Friday, February 8, 2019

Top 10 Most Wanted Criminals in the World 2019


The most wanted criminals in the world are the persons you definitely don’t ever want to deal with at any point in your life. They are the most notorious and elusive criminals on earth and have evaded capture for years.

Here’s a list of the top 10 most wanted criminals in the world, which will most likely stay fixed for quite awhile.


1. Ayman al-Zawahiri



Ayman al-Zawahiri is the current leader of al-Qaeda, a multi-national militant organization formerly headed by Osama bin Laden. He was named the leader of al-Qaeda shortly after bin Laden was assassinated in 2011. Before that, he was the operational and strategic commander and was the top lieutenant to bin Laden in the organization.

An Egyptian, al-Zawahiri had a direct hand in the 1998 US embassy bombings in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania which killed hundreds of people. In 2008, the Pakistan Army claimed that they almost captured al-Zawahiri in northwest Pakistan.

In 2012, al-Zawahiri made headlines when he called on Muslims to kidnap Western tourists visiting Muslim countries. He remains at large and is one the most wanted criminals in the world. The US Department of State is offering $25 million for any information about the location of the current al-Qaeda leader.


2. Dawood Ibrahim



Dawood Ibrahim is the most wanted man in India. He is a crime lord and leads the Indian organized crime syndicate D-Company. He founded the organization in the 1970s and has been a wanted man since the 1980s, though he wasn’t branded a global threat until 2003.

Ibrahim is currently living in Pakistan, though the Pakistani government has denied that he is in the country. He is widely believed to be the man behind the 1993 Bombay bombings, which involved a series of 12 bomb explosions in Mumbai, India. The attacks killed 257 people and injured 717 others.

Ibrahim and D-Company mostly operate in India, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates. Ibrahim is wanted for a number of charges, which includes murder, targeted killing, and drug trafficking. Like Ayman al-Zawahiri, he has a $25 million bounty on his head.


3. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi



Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is the leader of the militant terrorist organization known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) – also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). I think it’s safe to assume that by now you’re already familiar with the organization, which has orchestrated a series of terror attacks in European cities the last two years.

Al-Baghdadi was a part of al-Qaeda from 2006-2013. Apart from crimes related to terrorism, he has been accused of kidnapping, enslaving, and raping American human rights activist and humanitarian aid worker Kayla Mueller.

It is believed that al-Baghdadi, the top target in the war against ISIS, is currently hiding in Raqqa, Syria, though there have been numerous conflicting reports of his arrest or death the last two years. Nevertheless, al-Baghdadi has a huge bounty on his head, with the US Department of State offering $25 million, up from the original $10 million, for any information which may lead to his capture or death.


4. Semion Mogilevich



Semion Mogilevich is believed to be the boss of bosses of Russian Mafia syndicates around the world. He commands a huge criminal organization involved in weapons trafficking, drug trafficking, contract murders, prostitution, fraud, and possibly even nuclear materials trafficking.

Mogilevich is considered the most dangerous mobster in the world and allegedly has powerful political connections everywhere in Russia. In 2006, former Russian secret service member Alexander Litvinenko alleged that Mogilevich has a “good relationship” with current Russian president Vladimir Putin. Litvinenko was assassinated via radiation poisoning shortly after making that claim.

Nicknamed “Don Semyon” and “The Brainy Don,” Mogilevich lives freely in Russia. He was arrested in 2008 in Moscow for tax evasion but was released the following year. He was added to the FBI Top Ten Most Wanted list in 2009 but was removed in 2015, mainly because the US and Russia don’t have an extradition treaty, which basically makes him untouchable to the FBI.


5. Matteo Messina Denaro



Matteo Messina Denaro is a Sicilian Mafia boss, now considered the boss of bosses in the infamous criminal organization after the deaths of Bernardo Provenzano and Salvatore Riina and the 2007 arrest of Salvatore Lo Piccolo. He has proven to be one of the most elusive targets for the Italian police, successfully evading arrest a number of times in the past.

Nicknamed “Diabolik,” Denaro stands out because of his lifestyle and outgoing nature, which is in contrast with other Mafia bosses who keep conservative family values close to heart. Denaro is a notorious womanizer, drives expensive Porsche cars, wears luxurious Rolex watches, and prefers high-end products from Ray-Ban, Giorgio Armani, and Versace. And apparently, he’s big on video games.

Denaro has been involved in extortion and illegal drug trade, the latter of which has caused the FBI to keep a close eye on the Mafia boss. In 1993, Denaro played a big role in a series of bomb attacks orchestrated by several Mafia bosses in Italy. The attacks killed 10 people and injured 93 others. Denaro has not been seen since the bomb attacks.


6. Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov



Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov is a Russian businessman suspected of being involved in organized crime. He is believed to be nicknamed “Taiwanchik” because of his noticeable Asian facial features. He has been accused of numerous crimes in the past, which includes smuggling, fixing competition events, committing fraud, and running an illegal gambling ring.

Tokhtakhunov is perhaps most infamous for being accused of bribing ice skating judges in the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was subsequently arrested by Italian authorities at the request of the US but was later freed before he was extradited.

He is a former amateur football player, which may explain his involvement in sporting events and for being reportedly close to several Russian professional tennis players. Of course, none of the athletes have openly admitted to being closely associated with Tokhtakhunov. Like Semion Mogilevich, Tokhtakhunov lives openly in Russia and is pretty much untouchable to US law enforcement authorities.


7. Felicien Kabuga



Felicien Kabuga is a Rwandan businessman and millionaire. He is the most wanted man in Africa for his direct involvement in the Rwandan Genocide, one of the most despicable acts in human history. Kabuga got the majority of his fortune through tea farms in Rwanda, which he used to fund the Rwandan Genocide.

Kabuga allegedly bankrolled Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines, the Rwandan radio station which played a huge role in inciting violence and kicking off the Rwandan Genocide. Not only that, he also supplied the weapons to the Hutus, importing a total of 500,000 machetes. About 500,000-1,000,000 Rwandans were killed in the infamous genocide, heavily crippling the country economy.

For his role in the genocide, Kabuga was slapped with numerous charges by the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, including conspiracy to commit genocide and complicity in genocide. Kabuga, however, has remained elusive ever since his escape after the Rwandan Genocide was ended by the Rwandan Patriotic Front. He is believed to be living and running businesses in Kenya.


8. Omid Tahvili



Born in Tehran, Iran, Omid Tahvili is the kingpin of an organized crime family in Canada. Yes, you read that right – something like that actually exists in goody two shoes Canada. He reportedly operates out of an Iranian community in Canada and is connected to other international criminal organizations.

Tahvili has been apprehended by authorities several times but has escaped fully serving his sentences through one way or another. Most infamously, he escaped from a maximum-security prison in 2007 with the help of a security guard whom he bribed with money. Tahvili remains free to this day and is considered one of the most wanted criminals in the world.

Tahvili has been convicted of kidnapping and sexual assault and has been charged with wire fraud, mail fraud, telemarketing fraud, and aiding and abetting. His telemarketing fraud ran from 1999 to 2002 with elderly US citizens being the chief victims. His operation netted him $3 million.


9. Ismael Zambada Garcia



Ismael Zambada Garcia is the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, an international organized crime syndicate which mainly operates from Culiacan, Sinaloa in Mexico, hence the group name. The Sinaloa Cartel is considered one of the most powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world.

Nicknamed “El Mayo,” Garcia assumed full leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel when Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was apprehended in 2016. He is the most enduring drug lord in Mexico and has been active in the drug trafficking business for years. He was the logistical coordinator of the cartel before assuming full leadership.

Garcia employs different methods for delivering drugs to the US, which includes airplanes and boats. He currently has a $5 million on his head.


10. Joseph Kony



Joseph Kony is the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a guerrilla group which has been active since 1987. He is a self-declared prophet and claims that he is fighting for the Ten Commandments. He also claims to have been possessed by spirits.

The LRA previously operated in Uganda before recently moving operations to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, and South Sudan. Led by Kony, the LRA has been involved in mass kidnappings of children and forcing them to become sex slaves or child soldiers for his campaign.

In 2005, Kony was indicted by International Criminal Court in The Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity. But he is yet to be put behind bars for all his actions. Earlier this year, the US and Uganda ended their hunt for Kony, thinking he is no longer a significant threat because his force has significantly shrunk in recent years, which may have been related to his reportedly declining health.



#Wanted
#Criminals
#Ayman al-Zawahiri
#Dawood Ibrahim
#Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
#Semion Mogilevich
#Matteo Messina Denaro
#Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov
#Felicien Kabuga
#Omid Tahvili
#Ismael Zambada Garcia
#Joseph Kony
#2019
Thanks for reading...
Have a good day...

Sunday, February 3, 2019

The World's Most Powerful People 2018

China's President Xi Jinping, center right, and first lady Peng Liyuan, far right, greeted U.S. counterparts Donald Trump, center left, and Melania Trump on Wednesday at Beijing's Forbidden City.

There are nearly 7.5 billion humans on planet Earth, but these 75 men and women make the world turn. Forbes' annual ranking of The World’s Most Powerful People identifies one person out of every 100 million whose actions mean the most.

This year's list highlights the consolidation of power in the hands of an elite few. Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, seizes the top spot for the first time ever after China’s congress amended its constitution in March, broadening his influence and eliminating term limits. He enjoys a cult of personality not seen since Chairman Mao.

View the full list of The World's Most Powerful People

Xi's elevation to the world's most powerful person unseats Russian President Vladimir Putin (#2), who held the top spot for an unprecedented four consecutive years. Putin has ruled Russia since May of 2000, and this year he was re-elected to a fourth term with nearly 77 percent of the vote. That's the largest margin of victory for any candidate for the office since the fall of the Soviet Union.


One year into his term, President Donald Trump falls to the No. 3 spot. Trump has seen limited success pushing his agenda through a Congress controlled by his own party, is under investigation by multiple law enforcement agencies, and can't shake off scandals arising from his personal and business life –but he's still Commander in Chief of the world's greatest economic and military power.


The fourth most powerful person in the world also happens to be the most powerful woman: Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany. The de facto leader of Europe, Merkel won a hard-fought election in 2017 and created a ‘grand coalition’ with political partners. She'll have to hold tight to the EU rudder as it faces oncoming storms from Brexit and growing anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe.



German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, poses with French President Emmanuel Macron, left, and Russia's President Vladimir Putin prior to a meeting during the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, Saturday, July 8, 2017. (Tobias Schwarz/Pool Photo)


There are 17 new names on the list this year, including Mohammed Bin Salman Al Saud (#8), the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. His father remains king, but "MBS" has consolidated power beyond any doubt and taken control of the country. In November 2017, he launched an "anti-corruption campaign" that caused many prominent Saudis to be arrested and forced to turn over their fortunes. The crown prince will be the fulcrum around which the Middle Eastern geopolitics moves for the next generation. Other new members include Jerome H. Powell (#11), chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve; Darren Woods (#34), CEO of Exxon Mobil; Moon Jae-in (#54), President of South Korea; and Robert Mueller (#72), Special Counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice.

Read More: New Members of The World's Most Powerful People

To compile the ranking of The World's Most Powerful People, we considered hundreds of candidates from various walks of life all around the globe, and measured their power along four dimensions. First, we asked whether the candidate has power over lots of people. Pope Francis, ranked #6, is the spiritual leader of more than a billion Catholics. Doug McMillon (#23), is the CEO of the world's largest private employer, Wal-Mart Stores, with more than 2.3 million workers around the globe.

Next we assessed the financial resources controlled by each person. Are they relatively large compared to their peers? For heads of state we used GDP, while for CEOs, we looked at measures like their company's assets and revenues. When candidates have a high personal net worth, like the world's richest man, Jeff Bezos (#5), we also took that into consideration. In certain instances we considered other valuable resources at the candidate's disposal, like access to oil reserves.

Then we determined if the candidate is powerful in multiple spheres. There are only 75 slots on our list –one for approximately every 100 million people on the planet– so being powerful in just one area is often not enough. Our picks project their influence in myriad ways: Elon Musk (#25) has power in the auto business through Tesla Motors, in the aerospace industry through SpaceX, because he's a billionaire, and because he's a highly respected tech visionary.


Lastly, we made sure that the candidates actively used their power. North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un (#36) has near absolute control over the lives of the 25 million people who live in his country, and is known to punish dissent with death.

To calculate the final rankings, a panel of Forbes editors ranked all of our candidates in each of these four dimensions of power, and those individual rankings were averaged into a composite score. This year’s list comes at a time of rapid and profound change, and represents our best guess about who will matter in the year to come.

Any ranking of the world's most powerful people is going to be subjective, so we don't pretend ours is definitive. It's meant to be the beginning of a conversation, not the final word. So tell us what you think: Is the CEO of Google really more powerful than the CEOs of Facebook and Apple? Is the President of Turkey more powerful than the Prime Minister of Canada? Who did we miss? What did we get wrong? Join the conversation by commenting below.


This story appears in the January 31, 2018

Saturday, February 2, 2019

The 10 Most Corrupt Countries in the world

The 10 Most Corrupt Countries, Ranked By Perception
A country in the Middle East tops the list.


Dozens of Iraqis shout slogans and wave national flags during a demonstration outside the local government headquarters in the southern city of Basra in July 2018 as they protest against poor services, unemployment, and corruption.(HAIDAR MOHAMMED ALI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)


CORRUPTION IS OFTEN IN the eye of the beholder, largely tied to individual beliefs about right and wrong.

Iraq, a country new this year to the Best Countries rankings, is perceived to be the most corrupt in the world, according to 2019 data from the rankings, a characterization of 80 countries based on a survey of more than 20,000 global citizens.

In the survey, respondents answered how closely they related each of the 80 countries to the term "corrupt," an adjective that has Merriam-Webster juggling definitions from "tainted or rotten" to "morally debased." Respondents were given no further specifications of the term, so interpretation of the word was left to them.

[MORE: The 25 Best Countries in the World]

Demonstrators in Iraq have recently taken to the streets, angry about corruption. In December 2018, protesters ransacked government offices while demanding jobs and better public services, according to Reuters.

Thousands of American troops also remain in the war-torn country, where forces on the ground continue to fight the Islamic State group. Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has called for limiting both U.S. and Iranian involvement in Iraqi affairs.

Pakistan – a country accused of knowingly harboring the late al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden – who died in 2011 – follows at No. 2, and Iran places third on the corruption ranking. Mexico, which is plagued by stories of deadly drug cartels, makes an appearance at No. 7, and Myanmar and Guatemala round out the top 10.

By comparison, Russia – the world's largest nation, which has been accused of election meddling and Olympic doping – did not make the top 10 this year. The Kremlin ranked No. 12.

The United States landed at No. 60 in the corruption ranks and Australia and Canada ranked No. 79 and No. 80, respectively, making them the countries viewed as the least corrupt.

Below are the 10 countries perceived to be the most corrupt, and more country-related rankings can be found here.

COUNTRY               CORRUPT RANK                   BEST COUNTRIES OVERALL RANK
Iraq                               1                                           80
Pakistan                       2                                           75
Iran                               3                                           79
Nigeria                       4                                                  74
Colombia               5                                           66
Angola                       6                                           78
Mexico                       7                                           35
Ghana                       8                                           69
Myanmar               9                                           61
Guatemala              10                                           64

Tags: #corruption #Iraq #Pakistan #Iran #Nigeria #Colombia #Mexico #Ghana #Myanmar #Guatemala

AI on the Global Economy: A 2024 Perspective

  The Impact of AI on the Global Economy: A 2024 Perspective Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the global economy, becomi...