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Italian envoy to push aid for Afghan refugees on regional trip

AFP

Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio will from Friday visit Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Qatar and Pakistan in a bid to assist Afghan refugees, the government said.

The trip comes “within the framework of international initiatives undertaken by Italy in the face of the Afghan crisis and its consequences on the population”, a foreign ministry statement said.

Di Maio would focus on the fate of refugees and displaced Afghans and seek “solutions to facilitate, with bordering countries, humanitarian assistance for Afghan refugees in the countries of the region”.

In Doha, Di Maio “will thank the local authorities for the fundamental assistance rendered to Italy in the evacuation operations from Afghanistan”.

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The visit will enable parties to “confirm the joint commitment to the struggle against terrorism”, it added.

Qatar said on Thursday it was working with the Taliban to quickly reopen Kabul’s airport, whose closure since the departure of US troops could pose major strategic and humanitarian challenges.

The Gulf country landed the first foreign aircraft in the Afghan capital on Wednesday, a day after frenzied evacuations ended with the American withdrawal.

A flight from Qatar reached Kabul on Thursday, carrying experts who will examine security and operational aspects at the airport, according to a source close to the matter.

Doha, where the Taliban has a political office, has hosted a flurry of talks between the US, Taliban and the former Afghan government.

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Italy, one of the five countries most involved with NATO’s “Resolute Support” Mission in Afghanistan, along with the United States, Turkey, Britain and Germany, said it evacuated nearly 5,000 Afghans following the Taliban takeover at the end of August.

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FBI Most Wanted Fugitive Arrested in Mexico and Deported to U.S.

Authorities in Mexico announced Thursday that Samuel Ramírez Jr., a U.S. citizen accused of murdering two women and listed among the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, was arrested in the northern state of Sinaloa.

Ramírez Jr., 33, was detained Tuesday in Culiacán just 1 hour and 13 minutes after being added to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Ten Most Wanted list, the agency said in a statement.

The suspect, who was born in California, has already been deported to the U.S. state of Washington, where he faces charges related to the fatal shooting of two women at a bar in Federal Way in May 2023.

A court issued an arrest warrant for Ramírez in November last year, and the FBI initially offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to his capture, later increasing the amount to up to $1 million.

“To protect individuals’ privacy and ensure continued cooperation from the public, the FBI does not confirm the identity of those who provide information,” the agency said in its statement.

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UN experts warn Nicaragua runs vast transnational network to monitor exiled dissidents

Nicaragua maintains an “extensive” transnational network to monitor and intimidate opposition figures living in exile, affecting “hundreds of thousands” of people, the United Nations Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua warned on Tuesday.

In a statement, the experts said their report “details an extensive transnational architecture of surveillance and intelligence used to monitor, intimidate and attack the hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans living abroad.”

The report, which will be presented on March 16 to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, states that the structure maintained by the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo includes the army, the police, migration authorities and diplomatic missions.

According to the statement, “the government has arbitrarily stripped 452 Nicaraguans of their nationality, left thousands more exiled in a situation of de facto statelessness, and prevented many from returning to Nicaragua.”

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Trump: ‘We Think It’s True’ Amid Claims Iran’s Supreme Leader Was Killed

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he believes multiple reports claiming the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during the U.S. and Israeli offensive against the Islamic Republic are likely true, though he stopped short of confirming the news.

“We have a feeling that the information is correct,” he said, according to NBC News. “I don’t want to say anything definitive until I see it, but we think that’s the case. And many of their leaders have disappeared,” he added.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there were “many indications” that Khamenei had died in an attack on his residential compound.