Latest from Al Arabiya
Al Arabiya
29 minutes ago
- Al Arabiya
UK Authorities Seize Cocaine Worth More Than $130 Million From a Ship at London Port
British authorities seized 2.4 metric tons of cocaine in a ship arriving in England from Panama, authorities said Saturday, calling it one of the UK's biggest drug busts in years. The drugs, valued at 96 million pounds ($132 million), were found under containers on a vessel at London Gateway port east of the British capital. The shipment was discovered after what officials said was an intelligence-led operation. Britain's Home Office, the interior ministry, said it was the sixth-largest cocaine seizure on record. UK Border Force Maritime Director Charlie Eastaugh said the seizure was 'just one example of how dedicated Border Force maritime officers remain one step ahead of the criminal gangs who threaten our security. Our message to these criminals is clear – more than ever before, we are using intelligence and international law enforcement cooperation to disrupt and dismantle your operations.' Britain is one of Europe's biggest markets for cocaine, according to the National Crime Agency. The UK government says cocaine-related deaths in England and Wales rose by 31 percent between 2022 and 2023.
Al Arabiya
29 minutes ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Guatemala's president denies new asylum deal with US
Guatemala President Bernardo Arévalo said Friday he has not signed an agreement with the United States to take asylum seekers from other countries, pushing back against comments from US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Noem and Arévalo met Thursday in Guatemala and the two governments publicly signed a joint security agreement that would allow US Customs and Border Protection officers to work in the capital's airport, training local agents how to screen for terrorism suspects. But Noem said she had also been given a signed document she called a safe third country agreement. She said she reached a similar deal in Honduras and said they were important outcomes of her trip. 'Honduras and now Guatemala after today will be countries that will take those individuals and give them refugee status as well,' Noem said. 'We've never believed that the United States should be the only option, that the guarantee for a refugee is that they go somewhere to be safe and to be protected from whatever threat they face in their country. It doesn't necessarily have to be the United States.' Asked about Noem's comments Friday during a news conference, Arévalo said that nothing new was signed related to immigration and that Guatemala was still operating under an agreement reached with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in February. That agreement stipulated that Guatemala would continue accepting the deportation of its own citizens, but also citizens of other Central American nations as a transit point on their way home. Arévalo said that when Rubio visited, safe third country was discussed because Guatemala had signed such an agreement during US President Donald Trump's first term in office. But 'we made it clear that our path was different,' Arévalo said. He did add that Guatemala was willing to provide asylum to Nicaraguans who have been unable to return to their country because of the political situation there out of 'solidarity.' The president's communications office said Noem had been given the ratification of the agreement reached through diplomatic notes weeks earlier. During Trump's first term, the US signed such safe third-country agreements with Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. They effectively allowed the US to declare some asylum seekers ineligible to apply for US protection and permitted the US government to send them to those countries deemed 'safe.'
Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Business
- Al Arabiya
Iran reopens central and western airspace to international transit flights
Iran has reopened its central and western airspace to international transit flights, state-run Nour News said on Saturday.
Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Al Arabiya
Eleven charged in Russia-based plan to defraud US health care of $10.6 billion
US federal prosecutors charged 11 people Friday in a Russia-based scheme to bilk Medicare -- the American health insurance program for the elderly and disabled -- out of $10.6 billion through fraudulent billing for expensive medical equipment. The 'transnational criminal organization' orchestrated a 'multi-billion-dollar health care fraud and money laundering scheme' that included purchasing dozens of medical equipment companies from prior legitimate owners to perpetrate the fraud, according to the indictment dated June 18. More than a million Medicare recipients had their personal information stolen and used by the defendants to file for billions of dollars in claims from Medicare and its supplemental insurers, prosecutors said in the filing. The claims were filed through medical equipment providers that the group had purchased, but no equipment was ever sent out for the payments. Medicare paid 'approximately $41 million as a result of the fraudulent submissions' and supplemental insurers are estimated to have paid out $900 million more between 2022 and 2024, prosecutors wrote. The scheme was organized by Imam Nakhmatullaev, who is based in Russia, officials said, and managed the other defendants who were in Estonia, the Czech Republic and the United States. The fraud was identified after 'hundreds of thousands of Americans reported their concerns to Medicare and its contractors after receiving explanation of benefit forms that reflected them purportedly receiving' equipment that they neither sought or received, the indictment said.
Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Health
- Al Arabiya
Israeli-, US-backed aid distribution centers accused of mixing Oxycodone in flour bags
Gaza's Government Media Office on Friday accused Israeli- and US-backed aid distribution centers in Gaza of deliberately mixing narcotic pills in flour bags being distributed to the population severely affected by war and at risk of famine. Lacing the flour with highly addictive substances marks a horrific new crime targeting civilians' health and societal fabric in Gaza, the statement said. 'We hold the Israeli occupation fully responsible for this crime, which aims to spread addiction and destroy Palestinian society from within,' it added. Omar Hamad, a pharmacist and writer from the besieged enclave, said that Israel has reportedly been smuggling Oxycodone into Gaza through flour bags provided as aid. 'It has also been revealed that the drug is not only hidden inside flour bags, but the flour itself appears to be mixed with it,' he said Thursday in a post on X. The Anti-Drug Committee in Gaza urged citizens to exercise caution, inspect food items coming from 'the death traps called US-Israeli aid centers,' and immediately report any foreign substances. This week, the United Nations condemned Israel's 'weaponization of food' in Gaza, a war crime, and urged Israel's military to 'stop shooting at people trying to get food.' According to UN figures, over 410 Palestinians have been killed and at least 3,000 injured because of Israeli military shooting Palestinians trying to reach the aid distribution points or those collecting humanitarian aid. 'Desperate, hungry people in Gaza continue to face the inhumane choice of either starving to death or risk being killed while trying to get food' the UN human rights office had said in written notes provided before a briefing on Tuesday. The US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began food distribution operations in Gaza on May 26 after Israel completely cut off supplies into the occupied Palestinian territory for more than two months, sparking warnings of mass famine. The UN said in May that '100 percent of the population' in Gaza were 'at risk of famine.'
