Lithuanian border guards have detained 35 Afghan and Iraqi migrants who crossed into Lithuania from Belarus, the Lithuania’s State Border Guard Service (VSAT) said.

The group was detected on Thursday evening after crossing the border near Katras village in the Varėna district, part of the Čepkeliai nature reserve.

Lithuanian authorities launched a large-scale operation to locate the migrants, deploying a VSAT helicopter, border guards, special forces and sniffer dogs. Police also assisted in the operation.

The migrants split into several groups but were detained before they could travel deeper into Lithuanian territory.

All 35 detainees were men aged approximately 20 to 30. Eleven had identification documents, while the others had none.

The VSAT said individual assessments found no security threats among the group. By Friday morning, 29 of the migrants had been denied entry and returned to Belarus in accordance with Lithuanian law.

Interviews with five others were still underway, while another migrant was taken to a medical facility for examination after reporting health problems.

Lithuanian border authorities said they have prevented 1,661 migrants from illegally entering the country from Belarus so far this year.

The transport ministries of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to cooperate on the Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (CASA) railway project, according to Kazakhstan’s government.

The project aims to develop a new railway route connecting Central and South Asia and providing access to Pakistan’s seaports, while creating new opportunities for international transport, trade, logistics and investment.

Under the agreement, the three countries will conduct technical and economic studies, analytical assessments and feasibility work on the development of the required railway infrastructure and related facilities.

The parties are also considering establishing a joint working group to address the project’s technical, economic and financial aspects.

Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have developed railway networks and significant transit potential, while the UAE has international experience in transport infrastructure, logistics and major investment projects, the statement said.

The Kazakh government said combining these capabilities would support further practical work on the CASA project and help determine mechanisms for its implementation.

The Trans-Afghan transport corridor linking Central and South Asia has the potential to carry up to 10 million tonnes of cargo to Pakistan’s ports of Karachi and Gwadar.

The U.S. State Department has rejected a $25 million funding request from the American University of Afghanistan for the next two years, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

The university has about 980 students, around three-quarters of them women, with about 90 percent based in Afghanistan. All students currently study online.

David Edwards, the university’s interim president, said the funding decision threatens one of the few remaining opportunities for Afghan women to pursue higher education from inside Afghanistan.

“We are the only venue for education for a whole generation of Afghans,” Edwards said.

The State Department said it would stop funding the university at the end of this year, citing what it described as a history of “repeated lack of accountability for millions of American taxpayer dollars.”

The university has been told that, as a condition for remaining open, it must partner with the American University of Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan. Edwards said he would work with the university, although its Kyrgyzstan campus does not offer remote instruction.

The State Department said the U.S. government remained committed to supporting education for Afghan women and girls through remote-learning programs and was working to identify organizations that could administer those programs.

The university faced allegations of financial mismanagement in 2019. Edwards said those issues had been addressed and that its audits have been clean since 2021.

Established in Kabul in 2006, the American University of Afghanistan received more than $225 million from the U.S. Agency for International Development since its founding.

Following the Islamic Emirate takeover in 2021, the university evacuated its foreign staff, while some students left Afghanistan and others remained in the country. Its Kabul campus is now used by the Afghan International Islamic University, according to the report.