getting tested for COVID-19 and instead seek treatment right away. Doctors usually prescribe antibiotics without a clear diagnosis, sometimes complicating patients’ conditions.
Afghanistan has a dysfunctional and inadequate healthcare system, in spite of the millions of dollars spent by the international community. There have been improvements, but they do not match the money spent. This relates to aid effectiveness and the Afghan government must take most of the blame for not being an efficient partner and failing to achieve the best results from the investments made in the health sector.
In recent years, the private health industry in Afghanistan has made some progress in terms of diagnostics and treatment, but it has a long way to go before it can gain the people’s trust. That is why most patients who can afford treatment abroad prefer traveling to Pakistain, India or even as far as The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... . This is also because of the extremely inadequate services in public hospitals and the poor track record of the private ones, which are considered less cost-effective than treatment abroad.
In Afghanistan, the focus has been more on hospital buildings than on expertise, equipment, diagnostics and the quality of drugs. Enhancing Afghanistan’s health sector is more complicated than is often assumed. It will require a multidimensional approach, from elementary schools to medical colleges, curricula, the knowledge and experience of academia, and proper policy and regulatory frameworks provided by the government. Afghanistan’s health sector cannot be promoted in isolation from other sectors like education and law enforcement. Poor regulations lead to low-quality medicines finding their way into the Afghan markets. Corruption provides a breeding ground for all the mismanagement in the health sector.
The government recently established the Food and Drug Authority and placed a competent technocrat at its head. However, denial ain't just a river in Egypt... without strong political will, a clear vision, a well-defined mandate and proper support from the country’s leadership, the desired results may not be achievable, as the establishment of such authorities in other sectors has failed to deliver in the past.
Last year, when the World Bank and other donors provided generous support in the form of a relief package to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19, there were reports of mismanagement, corruption and improper utilization of the aid money. The Afghan government last December launched a World Bank-sponsored national meals program to provide relief for the most vulnerable segments of society. It is very important for the government to ensure that such assistance reaches the most deserving if it is to restore its credibility.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/17/2021 00:00 ||
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[11124 views]
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I believe g(r)omgoru #1 comment had made the point.
But lets add to it... WIKI "2019 - Kabul, Afghanistan: United Nations Development Programme aids were attacked and one, Anil Raj, was killed.
An independent humanitarian research organization, Humanitarian Outcomes, conducted a survey revealing that in 2019, a record number of 277 major attacks took place against aid workers.
.... 483 aid workers were killed, kidnapped or wounded in that year, which was the highest number since 1997."
Not everybody wants the same Happily Ever After. This was not one I expected, but here’s hoping the Syrian refugees are as beneficial to their new home as Somalia is for them.
[Garowe] When the war broke out in Damascus and in its environs, many people may have expected Syrians to take refuge in Europe, America, or in the neighboring countries such as Jordan but this may not be entirely true.
Although a number of them may have flown to the aforementioned areas, a number of them chose Somalia, another country that has been engulfed in civil war, political unrest, and terrorism for many decades. It's not one of those destinations one would think of.
If you walk around the streets of Mogadishu, there is no doubt that you'll come across Ashamia restaurant, which is a popular eatery in Somalia, that is owned by a Syrian refugee. It's frequented by both Somalis and people from other diverse backgrounds.
Continued on Page 49
You could simply say 'because it's Ethiopia' and be done with it, but that would give these 2nd generation Robert Fisks at the Economist no chance to wonder aloud and broadcast their naivete.
[Economist] -
The Economist explains
Why has civil war returned to Ethiopia?
Ethnic divisions have thrown Africa’s second-most-populous country into renewed conflict
BY SOME RECKONINGS Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa. For a short while, under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, it looked as if it might become one of the most democratic. Not anymore. National elections, scheduled for June 21st, no longer herald progress. Abiy, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, now draws more international condemnation than praise. For more than six months, his federal government has been engaged in a bitter war against the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which until recently controlled the northern state of Tigray and previously dominated national politics. The conflict has fanned tensions among Ethiopia’s 80-plus ethnic groups and taken a frightful human toll. Why has civil war returned to Ethiopia?
The TPLF fired the first shots on November 4th, when its fighters attacked a base housing federal troops—to pre-empt an imminent attack from federal forces and their allies, it argued. In response, Abiy ordered air strikes and sent in ground forces. For the first few months of the conflict, a communications blackout made it difficult to know what was happening. Gradually the scale of the horror has emerged. Atrocities have been committed by all sides. Thousands of civilians are thought to have been killed, and millions more have been displaced, many over the border to Sudan. The raping of women has been widespread. And hunger has returned to Tigray, the site of a devastating famine in the 1980s. War and the alleged deliberate blocking of food deliveries have driven 350,000 people to the brink of starvation. That's all I can get that's not behind a paywall, but here's the tweet where some of the opinion pops out, a watered down version of 'they coulda been a contender with dat new Prime Minister'.
#1
They are not to blame. Civilization simply hasn't reached them yet. Send in a small survey group in another 1,000 years to conduct a re-assessment. In the meantime (as with most of the continent) don't get your hopes up.
#2
"Western Civilization" did reach them and take hold--in the form of the Soviet-backed Derg. That made an unusually bloody hash out of the local culture. The place wasn't always this bad.
Posted by: james ||
06/17/2021 12:46 Comments ||
Top||
[AlAhram] Egyptian authorities continued to keep the Rafah border crossing open to receive maimed Paleostinians and allow the delivery of humanitarian relief assistance into the Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip.
According to official sources Wednesday, the crossing will remain open to allow entry of relief materials into the Gaza Strip for the reconstruction of the impoverished Paleostinian enclave after the widespread destruction it witnessed due to last month’s Israeli onslaught.
A number of ambulances were on hand at the crossing to receive injured Paleostinians, including those at death's door, and move them to Egyptian hospitals for treatment, the sources said.
The crossing is open according to directives of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.
[All Africa] Several attacks in Côte d'Ivoire along the border with Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other... claimed the lives of six Ivorian soldiers in the past three months. Five others were maimed. These incidents have heightened fears of violent mostly peaceful extremism spreading in the country.
Ivorian authorities attribute the assaults to a group linked to Katiba Macina, affiliated with the Jamâ'ah Nusrah al-Islâm wal-Moslemîn (Group for the Support of Islam and Moslems).
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
06/17/2021 00:00 ||
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[11129 views]
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#1
"President Ouattara. Terrorism is no longer an external threat to us."
[YNet] - An Israeli officer who shot and killed an autistic Palestinian man in Jerusalem last summer will stand trial, Police's Department for Internal Investigations said Thursday.
Eyad Hallaq was fatally shot just inside Jerusalem's Old City on May 30 while he was on his way to the special-needs institution he was attending. He was 32 years old.
According to the indictment, while making his way to the location, Hallaq was asked by a Border Police officer to stop at a checkpoint and identify himself, but he did not respond. This prompted the officer to chase after the man and he was shortly joined by his commander and another officer - a defendant in the case.
They chased him into a nook and shot him, wounding the man, as he stood next to a garbage bin. Believing he was carrying a firearm, the officers approached the man and asked him to give them the weapon. Hallaq, who was still conscious, pointed at a teacher who was with him, who told the officers he wasn't armed.
Despite him being severely injured as a result of the shooting and not holding a weapon, the defendant fired another shot at his upper body, which ultimately lead to his death.
Hallaq’s teacher said she repeatedly cried out to police that he was "disabled" and tried in vain to stop the shooting. At least five bullet holes were seen in a wall of a small structure at the site.
The State Attorney's Office said that the incident is "hard and saddening," adding that the decision to indict the 20-year-old officer was made after a "thorough examination of the evidence, including the circumstances on the ground and the testimony of the officers." Trying to appease "international community" by sacrificing our children.
Kataib Hezbollah says it "joined regional equation established by Hassan Nasrallah on Jerusalem," because "Zionist barbarism not confined to Palestinian innocents, affected entire region. Zionists killed commanders fighting ISIS. Free Iraqis will defend their holy sites, Al-Aqsa" pic.twitter.com/UOpqlQpOe3
[IsraelTimes] In further breach of nuclear deal and amid talks on striking new agreement, spokesperson says Tehran has also stockpiled 108 kilograms of uranium enriched to 20% purity.
The development came amid talks between Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... and world powers in Vienna aimed at rebuilding the 2015 nuclear deal that put curbs on Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. Iran has been increasingly violating the terms of the deal since the Trump administration withdrew the United States from it in 2018.
"Under parliament’s law... the Atomic Energy Organization was supposed to produce 120 kg of 20 percent enriched uranium in a year. According to the latest report, we now have produced 108 kg of 20% uranium in the past five months," government front man Ali Rabiei was quoted as saying by state media, according to the Rooters news agency.
The United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... ’ atomic watchdog said last month that it had not been able to access data important to monitoring Iran’s nuclear program since late February, when the Islamic Theocratic Republic started restricting international inspections of its facilities.
The ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency made the comment in a report that estimated that as of May 22, Iran’s stockpile included 62.8 kilograms (138.5 pounds) of uranium enriched to 20% purity, and 2.4 kilograms enriched to 60% purity — well above the 3.67% purity allowed under the deal.
In the same IAEA report, the agency for the first time released estimates of Iran’s stockpile rather than precise figures, saying that the total stockpile was 3,241 kilograms (7,145 pounds), up about 273 kilograms (600 pounds) from the last quarterly report.
That was down from an increase of nearly 525 kilograms (1,157 pounds) reported in the previous quarterly report.
Though it was not immediately clear what led to the decrease, it came as a kaboom in April at Iran’s underground Natanz nuclear facility affected centrifuges there. Iran has yet to offer a full accounting of what happened in an attack it described as "nuclear terrorism." Israel, which is widely suspected of carrying out the assault, has not commented publicly on it.
The nuclear deal signed in 2015 with the United States, Germany, La Belle France, Britannia, China and Russia only permits Iran only to keep a total stockpile of 202.8 kilograms (447 pounds) of enriched uranium.
Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations and members of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... on Monday reaffirmed a commitment to stop Iran from making nuclear weapons, as diplomats from outside the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... cautioned that negotiations with the Islamic Theocratic Republic to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal still need more time.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/17/2021 02:28 ||
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#1
I pray to GOD, that the US State Dept has a long term plan to proper nip this in the bud. A plan that that calls for other than working with the N.E.A. and Islamic Radicals in prep'ing US kids to convert to Islam.
It would not surprise me to see the Socialist-Democrat party moving to embrace Islamic Radical Groups. Then calling for the "United Islamic States of America" (UISA) just for Votes and power.
#3
It's been a click bait ad for a while now: "Iran is this close to an atomic bomb..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/17/2021 9:31 Comments ||
Top||
#4
How close are those two Iranian Naval Vessels to Venezuela after Biden made feeble threatening utterances towards them a few days ago? Or have they already made Venezuelan port.
[ARABNEWS] Efforts to form a government and end the political stalemate gripping Leb ...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is 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. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers, a practice dating back to the heady human sacrifice days of Baal Moloch... reached a dead-end on Wednesday amid heated exchanges between President Michel Aoun ...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... and Parliament Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
06/17/2021 00:00 ||
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[11126 views]
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[ARABNEWS] A Lebanese woman hailed as a hero for confronting the widely despised MP Gebran Bassil ...arrogant, overbearing son-in-law of Michel Aoun, a Hezbollah suck-ass and wannabe Bashir al-Assad who plans on being president of what's left of Leb as soon as the old man's dead and the votes have been phonied up... , has vowed to remain defiant despite claiming her father was forced to apologize for her actions.
On Sunday, a video was widely shared of Yasmine Masri scuffling with bodyguards working for the head of the Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... [FPM] after she heckled him with a cry of "shame on you."
The brawl took place at a restaurant in Bassil’s home town of Batroun, northern Leb ...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is 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. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers, a practice dating back to the heady human sacrifice days of Baal Moloch... Masri said she was assaulted and had her phone broken by his security entourage but she told Arab News she was proud to confront Bassil. However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... she said her father had been "coerced into apologizing" for her the bust up.
On Tuesday, a photo of the MP and the 31-year-old woman’s father was published in Lebanese media along with a story saying he met Bassil and apologized for his daughter’s behavior.
Masri was having lunch with friends in a newly-opened restaurant in Batroun when she saw Bassil and his entourage.
Lebanese are furious with the ruling elite and blame them for plunging the country towards economic collapse.
As the son-in-law of Lebanese President Michel Aoun ...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... and a strong political ally of Iran-backed Hezbollah, Bassil in particular has come to symbolize the country’s corrupt self-serving politicians.
Last year, the US issued sanctions against him, accusing him of being "notorious for corruption."
Speaking to Arab News, Masri said Bassil "forced her father in to apologizing under threat, blackmailing and shaming him." She preferred not to give details of the nature of the blackmail.
"I have received physical threats," she said. "Just now, shortly before responding to this interview my mother called and asked me to stop; saying she doesn’t want to pick me up injured from a hospital."
But Masri, who like many young Lebanese is broiling with anger over the country’s plight, vowed not to stop expressing herself.
The food and drink manager was angered that Bassil had the audacity to show up in public as if he had no responsibility for the country’s woes.
Recounting what happened, she felt within her rights to shout "shame on you" in Arabic.
She said Bassil sent his bodyguards over to her and they threatened to beat her.
"I told them go ahead and they started beating me ... then I took back my phone and followed them and took a video. Then they beat me again and threw my phone on the floor and broke it," she added.
Masri said FPM supporters chased her for up to four hours around Batroun after the initial clash and would not let her leave the area.
"Batroun’s pompous blowhards [supporters of FPM and Bassil] were spitting at me, insulting me and threatening me all over the place," she said.
Masri describes herself as a politically-independent civil society activist, who became active during widespread anti-government protests in October 2019.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/17/2021 00:00 ||
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[ARABNEWS] Law enforcement agencies around the world have uncovered the extensive drug trafficking operations of Hezbollah and its affiliated groups and individuals. The main objective of its involvement in the narcotics trade is financial, to fund its expanding activities in Syria, Iraq, Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... and Leb ...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is 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. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers, a practice dating back to the heady human sacrifice days of Baal Moloch... itself. However,
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
06/17/2021 00:00 ||
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[11125 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
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.
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is 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. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers, a practice dating back to the heady human sacrifice days of Baal Moloch....jpg "Gebran Bassil")
...arrogant, overbearing son-in-law of Michel Aoun, a Hezbollah suck-ass and wannabe Bashir al-Assad who plans on being president of what's left of Leb as soon as the old man's dead and the votes have been phonied up...
