The meeting, which took place at Basman Palace in Amman, explored new opportunities for collaboration aimed at supporting the development goals…reports Asian Lite News
President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan met with His Majesty King Abdullah II bin Al Hussein of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to review the longstanding ties between the two nations.
The meeting, which took place at Basman Palace in Amman, explored new opportunities for collaboration aimed at supporting the development goals of both countries, especially in the fields of the economy, investment, food security, renewable energy and sustainability.
His Highness Sheikh Mohamed and His Majesty King Abdullah also discussed a number of regional and international issues of mutual interest, with a particular focus on the Middle East and the latest developments in the Gaza Strip.
The two leaders emphasised the need to intensify efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and provide full protection for civilians in accordance with international law. They also reiterated the importance of urgently addressing the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza and supporting the role played by international humanitarian organisations.
His Highness and His Majesty highlighted the importance of establishing a clear political path towards a just and comprehensive peace, rooted in the two-state solution, to ensure stability and security for all. They also stressed the need for diplomacy and dialogue to prevent the spread of conflict in the wider region.
The two leaders stated their ongoing commitment to bolstering collective Arab efforts towards regional stability, a stance underpinned by both countries’ longstanding policy of promoting peaceful coexistence and cooperation to achieve development and prosperity for all.
His Majesty King Abdullah II bin Al Hussein hosted a lunch in honour of the visit, before accompanying His Highness and the accompanying UAE delegation to the airport for their departure from Jordan.
UAE, Russian Presidents hold talks
President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan spoke by telephone yesterday to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to discuss bilateral relations and opportunities to further strengthen UAE-Russia ties.
During the call, the Russian President expressed his gratitude to His Highness for the UAE’s successful mediation efforts regarding the recent prisoner exchange between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Ukraine.
His Highness and the Russian President also discussed a number of regional and international issues of mutual interest, with a particular focus on the Ukraine conflict.
His Highness reiterated the UAE’s steadfast commitment to promoting peace and stability both regionally and globally, emphasising the importance of resolving conflicts and disputes through ongoing dialogue and diplomacy. His Highness further underscored the UAE’s dedication to backing all efforts aimed at alleviating the humanitarian consequences of the Ukraine crisis.
Jordan King: Israel must respect rights of Muslims to worship at al-Aqsa
Jordanian King Abdullah II told visiting Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz that maintaining calm requires respecting the rights of Muslims to worship at al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem…reports Asian Lite News
During the meeting with Gantz on Tuesday, King Abdullah called for stronger efforts to restart serious and effective peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel to achieve peace on the basis of the two-state solution, the Royal Hashemite Court said in a statement, Xinhua news agency reported.
The king also stressed the need to cease all measures undermining the prospects of achieving peace, according to the statement.
The meeting is part of the king’s ongoing diplomatic efforts to facilitate just and comprehensive peace, respect the historical and legal status quo of the holy sites in Jerusalem, and safeguard the rights of worshippers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the Royal Court said.
The Aqaba Process is an initiative launched in 2015 by the king in the namesake Jordanian city for enhancing international cooperation against extremism and terrorism…reports Asian Lite News
King Abdullah II of Jordan took part in the Aqaba Process meetings with the presidents of Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Mozambique, and Tanzania’s prime minister in Jordan’s coastal city Aqaba, the Royal Hashemite Court said in a statement.
During the new round of the Aqaba Process meetings, the participants highlighted the importance of continuously countering the threats of terrorist and extremist groups.
They also urged the ongoing cooperation and exchange of expertise to prevent the expansion of terrorist groups into new areas.
Representatives of military and security agencies from African, European, East Asian, and Latin American countries also joined the meeting, the statement added.
The Aqaba Process is an initiative launched in 2015 by the king in the namesake Jordanian city for enhancing international cooperation against extremism and terrorism.
Blasts in Somalia
At least 15 people were killed and an unknown number of others injured in two explosions in the central Somali town of Beledweyne Wednesday night, the police said.
Local police officers told a state-owned television station that among the dead were Amina Mohamed Abdi, an outspoken lawmaker, former lawmaker Hassan Dhuhulow and soldiers.
A suicide bomber wearing explosive vests wrapped around his waist detonated explosives in front of a heavily secured Lamagalaay base, killing the two lawmakers who were candidates for the Lower House seats.
According to the police, the second blast took place at a security checkpoint, targeting vehicles for rushing the injured to the hospitals but no casualties were reported.
Witnesses said Amina, a fierce critic of President Mohamed Farmaajo who was in Beledweyne to campaign for re-election, appeared to have been targeted inside the Lamagalaay base where polls have been taking place over the past weeks.
President Mohamed Farmaajo and Prime Minister Mohamed Roble have separately condemned the terror incident and sent their condolences to the family and relatives of the deceased.
Farmaajo described the attack as a coward one by the militant group which he said bears the hallmarks of the terror outfit’s main focus of killing innocent people.
Roble said the deceased lawmaker is known for her role in the struggle for justice for the late female intelligence agent Ikran Tahliil who was killed in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, last year. “Lawmaker Amina, who is known for her role in the struggle for justice for the late Tahliil, and a few days ago an attempt was made to make her lose her seat, was assassinated in an attempt to defeat justice.”
Early this month, Amina had complained of attempts by security agents to block her from seeking reelection due to her strong condemnation over the murder of a female intelligence officer.
Roble assured the Somalis that despite increased terrorist attacks across the country, the ongoing elections will proceed as scheduled and called on the citizens to remain vigilant and support the ongoing elections.
The prime minister has ordered a thorough investigation into the killing of the lawmakers and vowed to defeat terrorism.
The attack comes only hours after al-Shabab attacked Mogadishu’s heavily guarded airport Wednesday in which six people were killed.
AMorgan Stanley spokesperson said: “We do not create offshore companies…. This process is independent of the firm and at the discretion and direction of the client.” …reports Asian Lite News.
Millions of leaked documents have uncovered financial secrets of 35 current and former world leaders, more than 330 politicians and public officials in 91 countries and territories, and a global lineup of fugitives, con artists and murderers, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) said.
The secret documents expose offshore dealings of the King of Jordan, the presidents of Ukraine, Kenya and Ecuador, the prime minister of the Czech Republic and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The files also detail financial activities of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “unofficial minister of propaganda” and more than 130 billionaires from Russia, the United States, Turkey and other nations.
The leaked records reveal that many of the power players who could help bring an end to the offshore system instead benefit from it — stashing assets in covert companies and trusts while their governments do little to slow a global stream of illicit money that enriches criminals and impoverishes nations.
Among the hidden treasures revealed in the documents:
A $22 million chateau in the French Riviera — replete with a cinema and two swimming pools — purchased through offshore companies by the Czech Republic’s populist prime minister, a billionaire who has railed against the corruption of economic and political elites.
More than $13 million tucked in a secrecy-shaded trust in the Great Plains of the United States by a scion of one of Guatemala’s most powerful families, a dynasty that controls a soap and lipsticks conglomerate that’s been accused of harming workers and the earth.
Three beachfront mansions in Malibu purchased through three offshore companies for $68 million by the King of Jordan in the years after Jordanians filled the streets during Arab Spring to protest joblessness and corruption.
The secret records are known as the Pandora Papers.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists obtained the trove of more than 11.9 million confidential files and led a team of more than 600 journalists from 150 news outlets that spent two years sifting through them, tracking down hard-to-find sources and digging into court records and other public documents from dozens of countries.
The leaked records come from 14 offshore services firms from around the world that set up shell companies and other offshore nooks for clients often seeking to keep their financial activities in the shadows. The records include information about the dealings of nearly three times as many current and former country leaders as any previous leak of documents from offshore havens.
In an era of widening authoritarianism and inequality, the Pandora Papers investigation provides an unequaled perspective on how money and power operate in the 21st century — and how the rule of law has been bent and broken around the world by a system of financial secrecy enabled by the US and other wealthy nations.
The findings by ICIJ and its media partners spotlight how deeply secretive finance has infiltrated global politics — and offer insights into why governments and global organizations have made little headway in ending offshore financial abuses.
An ICIJ analysis of the secret documents identified 956 companies in offshore havens tied to 336 high-level politicians and public officials, including country leaders, cabinet ministers, ambassadors and others. More than two-thirds of those companies were set up in the British Virgin Islands, a jurisdiction long known as a key cog in the offshore system.
At least $11.3 trillion is held “offshore”, according to a 2020 study by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Because of the complexity and secrecy of the offshore system, it’s not possible to know how much of that wealth is tied to tax evasion and other crimes and how much of it involves funds that come from legitimate sources and have been reported to proper authorities.
Pandora Papers (ANI)
A document in the Pandora Papers shows that banks around the world helped their customers set up at least 3,926 offshore companies with the assistance of Aleman, Cordero, Galindo & Lee, a Panamanian law firm led by a former ambassador to the US. The document shows that the firm — also known as Alcogal — set up at least 312 companies in the British Virgin Islands for clients of the American financial services giant Morgan Stanley.
A Morgan Stanley spokesperson said: “We do not create offshore companies…. This process is independent of the firm and at the discretion and direction of the client.”
The Pandora Papers investigation also highlights how Baker McKenzie, the largest law firm in the US, helped create the modern offshore system and continues to be a mainstay of this shadow economy.
Baker McKenzie and its global affiliates have used their lobbying and legislation-drafting know-how to shape financial laws around the world. They have also profited from work done for people tied to fraud and corruption, reporting by ICIJ has found.
The people that the firm has done work for includes Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, who US authorities allege laundered $5.5 billion through a tangle of shell companies, purchasing factories and commercial properties across the US heartland.
Baker McKenzie also did work for Jho Low, a now-fugitive financier accused by authorities in multiple countries of masterminding the embezzlement of more than $4.5 billion from a Malaysian economic development fund known as 1MDB. ICIJ’s reporting found that Low relied on Baker McKenzie and its affiliates to help him and his associates build a web of companies in Malaysia and Hong Kong. US authorities allege they used some of those companies to shift money looted from 1MDB.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpNUpC-Hmz4
The Pandora Papers investigation is larger and more global than even ICIJ’s landmark Panama Papers, which rocked the world in 2016, spawning police raids and new laws in dozens of countries and the fall of prime ministers in Iceland and Pakistan.
The Panama Papers came from the files of a single offshore services provider — the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. The Pandora Papers shine a light on a far wider cross-section of the lawyers and middlemen who are at the heart of the offshore industry.
The Pandora Papers provide more than twice as much information about the ownership of offshore companies. In all, the new leak of documents reveals the real owners of more than 29,000 offshore companies. The owners come from more than 200 countries and territories, with the largest contingents from Russia, the UK, Argentina and China.
