At least US$4.2 billion in cash has left Kabul airport in the past three-and-a-half years, a newspaper said yesterday, raising fresh concerns about corruption in Afghanistan.
A senior US lawmaker last week blocked billions of dollars in aid for Afghanistan after a report indicated that US$3 billion had been flown out of the country over three years.
However, yesterday’s report in British daily the Times put the figure higher, citing a letter from Afghan Finance Minister Omar Zakhilwal to US lawmaker Nita Lowey, who suspended the aid.
TRANSFER
“Our records show that US$4.2 billion has been transferred in cash through Kabul International Airport alone during the last three-and-a-half years,” Zakhilwal wrote. “The amount could be even higher.”
In the letter, dated June 30, two days after Lowey angrily blocked the aid, the finance minister also requested US cooperation to determine the money’s origins.
SUITCASES OF CASH
Lowey’s decision to block the aid was in response to a report in the Wall Street Journal that top Afghan officials flew suitcases full of cash from US ai d to foreign safe havens.
The lawmaker, who sits on the powerful committee in charge of the budget, said she would hold hearings into the allegations.
“I do not intend to appropriate one more dime for assistance to Afghanistan until I have confidence that US taxpayer money is not being abused to line the pockets of corrupt Afghan government officials, drug lords and terrorists,” she said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese