US President Barack Obama formally asked lawmakers on Thursday for another US$83.4 billion to pay for the immediate needs of his revamped strategy for Afghanistan and for the war in Iraq.
In a letter to his top Democratic ally in the House of Representatives, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Obama pleaded for swift passage of the emergency spending measure, citing the worsening situation in Afghanistan.
“We face a security situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan that demands urgent attention. The Taliban is resurgent and al-Qaeda threatens America from its safe haven along the Afghan-Pakistan border,” he said. “With that reality as my focus, today I send to the Congress a supplemental appropriations request totaling US$83.4 billion that will fund our ongoing military, dsiplomatic and intelligence operations.”
PHOTO: AFP
The package includes items not related to the two conflicts, including US$350 million for security and counter-narcotics work along the US-Mexico border and US$89.5 million for efforts to secure Russian nuclear materials and pursue disablement and dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear work.
But “nearly 95 percent of these funds will be used to support our men and women in uniform as they help the people of Iraq to take responsibility for their own future — and work to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan,” Obama said.
The president’s Republican foes were expected to join his Democratic allies in approving the request, despite growing unease among some on his party’s left flank about the escalation in Afghanistan and the pace and scope of the military draw-down from Iraq.
The request includes US$75.85 billion for military and intelligence operations in the two wars, and another US$7.1 billion for international aid — including US$400 million to help Pakistan battle Islamist extremists.
It also includes US$800 million to support the Palestinian Authority and provide humanitarian aid to Gaza, and US$200 million in aid to Georgia.
Another US$800 million would go to UN peacekeeping operations, fund an expanded mission in Democratic Republic of Congo, and a new mission in Chad and the Central African Republic.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS