VIRGINIA, USA: Four crew members from an unflagged ship that US officials say was carrying Iranian-made missile components to Houthis in Yemen are scheduled to appear Tuesday in federal court in Virginia, where prosecutors are expected to argue they should be held without bond while they await trial.
US Navy SEALs and the US Coast Guard boarded the vessel in January in the Arabian Sea in the wake of continued Houthi attacks on commercial and military ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Two Navy SEALs drowned during the Jan. 11 operation. US officials said Navy Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Christopher J. Chambers slipped into the gap created by high waves between the vessel and the SEALs’ combatant craft.
As Chambers fell, Navy Special Warfare Operator 2nd Class Nathan Gage Ingram jumped in to try to save him, according to US officials familiar with what happened. The SEAL who jumped in after the other operator in a rescue attempt was following protocol, according to court documents.
Efforts to find and rescue the two SEALs were unsuccessful. They were later declared dead by the US Navy.
The man who captained the unflagged vessel, Muhammad Pahlawan, refused to slow the ship when the US Navy began its boarding attempt and “shouted for the crew to burn the boat before the Navy could board it,” according to court documents filed in the federal court in Richmond.
The ship was described in court documents as a dhow.
“Rather than turn the engine off, however, Pahlawan told crewmembers not to stop the dhow while the Navy was approaching,” court documents stated. “In fact, Pahlawan tried to make the dhow go faster. Finally, another crewmember, not Pahlawan, stepped up to the engine and stopped the boat.”
During a search of the ship, US forces found and seized Iranian-made advanced conventional weaponry, including critical parts for medium-range ballistic missiles and anti-ship cruise missiles, a warhead, and propulsion and guidance components, an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit. The agent said the items found are consistent with weaponry used by Houthi forces in recent attacks on merchant ships and US military ships.
The affidavit quoted US Central Command, which stated that it was the first seizure of “Iranian-supplied advanced conventional weapons” to the Houthis since their strikes began in November.
“Initial analysis indicates these same weapons have been employed by the Houthis to threaten and attack innocent mariners,” the FBI agent wrote, quoting Central Command.
The Houthis have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea and surrounding waters over Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. They have frequently targeted vessels with tenuous or no clear links to Israel, imperilling shipping in a key route for trade among Asia, the Mideast and Europe.
The four crew members scheduled to appear Tuesday in US District Court were all carrying Pakistani identification cards, according to court documents.
Pahlawan, the alleged captain, is charged with attempting to smuggle advanced missile components, including a warhead he is accused of knowing would be used by the Houthis against commercial and naval vessels. He is also charged with providing false information to US Coast Guard officers during the boarding of the vessel.
Pahlawan’s codefendants — Mohammad Mazhar, Ghufran Ullah and Izhar Muhammad — were also charged with providing false information.
Specifically, the men lied about Pahlawan’s identity as captain, the weapons on board and the ship’s departure from Iran, court documents stated. The men had claimed their voyage’s origin was Pakistan.
Their attorneys have declined to comment.
Another 10 crew members are being detained under the federal material witness law. It allows courts to issue warrants for the arrest and detention of a person if their testimony is “material in a criminal proceeding,” and if it “may become impracticable to secure the presence of the person by subpoena.”
The FBI affidavit states that crew members had been in contact multiple times by satellite phone with a member of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
Four charged with transporting Iranian-made weapons face detention hearings in US court
https://arab.news/rqs8y
Four charged with transporting Iranian-made weapons face detention hearings in US court
- The man who captained the unflagged vessel, Muhammad Pahlawan, refused to slow the ship when the US Navy began its boarding attempt
- “Rather than turn the engine off, however, Pahlawan told crewmembers not to stop the dhow while the Navy was approaching,” court documents stated
Mozambique votes in election likely to keep ruling party in power
- Poverty is the major concern for Mozambique’s 35 million people, half of whom are registered to vote
- Counting will start after the polls close but official results can take up to two weeks
Poverty is the major concern for Mozambique’s 35 million people, half of whom are registered to vote, along with an Islamist insurgency in the north that has forced thousands to flee their homes and halted multi-billion-dollar gas projects.
The favorite among four candidates vying to replace President Filipe Nyusi, as he steps down after serving two terms, is Daniel Chapo, 47, a lawyer viewed as a safe choice for business and a fresh face for the long-ruling party.
Accompanied by his wife, Chapo was among the first to cast his vote in a school in the coastal city of Inhambane.
“I want to say thank you to the people of Mozambique for this opportunity we have today,” he told reporters.
Chapo faces off against Venancio Mondlane, a charismatic independent candidate who draws huge crowds, former rebel commander Ossufo Momade, and a small opposition party leader, Lutero Simango.
Among those who braved early morning rain to queue to cast their votes in Maputo, the capital, was 22-year-old student Augusto Ndeve Pais.
“I feel hopeful ... People my age are worried about the future of our country, so I think they will vote,” Pais said, declining to say for whom he was voting.
Counting will start after the polls close at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT), but official results can take up to two weeks.
Frelimo first allowed elections in 1994 and has since been accused of rigging them, charges it denies. A rebel force turned opposition party, Renamo, usually comes a distant second place.
“This election is different because we have new actors ... (but) Frelimo has a big probability to win,” said analyst Dercio Alfazema.
A disputed outcome would probably trigger protests similar to those which broke out after Frelimo swept last year’s municipal elections and which were forcefully suppressed.
But many also feel the elections will change little.
Keila Sitoe, 28, voted with her 21-year-old sister in Maputo. Both, who said they hope for change but do not expect it, declined to reveal their picks.
“We don’t feel the energy. We are young and things are difficult,” said Sitoe, who is also a student.
In the city’s middle-class neighborhood of Malhangalene, where Mondlane lives, voter Rosa Tembe, a 72-year-old widow, hoped for peace in the country’s northern Cabo Delgado province.
“We will ask the person who wins to end the conflict in Cabo Delgado because our grandsons are dying... and we don’t want this to happen anymore,” she said.
Ishiba dissolves Japan’s lower house to set up Oct. 27 parliamentary election
- Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is seeking to secure a majority in the lower house for his governing party while he is still fresh and before the congratulatory mood fades
TOKYO: Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba dissolved Japan’s lower house of parliament Wednesday to set up an Oct. 27 snap election and seek a mandate from voters for his 9-day-old government.
Ishiba took office last week as Fumio Kishida resigned after leading the governing Liberal Democratic Party for three years as it was dogged by corruption scandals.
With the early election, Ishiba is seeking to secure a majority in the lower house for his governing party while he is still fresh and before the congratulatory mood fades.
The move has been criticized as prioritizing an election rather than policies and for allowing little debate. But Japan’s opposition has remained too fractured to push the governing party out of power.
Ishiba announced his plans for an election even before he won the party leadership vote and became prime minister. His Cabinet planned later Wednesday to formally announce the election date and the start of campaigning next Tuesday.
Ishiba and his Cabinet will stay in office until they win the election and are reappointed.
The speaker of the house, Fukushiro Nukaga, announced the dissolution of the lower, more powerful of the two parliamentary chambers at a plenary session. All 465 lawmakers stood up, cheered “banzai” and rushed out of the assembly room.
“We will act fairly and squarely in order to win the people’s endorsement for the current administration,” Ishiba told reporters. “Even while the lower house is dissolved the Japanese government must fully function” in tackling national security, disaster response and deflation, he said. “We will devote all our body and soul for the people.”
Ishiba planned to explain the election plans at a news conference late Wednesday, just before heading to Laos to make his diplomatic debut at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit.
Opposition leaders have criticized him for rushing to hold an election allowing only three days of parliamentary debate on his policies and before achieving any results.
Even though opposition parties are too fractured to topple the governing party’s almost uninterrupted postwar rule, the first public support ratings for Ishiba as prime minister were only about 50 percent or even lower, the lowest levels for a new leader, according to Japanese media.
Ishiba is increasingly seen as backpedaling on a number of proposals he previously advocated so as not to create controversy ahead of the election.
In his first policy speech at parliament Friday, he did not touch on his goal of establishing a stronger regional military framework and a more equal Japan-US security alliance, a dual surname option for married couples, and other issues seen as controversial or opposed by conservatives within the governing party.
Ishiba is unaffiliated with factions led and controlled by party heavyweights, which some experts say could make his tenure as party leader unstable.
None of his Cabinet ministers is from the late Shinzo Abe’s faction that has been linked to damaging misconduct. He also plans to not endorse some members of the Abe faction in the upcoming election to show his determination for cleaner politics. Opponents have said that’s still too lax, but Ishiba is getting backlash within the party for being too strict.
Brazilian nun awarded UN refugee prize for work with migrants
- Sister Rosita Milesi is a member of the Catholic order of the Scalabrini nuns
- Religious order renowned for their service to refugees worldwide
BRASILIA: A Brazilian nun who has helped refugees and migrants for 40 years on Wednesday won the Nansen prize awarded every year by the UN High Commission for Refugees for outstanding work to protect internally displaced and stateless people.
Sister Rosita Milesi, 79, is a member of the Catholic order of the Scalabrini nuns, who are renowned for their service to refugees worldwide. Her parents were poor farmers from an Italian background in southern Brazil, and she became a nun at 19.
As a lawyer, social worker and activist, Milesi championed the rights and dignity of refugees and migrants of different nationalities in Brazil for four decades.
The UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award was established in 1954 in honor of Norwegian humanitarian, scientist, explorer, and diplomat Fridtjof Nansen. UNHCR announced the award in Geneva.
Milesi joins a long list of distinguished global laureates, including former US first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the first person to receive the award when it was set up in 1954, the charity Medecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) and Germany’s former chancellor Angela Merkel.
She is the second Brazilian to receive the award. Former Sao Paulo Archbishop Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns won the prize in 1985.
Milesi leads the Migration and Human Rights Institute (IMDH) in Brasilia, through which she has helped thousands of forced migrants and displaced people access essential services such as shelter, health care, education and legal assistance.
She coordinates RedeMIR, a national network of 60 organizations that operates throughout Brazil, including in remote border regions, to support refugees and migrants.
Her work has had a significant impact on Brazil’s legal landscape, including the shaping of its 1997 refugee law and the 2017 migration law, which enshrined critical protections for displaced people and reduced the risk of statelessness, UNHCR said in a statement.
Russia says shot down 47 Ukrainian drones
- Around 13 drones were destroyed over the Azov Sea and the rest over regions either bordering or near Ukraine
- Kyiv says it is carrying out the strikes in response to Russian bombardments of its territory
MOSCOW: The Russian army said on Wednesday that it had shot down 47 Ukrainian drones overnight, nearly half of them over the Bryansk border region.
“Air defenses intercepted and destroyed 47 Ukrainian drones,” 24 of them over the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, the defense ministry said in a statement.
Around 13 drones were destroyed over the Azov Sea and the rest over regions either bordering or near Ukraine, it said.
Russia reports shooting down Ukrainian drones over its territory on a nearly daily basis.
Kyiv says it is carrying out the strikes, which often target energy sites, in response to Russian bombardments of its territory.
Kyiv has ramped up strikes targeting Russia’s energy sector in recent months, aiming to dent revenues used by Moscow to fund what the Kremlin calls its special military operation in Ukraine, now grinding through its third year.
Biden expected to speak to Netanyahu on Wednesday, Iran in focus
- Israel’s retaliation will be a key subject of the call, with Washington hoping to weigh in on whether Israel’s response is appropriate, a separate person briefed on the discussions said
WASHINGTON:US President Joe Biden is expected to hold a phone call on Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that will include discussion of any plans to strike Iran, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The Middle East has been on edge awaiting Israel’s response to a missile attack from Iran last week that Tehran carried out in retaliation for Israel’s military escalation in Lebanon. The Iranian attack ultimately killed no one in Israel and Washington called it ineffective.
Netanyahu has promised that arch foe Iran would pay for its missile attack, while Tehran has said any retaliation would be met with “vast destruction,” raising fears of a wider war in the oil-producing region which could draw in the United States.
Israel’s retaliation will be a key subject of the call, with Washington hoping to weigh in on whether Israel’s response is appropriate, a separate person briefed on the discussions said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Biden said last Friday he would think about alternatives to striking Iranian oil fields if he were in Israel’s shoes, adding he thought Israel had not concluded how to respond to Iran.
Israel has faced calls to strike a ceasefire deal in Gaza and Lebanon by the United States and other allies, but has said it will continue its military operations until Israelis are safe.
Biden and Netanyahu are also expected to discuss the conflicts with Hamas in Gaza and with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israel says it is defending itself after Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 and taking 250 hostages according to Israeli tallies, and against other militants including Hezbollah who support Hamas.
The United States has said it supports Israel going after Iran-backed targets like Hezbollah and Hamas.
But Israel and Netanyahu in particular have faced widespread condemnation over the nearly 42,000 killings in the Gaza war, according to the local Palestinian health ministry, and the deaths of over 2,000 people in Lebanon.
Biden and Netanyahu have had sharp differences over the conduct of the war in recent months, setting up a potentially tense encounter.
About three million people in Gaza and Lebanon have been displaced by Israel’s military campaigns, according to Palestinian and Lebanese officials, and Gaza is also facing a humanitarian crisis with a lack of food and fresh water.
