Spain busts lucrative Chinese-Arab money laundering ring

Spain busts lucrative Chinese-Arab money laundering ring
Police in Spain say they have cracked a smuggling ring responsible for trafficking people from Syria to Europe via Sudan. (AP/File)
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Updated 15 May 2025
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Spain busts lucrative Chinese-Arab money laundering ring

Spain busts lucrative Chinese-Arab money laundering ring
  • Police said the investigation began after the dismantling of a migrant-trafficking gang
  • Police arrested 17 mostly Chinese and Syrian suspects in January

MADRID: Spanish police on Thursday said they had broken up a Chinese-Arab ring that laundered $21 million of proceeds from people and drug trafficking through the informal “hawala” money transfer system.

Police said the investigation began after the dismantling of a migrant-trafficking gang transporting mostly Syrians between Algeria and Spain, which led to a probe into their finances.

An Arab branch of the network “took charge of the reception of money in any part of the world,” while a separate Chinese branch supplied the cash in Spain in exchange for cryptocurrencies.

Police arrested 17 mostly Chinese and Syrian suspects in January — 15 in Spain, one in Austria and another in Belgium — said EU law enforcement agency Europol which supported the operation.

The network’s Belgium-based leader had “Jordanian-Palestinian nationality” and facilitated contacts within Spain, police chief inspector Encarna Ortega told a press conference in Madrid.

He is suspected of coordinating a litany of operations, mainly laundering money from the proceeds of trafficking humans and drugs, she added.

In total, the suspects moved $21 million between June 2022 and September 2024, Spanish police said.

Authorities seized from them 205,000 euros ($229,000) in cash, more than 183,000 euros in cryptocurrency, 18 vehicles, real estate property and illegal cigars worth more than 600,000 euros destined for sale in China.

Hawala is traditional system of moving money between countries based on confidence and a network of intermediaries with minimal paperwork which is popular in parts of Asia and Africa.

The method is especially common among migrant workers who send remittances to their families, but it has also been linked with financing terrorism.


UK PM Starmer says situation in Gaza ‘getting worse by the day’

UK PM Starmer says situation in Gaza ‘getting worse by the day’
Updated 4 sec ago
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UK PM Starmer says situation in Gaza ‘getting worse by the day’

UK PM Starmer says situation in Gaza ‘getting worse by the day’
  • “The situation is intolerable in Gaza, and getting worse by the day,” Starmer told reporters in Scotland, when asked whether the UK would take any action over the issue
LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Monday that the situation in Gaza was getting “worse by the day” and that it was important to ensure the Palestinian enclave receives more humanitarian aid urgently.
“The situation is intolerable in Gaza, and getting worse by the day,” Starmer told reporters in Scotland, when asked whether the UK would take any action over the issue.
“Which is why we are working with allies ... to be absolutely clear that humanitarian aid needs to get in at speed and at volumes that it is not getting in at the moment, causing absolute devastation,” he added.

Pakistan’s anti-polio drive suffers a blow after a northern enclave reports first case in 7 years

Pakistan’s anti-polio drive suffers a blow after a northern enclave reports first case in 7 years
Updated 3 min 37 sec ago
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Pakistan’s anti-polio drive suffers a blow after a northern enclave reports first case in 7 years

Pakistan’s anti-polio drive suffers a blow after a northern enclave reports first case in 7 years

PESHAWAR: Pakistan efforts to eliminate polio suffered another blow on Monday after a northern enclave reported its first case in seven years. Overall, it was the country’s 11th case since January, despite the launch of several immunization drives.
The virus was detected in a child from the district of Diamer in the Gilgit-Baltistan region, according to the country’s polio eradication program.
Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan remain the only two countries where the spread of the wild polio virus has not been stopped, according to the World Health Organization. There are ongoing outbreaks of polio linked to the oral vaccine in 10 other countries, mostly in Africa.
The new case was reported after Pakistan on Sunday wrapped up its third nationwide polio vaccination drive of the year, aiming to immunize 45 million children.
Mohammad Iqbal, a director at the polio program in the northwest, said local health officials were still trying to determine how the poliovirus that was found in the southern port city of Karachi had infected the child in Diamer.
During the summer season, thousands of tourists from Karachi and elsewhere visit tourist resorts in Gilgit-Baltistan.
Pakistan’s polio eradication program has been running anti-polio campaigns for years, though health workers and the police assigned to protect them are often targeted by militants who falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Since the 1990s, attacks on polio vaccination teams have killed more than 200 workers and security personnel.


Zelensky arrives in Vilnius for Nato eastern flank summit

Zelensky arrives in Vilnius for Nato eastern flank summit
Updated 29 min 28 sec ago
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Zelensky arrives in Vilnius for Nato eastern flank summit

Zelensky arrives in Vilnius for Nato eastern flank summit
  • The summit brings together the Bucharest Nine, the alliance’s members across eastern and central Europe — with its Nordic members, Zelensky and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte

VILNIUS: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived Monday in Vilnius for a summit with the leaders of NATO’s eastern and Nordic members, who are some of Kyiv’s staunchest backers amid the Russian invasion.
The military alliance has bolstered its eastern defenses since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, with Finland and Sweden also overhauling decades of security policy to join the alliance.
The summit brings together the Bucharest Nine — the alliance’s members across eastern and central Europe — with its Nordic members, Zelensky and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
Zelensky’s spokesman said he would hold “bilateral meetings” on the sidelines of the summit in the Lithuanian capital.
It comes ahead of a full NATO summit later in June in The Hague to which Zelensky has demanded he be invited to.
“If Ukraine is not present at the NATO summit, it will be a victory for Putin, but not over Ukraine, but over NATO,” he said last week.
Zelensky wants NATO to offer security guarantees to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire or peace deal with Russia — something Moscow has called “unacceptable.”
NATO’s eastern members have been some of the strongest backers of Ukraine since Russia invaded and have repeatedly warned about the prospect of Moscow stepping up its aggression.
Baltic states Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia are former Soviet republics, now EU members, that fear they are in Moscow’s crosshairs.
US President Donald Trump has heaped pressure on NATO’s European members to increase their defense spending, sparking fears about the US commitment to protect the continent.


UK PM: We can’t ignore Russian threat

UK PM: We can’t ignore Russian threat
Updated 56 min 29 sec ago
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UK PM: We can’t ignore Russian threat

UK PM: We can’t ignore Russian threat
  • Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that Britain must boost its readiness to fight a modern war

LONDON: Britain cannot ignore the threat posed by Russia, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Monday, ahead of the publication of a strategic defense review that is expected to call for greater readiness to fight a modern war.

“We cannot ignore the threat that Russia poses. We’ve seen what’s happened in Ukraine just over three years ago,” Starmer told the BBC, when asked if Britain would have to send troops to fight in a future European conflict.

The United Kingdom will build new nuclear-powered attack submarines and create an army ready to fight a war in Europe as part of a boost to military spending designed to send a message to Moscow — and Washington.

“We have to recognize the world has changed,” Starmer told the BBC. “With greater instability than there has been for many, many years, and greater threats.”

Deterring Russia

NATO chief Mark Rutte says leaders of the 32 member countries will debate a commitment to spend at least 3.5 percent of GDP on defense when they meet in the Netherlads this month.

Like other NATO members, the UK has been reassessing its defense spending since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia is attacking the UK daily, with 90,000 cyberattacks from state-linked sources directed at the UK’s defense over the last two years. A cyber command to counter such threats is expected to be set up as part of the review.

Bolstering Europe’s defenses

European countries, led by the UK and France, have scrambled to coordinate their defense posture as Trump transforms American foreign policy, seemingly sidelining Europe as he looks to end the war in Ukraine. Trump has long questioned the value of NATO and complained that the US provides security to European countries that don’t pull their weight.

Robert Jenrick, justice spokesman for the main opposition Conservative Party, called on the government to be more ambitious and raise spending to 3 percent of national income by 2029.

“We think that 2034 is a long time to wait, given the gravity of the situation,” he told Sky News.


At least 34 dead in India’s northeast after heavy floods

At least 34 dead in India’s northeast after heavy floods
Updated 02 June 2025
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At least 34 dead in India’s northeast after heavy floods

At least 34 dead in India’s northeast after heavy floods
  • More than a thousand tourists trapped in the Himalayan state of Sikkim were being evacuated
  • Authorities have warned of further landslides and flash floods

BHUBANESWAR/DHAKA: At least 34 people have died in India’s northeastern region after heavy floods caused landslides over the last four days, authorities and media said on Monday, and the weather department predicted more heavy rain.

More than a thousand tourists trapped in the Himalayan state of Sikkim were being evacuated on Monday, a government statement said, and army rescue teams were pressed into service in Meghalaya state to rescue more than 500 people stranded in flooded areas.

In neighboring Bangladesh, at least four members of a family were killed in a landslide in the northeastern district of Sylhet, while hundreds of shelters have been opened across the hilly districts of Rangamati, Bandarban, and Khagrachhari on Sunday.

Authorities have warned of further landslides and flash floods, urging residents in vulnerable areas to remain alert.

India’s northeast and Bangladesh are prone to torrential rains that set off deadly landslides and flash floods, affecting millions of people every year.

Roads and houses in Assam’s Silchar city were flooded, visuals from news agency ANI showed, and fallen trees littered the roads.

“We are facing a lot of challenges. I have a child, their bed is submerged in water. What will we do in such a situation? We keep ourselves awake throughout the night,” Sonu Devi, a resident of Silchar, told ANI.