Power blackouts hit Tanzania as Cyclone Hidaya intensifies towards the country’s coastline
Heavy rainfall and strong winds have been reported in the coastal areas of Mtwara and Lindi, with forecasts saying that Tanzania’s commercial hub, Dar es Salaam, may be affected.
Balkan gangsters piggybacked on South America’s exports, are now biggest ‘locomotive’ driving Europe’s booming cocaine trade
Despite some takedowns of major Balkan traffickers, they continue to flood Europe with cocaine due to their ever-evolving tactics, officials said. Custodio, the Brazilian detective who led the Aleksandar Nesic probe, said Balkan gangs used to create dummy companies to facilitate the movement of their drugs, but are now acquiring legitimate exporters.
Narcotics trade: To oust Latin America cocaine crowd, Balkan cartels settled in South America, made roots, married local women
Balkan traffickers bribe or threaten Balkan sailors to tamper with shipping containers, stash cocaine in their belongings, or haul it onto their vessels from smaller boats while out at sea. Back on land, criminals within Europe’s Balkan diaspora community have provided distribution and retail infrastructure for street sales, giving the Balkan Cartel a presence along the entire supply chain, authorities said.
How Balkan gangsters orchestrated cocaine smuggling revolution in Europe, became drug lords
Balkan trafficking outfits have eschewed the top-down, territorial structure of cartels from Mexico and Colombia, working instead in small cells that are highly mobile, secretive and capable of moving astonishingly large loads of cocaine, counter-narcotics officials said.
Investigations reveal ‘Biden says he told Nigeria to kill fewer civilians, but Nigeria keeps killing lots of civilians’
Between 2000 and 2022, the US provided, facilitated or approved more than $2 billion in security aid, including weapons and equipment sales to Nigeria, according to report by Brown University’s Centre for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies and the Security Assistance Monitor at the Centre for International Policy, a Washington think-tank. Over that time, the US also carried out more than 41,000 training courses for Nigerian military personnel.
Eight national army soldiers sentenced to death for cowardice by Congolese martial court
The decades-long conflict in eastern Congo has produced one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with over 200 armed groups fighting in the region, most for land and control of mines with valuable minerals.
