WORLD - The African Mirror

May

20

2024

Iran’s hardliner President Ebrahim Raisi killed in helicopter crash

WORLD

IRANIAN President Ebrahim Raisi, a hardliner seen as a potential successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in a helicopter crash in mountainous terrain near the Azerbaijan border, officials and state media said. The charred wreckage of the helicopter which crashed on Sunday carrying Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and six other passengers and crew was found early on Monday after an overnight search in blizzard conditions. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds ultimate power with a final say on foreign policy and Iran's nuclear programme, said First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, would take over as interim president,…

May

20

2024

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI and DAN WILLIAMS

Israel pushes further into parts of north Gaza; new cracks in Netanyahu coalition

WORLD

Israeli troops and tanks pushed into parts of a congested northern Gaza Strip district that they had previously skirted in the more than seven-month-old war, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians, medics and residents said. Israel's forces also took over some ground in Rafah, a southern city by the Egyptian border that is packed with displaced people and where the launch this month of a long-threatened incursion to crush hold-outs of Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas has alarmed Cairo and Washington. Exposing further cracks in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, Benny Gantz, a centrist member of the war cabinet, threatened…

May

20

2024

By MICHAEL HOLDEN and SAM TOBIN

WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange faces U.S. extradition judgment day

WORLD

A British court could give a final decision on whether WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange should be extradited to the United States over the mass leak of secret U.S. documents, the culmination of 13 years of legal battles and detentions. Two judges at the High Court in London are set to rule on whether the court is satisfied by U.S. assurances that Assange, 52, would not face the death penalty and could rely on the First Amendment right to free speech if he faced a U.S. trial for spying. Assange's legal team say he could be on a plane across the…

May

20

2024

By FAYAZ BUKHARI

Tourist couple injured in militant shooting in India’s Kashmir amid elections

WORLD

A tourist couple was injured in India's Kashmir after militants fired on them, police said, ahead of voting scheduled in the volatile region for India's ongoing election. The couple from the Indian city of Jaipur was evacuated to the hospital and the area where the attack took place was cordoned off, Kashmir police said on social media. The condition of the injured tourists is said to be stable, they said. India is in the middle of a marathon election with the remaining two seats in Kashmir going to polls on May 20 and May 25. Voters turned out in large numbers for…

May

19

2024

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI

Dozens killed and wounded as Israeli forces thrust deeper in Gaza’s Jabalia and Rafah

WORLD

ISRAELI troops and tanks pushed on Saturday into parts of a congested northern Gaza Strip district that they had previously skirted in the more than seven-month-old war, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians, medics and residents said. Israel's forces also took over some ground in Rafah, a southern city next to the Egyptian border that is packed with displaced people and where the launch this month of a long-threatened incursion to crush Hamas hold-outs has alarmed Cairo and Washington. Israel has conducted renewed military sweeps this month of parts of northern Gaza where it had declared the end of major operations…

May

19

2024

By BERNARD ORR, GUY FAULCONBRIDGE and ANDREW OSBORN

Putin and Xi pledge a new era and condemn the United States

WORLD

CHINA'S Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin pledged a "new era" of partnership between the two most powerful rivals of the United States, which they cast as an aggressive Cold War hegemon sowing chaos across the world. Xi greeted Putin on a red carpet outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, where they were hailed by marching People's Liberation Army soldiers, a 21-gun salute on Tiananmen Square and children waving the flags of China and Russia. China and Russia declared a "no limits" partnership in February 2022 when Putin visited Beijing just days before he sent tens of…

May

19

2024

By MOHAMMAD YUNUS YAWAR, CHARLOTTE GREENFIELD and ANA CANTERO

Gunmen kill three Spanish tourists in Afghanistan’s Bamyan province

WORLD

THREE Spanish tourists were killed and at least one Spaniard was injured in an attack by gunmen in Afghanistan's central Bamyan province, Spain's foreign ministry said. Earlier on Friday, Taliban interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qaniee had said that three foreign tourists and one Afghan citizen had been killed in the attack. Four foreign nationals and three Afghans were also injured in the attack when gunmen opened fire, he added. Four people have been arrested, he said. The Spanish foreign ministry said that the consular emergency unit had been fully mobilised and the victims and their families were being assisted.…

May

18

2024

By The African Mirror

Israel tells World Court South Africa case makes a mockery of genocide

WORLD

ISRAEL defended the military necessity of its Gaza offensive on Friday at the International Court of Justice and asked judges to throw out a request by South Africa to order it to halt operations in Rafah and withdraw from the Palestinian territory. Israeli Justice Ministry official Gilad Noam called South Africa's case, which accuses Israel of violating the Genocide Convention, "completely divorced from facts and circumstances". "(The case) makes a mockery of the heinous charge of genocide," Noam said. He called it "an obscene exploitation of the most sacred convention," referring to the international treaty banning genocide, agreed after the…

May

18

2024

By GRAM SLATTERY, SARAH N. LYNCH and ANDREW GOUDSWARD

Donald Trump wants to control the Justice Department and FBI. His allies have a plan

WORLD

SOME of Donald Trump's allies are assembling proposals to curtail the Justice Department's independence and turn the nation's top law enforcement body into an attack dog for conservative causes, nine people involved in the effort told Reuters. If successful, the overhaul could represent one of the most consequential actions of a second Trump presidency given the Justice Department's role in protecting democratic institutions and upholding the rule of law. It would also mark a dramatic departure from the department's mission statement, which identifies "independence and impartiality" as core values. Trump, who has been indicted on dozens of criminal charges by the…

May

18

2024

By BERNARD ORR

Putin to push growing Moscow-Beijing trade in China’s northeast

WORLD

AFTER sealing pledges of a "new era" of strategic partnership with China's Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to highlight the growing importance of trade near the Russian border in China's northeast. Putin ends his two-day, red-carpet visit to China in Harbin in Heilongjiang province, which has long-running trade and cultural ties to Russia, touring a Russian-China Expo and a forum on interregional cooperation. Facing political isolation and Western sanctions over Russia's two-year-old invasion of Ukraine, Putin is increasingly turning to China to support its war economy. Amid the pomp of a full state visit, Putin and Xi signed a joint statement on…