KABUL: An American-Canadian family released last week after five years in captivity were kidnapped by the Haqqani network in the Afghan province of Wardak and kept in Pakistan, the spokesmen for the Afghan defense and interior ministries said on Sunday.
Pakistan’s high commissioner to Canada said the elite Pakistani Special Services Group, acting on “real-time” intelligence from American sources, attacked the kidnappers as they moved the hostages across the border from Afghanistan.
“Pakistani commandos took action at the border and there was a shootout, and eventually (the hostages) were rescued,” Tariq Azim Khan told a Canadian media outlet on Thursday.
“One or two (of the kidnappers) escaped… and a search operation is still ongoing to catch them.”
But regarding the claim that the kidnappers had moved the hostages from Afghanistan, Gen. Dawlat Waziri, chief spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry, told Arab News: “We utterly deny this.”
Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danesh told Arab News: “There’s enough evidence to prove that they were in Pakistan since the time of their abduction.”
Waziri said Pakistan freed the hostages under the guise of rescuing them from kidnappers, in order to “reduce American and international pressure.”
According to media reports a few months ago, the US withheld $50 million in aid to Pakistan because it was allegedly doing too little to combat the terrorist organization that seized the hostages.
On Thursday, US President Donald Trump said the release of the family of five was “a positive moment for our country’s relationship with Pakistan.” The release came ahead of a meeting of senior US officials with Pakistani leaders, and the resumption of Afghan peace talks in Oman.
Representatives of Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and the US will take part in the talks, but there are no reports of the Taliban’s participation. Islamabad has been under pressure to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table.
Rape denied
In a related development, a Taliban spokesman denied on Sunday accusations by Joshua Boyle, the former hostage, that one of his children had been murdered and his wife raped while they were being held captive, according to a Reuters report.
Boyle told reporters soon after he, his wife, Caitlan Coleman, and their three children returned to Canada on Friday that their captors had murdered a fourth child and raped his wife.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid rejected that as propaganda by the Western governments that helped rescue the family.
“We strongly reject these fake and fabricated allegations of this Canadian family, now in the hands of the enemy,” he said in a statement sent to media.
“Whatever statement the enemy wants to put in their mouth, the family is forced to make it.” Boyle called on the Taliban to “provide my family with the justice we deserve.”
Mujahid said the couple was intentionally never separated in order to protect their safety. He also denied that their child had been murdered, but acknowledged that one child became sick and died.
“We were in a remote area without access to a doctor and medications that led to the loss of the child,” he said. Three children, all born in captivity, were rescued along with Boyle and Coleman.
The U.S. government calls the Haqqani network “the most lethal and sophisticated insurgent group” in Afghanistan.
Its operational chief, Sirajuddin Haqqani, was named deputy to the Taliban’s newly appointed leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour in 2015, cementing the ties between the groups.
The Haqqanis previously held U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who was freed in a swap for Taliban prisoners in 2014, and are suspected of holding two professors, an American and an Australian, who were kidnapped outside their university in Kabul in 2016.
A senior Afghan government official told Reuters that American and Afghan special forces launched two unsuccessful raids to try to rescue the professors in Afghanistan, but officials now believe the pair has been taken to Haqqani hideouts over the border in Pakistan. (Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Kabul rejects Pakistani account of hostage rescue
Kabul rejects Pakistani account of hostage rescue
Zelensky says Ukraine war will end ‘sooner’ with Trump in office
“It is certain that the war will end sooner with the policies of the team that will now lead the White House. This is their approach, their promise to their citizens,” Zelensky said in an interview with Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne.
Russian air defenses down Ukrainian drones in different regions
Russian air defense units intercepted a series of Ukrainian drones in several Russian regions, officials said, many of them in Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops launched a major incursion in August.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses downed 15 drones in Kursk region on the Ukrainian border. It said units downed one drone each in Bryansk region, also on the border, and in Lipetsk region, further north.
The ministry said one drone was downed in central Oryol region.
And the governor of Belgorod region, a frequent target on the Ukrainian border, said a series of attacks had smashed windows in an apartment building and caused other damage, but no casualties were reported.
The daughters of Malcolm X sue the CIA, FBI and NYPD over the civil rights leader’s assassination
- The NYPD and CIA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Nicholas Biase, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice, which was also sued, declined comment
NEW YORK: Three daughters of Malcolm X have accused the CIA, FBI, the New York Police Department and others in a $100 million lawsuit Friday of playing roles in the 1965 assassination of the civil rights leader.
In the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, the daughters — along with the Malcolm X estate — claimed that the agencies were aware of and were involved in the assassination plot and failed to stop the killing.
At a morning news conference, attorney Ben Crump stood with family members as he described the lawsuit, saying he hoped federal and city officials would read it “and learn all the dastardly deeds that were done by their predecessors and try to right these historic wrongs.”
The NYPD and CIA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Nicholas Biase, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice, which was also sued, declined comment. The FBI said in an email that it was its “standard practice” not to comment on litigation.
For decades, more questions than answers have arisen over who was to blame for the death of Malcolm X, who was 39 years old when he was slain on Feb. 21, 1965, at the Audubon Ballroom on West 165th Street in Manhattan as he spoke to several hundred people. Born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, Malcolm X later changed his name to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.
Three men were convicted of crimes in the death but two of them were exonerated in 2021 after investigators took a fresh look at the case and concluded some evidence was shaky and authorities had held back some information.
In the lawsuit, the family said the prosecution team suppressed the government’s role in the assassination.
The lawsuit alleges that there was a “corrupt, unlawful, and unconstitutional” relationship between law enforcement and “ruthless killers that went unchecked for many years and was actively concealed, condoned, protected, and facilitated by government agents,” leading up to the murder of Malcolm X.
According to the lawsuit, the NYPD, coordinating with federal law enforcement agencies, arrested the activist’s security detail days before the assassination and intentionally removed their officers from inside the ballroom where Malcolm X was killed. Meanwhile, it adds, federal agencies had personnel, including undercover agents, in the ballroom but failed to protect him.
The lawsuit was not brought sooner because the defendants withheld information from the family, including the identities of undercover “informants, agents and provocateurs” and what they knew about the planning that preceded the attack.
Malcolm X’s wife, Betty Shabazz, the plaintiffs, “and their entire family have suffered the pain of the unknown” for decades, the lawsuit states.
“They did not know who murdered Malcolm X, why he was murdered, the level of NYPD, FBI and CIA orchestration, the identity of the governmental agents who conspired to ensure his demise, or who fraudulently covered-up their role,” it states. “The damage caused to the Shabazz family is unimaginable, immense, and irreparable.”
The family announced its intention to sue the law enforcement agencies early last year.
Japan marks modern-day adventurer’s final stop on 46,000 km trek across Asia
- Omar Nok traveled the farthest he could in Asia without getting on a plane
TOKYO: Japan is seeing a record boom in tourism, but one recent visitor traveled more than the circumference of the earth to get there, using boats, trains, camels, and even hitchhiking.
Modern-day adventurer Omar Nok became a social media celebrity, attracting more than 750,000 Instagram followers, as he documented his circuitous 46,239 kilometer (28,732 miles) route from Egypt across a dozen countries without once boarding a plane.
“From when I was a little kid, before realizing what travel is, I already wanted to come to Japan,” Cairo native Nok, 30, said in an interview in Tokyo. “But for me, I don’t want to miss anything in between...so that’s the motivation to just go without flying to see as much as I can.”
The sharp weakening of the yen has made Japan a bargain travel destination, attracting nearly 27 million visitors in the nine months to September. It’s been an economic boon as well, with tourists spending 5.86 trillion yen ($37.58 billion) so far, a record.
For Nok, the country represented the furthest he could travel in Asia without getting a plane. He arrived by ferry in the southwestern city of Fukuoka last month and then meandered his way to Tokyo on Nov. 7, 274 days after leaving home. By comparison, a direct flight from Cairo to Tokyo takes about 12 hours.
The veteran traveler previously logged lengthy trips through Europe and the Americas, but nothing like this. The first day was the hardest, Nok said, when his father dropped him off at Red Sea port of Safaga to board a cargo boat for Saudi Arabia.
He was nervous about stepping into the unknown, venturing into central Asian countries where he didn’t speak the language and where few tourists tread. But armed with words of encouragement from his father, he stepped onto the ship, and his nerves melted away.
On his trek, he hitchhiked to Islam’s holy city of Makkah, sandboarded the dunes of Iran, broke down in the Tajikistan mountains in a purple Dodge Challenger driven by another adventurer, and crossed parts of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan riding horses and camels.
Previously a financial analyst for Amazon in Germany and Luxembourg, Nok funded his journey through savings and extremely frugal spending. His daily expenses came to about $25, although his entire two-week run through Afghanistan cost just $88, he said.
Throughout it all, Nok said he never felt in danger because generous strangers looked out for him wherever he found himself. That message resounded among his online fans as a welcome spark of hope at a time of war and political strife in much of the world.
“I’m always just moving around like locals would, and being in situations where locals would step in to help,” Nok said. “I think people wanted to see that positive side to all the countries that they only hear negative things about.”
At summit under Trump shadow, Xi and Biden signal turbulence ahead
- Xi Jinping raises concerns about “spreading unilateralism and protectionism”
- Biden says world had “reached a moment of significant political change”
LIMA: US President Joe Biden and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Friday warned of turbulent times ahead, in remarks at an Asia-Pacific economic summit in Lima overshadowed by Donald Trump’s impending return to the White House.
The men, who will hold their last, official face-to-face Saturday, warned separately of choppy waters as the world braces for the prospect of fresh trade wars after Trump assumes the presidency in January.
Xi raised concerns about “spreading unilateralism and protectionism,” China’s state news agency Xinhua reported.
He also cautioned against “fragmentation of the world economy” in a written speech prepared for a meeting of CEOs on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, Xinhua said.
Biden, for his part, said the world had “reached a moment of significant political change,” as he met the leaders of Japan and South Korea — key US allies in Asia.
The trilateral partnership, Biden said, was “built to last. That’s my hope and expectation.”
Xi and Biden are in the Peruvian capital for a two-day meeting of heads of state of the 21-member APEC group.
They separately met Friday with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who called for cooperation for the sake of “stability and peace in the region,” according to the Yonhap news agency.
China is an ally of North Korea, with which Seoul remains technically at war and whose leader Kim Jong Un has engaged in escalatory rhetoric and military posturing this year.
Biden, for his part, warned of North Korea’s “dangerous and destabilizing cooperation with Russia” amid growing concerns about nuclear-armed Pyongyang sending troops to fight in Ukraine.
APEC, created in 1989 with the goal of regional trade liberalization, represents about 60 percent of world GDP and more than 40 percent of global commerce.
The 2024 summit program was to focus on trade and investment for what proponents dubbed inclusive growth.
But uncertainty over Trump’s next moves clouds the agenda — as it does for the COP29 climate talks underway in Azerbaijan, and a G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro next week.
The Republican president-elect has signaled a confrontational approach to Beijing for his second term, threatening to impose tariffs of up to 60 percent on imports of Chinese goods to even out what he says is a trade imbalance.
Xi was not present for Friday’s summit opening, but Biden attended with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken — whom Trump has said he will seek to replace with Senator Marco Rubio, a China hawk.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Saturday’s Xi-Biden meeting will be an opportunity to “mark the progress that we’ve made in the relationship and also to manage it through this delicate period of transition.”
Competition with China, he told reporters on Air Force One Thursday, must be managed “so it doesn’t veer into conflict.”
Trump’s “America First” agenda is based on protectionist trade policies, increased domestic fossil fuel extraction and avoiding foreign conflicts.
It threatens alliances Biden has built on issues ranging from the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East to climate change and trade.
Economists say Trump’s threat of punitive tariffs would harm not only China’s economy but also that of the United States and its trading partners.
It could also threaten geopolitical stability.
China is building up its military capacity while ramping up pressure on self-governed Taiwan, which it claims as part of its territory.
China isn’t the only APEC economy in Trump’s crosshairs.
The incoming US leader has threatened tariffs of 25 percent or more on goods coming from Mexico unless it stops an “onslaught of criminals and drugs” crossing the border.
The APEC summit is also attended by Chile, Canada, Australia and Indonesia, among others.
Russia is additionally part of APEC but President Vladimir Putin was absent.
