WORLD - The African Mirror

Jun

20

2024

Russia’s Putin gives North Korea’s Kim a luxury Russian-built limousine, says TASS

WORLD

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin has presented North Korean leader Kim Jong Un with a Russian-built Aurus limousine, a tea set and an admiral's dirk, Russia's state news agency TASS quoted a Kremlin aide as saying on Wednesday. Putin, on a visit to Pyongyang, in turn, received various works of art depicting himself, including busts, presidential adviser Yuri Ushakov said. Cheering crowds and lavish ceremonies greeted Putin in the North Korean capital on Wednesday, where Kim Jong Un expressed "full support" for Russia's war in Ukraine and pledged stronger strategic ties with Moscow. The Aurus Senat, retro-styled after the Soviet-era ZIL limousine, is…

Jun

19

2024

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI

Israeli forces deepen Rafah invasion, kill 17 in central camps

WORLD

ISRAELI airstrikes killed at least 17 Palestinians in two of the Gaza Strip's historic refugee camps and Israeli tanks pushed deeper into the enclave's southern city of Rafah, residents and medics said. Residents reported heavy bombardments from tanks and planes in several areas of Rafah, where more than a million people had taken refuge before May. Most of the population has fled northwards since then as Israeli forces invaded the city. "Rafah is being bombed without any intervention from the world, the occupation (Israel) is acting freely here," a Rafah resident and father of six told Reuters via a chat…

Jun

19

2024

By KEITH COFFMAN and JONATHAN ALLEN

Colorado gay nightclub killer pleads guilty to federal hate crimes

WORLD

THE convicted shooter who killed five people in a 2022 attack at a gay nightclub in Colorado pleaded guilty to federal hate crime and gun charges at a court hearing and was due later on Tuesday to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Anderson Lee Aldrich, 24, has already been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to state murder charges in a separate prosecution last year for the attack on Club Q in Colorado Springs. Earlier this year, Aldrich agreed to also enter a guilty plea to all 74 federal charges and face additional life-imprisonment sentences for…

Jun

19

2024

By CHAYUT SETBOONSARNG and PANARAT THEPGUMPANAT

Thailand to be first Southeast Asian country to recognise same-sex marriage

WORLD

THAILAND'S Senate passed the final reading of a marriage equality law, paving the way for it to become the first country in Southeast Asia to recognise same-sex couples. The bill, the culmination of more than two decades of effort by activists, was supported by an overwhelming majority of lawmakers in the upper house. The law, which needs royal approval, will come into force 120 days after it is published in the royal gazette, meaning the first same-sex weddings could take place later this year. "Today we celebrate another significant milestone in the journey of our Equal Marriage Bill," Thai Prime…

Jun

18

2024

By FRANCESCO GUARASCIO and KHANH VU

Russia’s Putin to visit Vietnam, sparking US rebuke of Hanoi

WORLD

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin will visit Hanoi this week, Vietnamese and Russian state media said, highlighting Communist-ruled Vietnam's loyalty to Russia and triggering a U.S. rebuke. The visit follows Hanoi avoiding a Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland last weekend while sending its deputy foreign minister to a BRICS meeting in Russia earlier last week. Putin, who was sworn in for a fifth time just over a month ago, is expected to meet Vietnam's new president, To Lam, and other leaders during the two-day visit to Hanoi on Wednesday and Thursday, officials said. The United States, which upgraded relations with Hanoi last year and is…

Jun

18

2024

By ANDREA SHALAL and NANDITA BOSE

Biden slams Supreme Court at $30 million fundraiser with Obama, Clooney, Julia Roberts

WORLD

PRESIDENT Joe Biden slammed the U.S. Supreme Court as "out of kilter" at a glitzy fundraiser in Los Angeles on Saturday with former President Barack Obama and top Hollywood celebrities that has raised over $30 million. Late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel began by showing a video montage contrasting Biden's record with that of his predecessor and current Republican challenger Donald Trump. He drew cheers from the audience at a packed Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles, where Hollywood celebrities George Clooney and Julia Roberts were among the guests. Biden, a Democrat who has frequently denounced specific decisions but resisted a full-throated attack on the court…

Jun

18

2024

By JAMES MACKENZIE

Netanyahu disbands war cabinet as pressure grows on Israel’s northern border

WORLD

ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dissolved the six-member war cabinet, an Israeli official said, in a widely expected move following the departure from the government of centrist former general Benny Gantz. Netanyahu is now expected to hold consultations about the Gaza war with a small group of ministers, including Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer who had been in the war cabinet. The move was announced as U.S. special envoy Amos Hochstein visited Jerusalem, seeking to calm the situation on the disputed border with Lebanon, where Israel said tensions with the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia were bringing the region close…

Jun

17

2024

By JAMES MACKENZIE

Netanyahu denounces tactical pauses in Gaza fighting to get in aid

WORLD

ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized plans announced by the military to hold daily tactical pauses in fighting along one of the main roads into Gaza to facilitate aid delivery into the Palestinian enclave. The military had announced the daily pauses from 0500 GMT until 1600 GMT in the area from the Kerem Shalom Crossing to the Salah al-Din Road and then northwards. "When the prime minister heard the reports of an 11-hour humanitarian pause in the morning, he turned to his military secretary and made it clear that this was unacceptable to him," an Israeli official said. The military clarified that normal…

Jun

17

2024

By GUY FAULCONBRIDGE

Russian forces kill Islamic State-linked hostage takers at detention centre

WORLD

RUSSIAN special forces freed two prison guards and shot dead six inmates linked to the Islamic State militant group who had taken them hostage at a detention centre in the southern city of Rostov, Russian media said. State media said that some of the men had been convicted of terrorism offences and were accused of affiliation with the Islamic State militant group, which claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a Moscow concert hall in March. The six hostage takers, one of whom wore a headband with the flag used by the Islamic State that bears an Arabic inscription, knocked…

Jun

17

2024

By NATE RAYMOND

Turkish writer, son accused of fleeing after crash arrested in US

WORLD

U.S. authorities arrested a Turkish author and her 16-year-old son wanted by Turkey on charges he was involved in a fatal car crash in Istanbul and then fled the country with the help of his mother. Turkish novelist and poet Eylem Tok and her son, Timur Cihantimur, were arrested under an extradition request from Turkey as they were about to tour an expensive private school in Boston, according to court papers. Their arrests were announced on the social media platform X by Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc, who said they were "captured in the United States in line with our…