WORLD - The African Mirror

Apr

06

2024

Trump suffers twin setbacks as judges reject calls to dismiss charges

WORLD

DONALD Trump suffered a pair of legal setbacks as judges spurned his calls to dismiss criminal charges over the former U.S. president's efforts to overturn his 2020 loss in Georgia and his keeping classified records after leaving office. Separately, one of the Republican presidential candidate's allies, former Justice Department official attorney Jeffrey Clark, faced the risk of disbarment after a Washington panel found he violated some attorney ethics rules in his attempts to enlist the agency to help overturn Trump's loss. Those cases represent just some of the legal entanglements facing Trump, who has been criminally charged in four cases as he challenges Democratic President…

Apr

05

2024

By JEFF MASON

Chef Jose Andres says Israel targeted his aid workers ‘systematically, car by car’

WORLD

CELEBRITY chef Jose Andres told Reuters in an emotional interview that an Israeli attack that killed seven of his food aid workers in Gaza had targeted them "systematically, car by car." Speaking via video, Andres said the World Central Kitchen (WCK) charity group he founded had clear communication with the Israeli military, which he said knew his aid workers' movements. "This was not just a bad luck situation where ‘oops’ we dropped the bomb in the wrong place," Andres said. "This was over 1.5, 1.8 kilometres, with a very defined humanitarian convoy that had signs in the top, in the…

Apr

05

2024

By YIMOU LEE and FABIAN HAMACHER

Helicopter rescues Taiwan miners, stranded hotel guests confirmed safe

WORLD

A helicopter plucked to safety six people stranded in a mining area after Taiwan's worst earthquake in 25 years, and rescue workers reached 400 people cut off in a hotel in a mountainous national park by air, and confirmed all were safe. Hundreds of aftershocks struck Taiwan's eastern region, driving scores to seek shelter outdoors, as the death toll from Wednesday's 7.2-magnitude quake rose to 10, with the tally of injured at 1,099, authorities said. A helicopter ferried to safety six miners trapped on a cliff in a dramatic rescue after the quake cut off the roads into Hualien's soaring mountains, in…

Apr

05

2024

By SARITA CHAGANTI SINGH

Modi sets ambitious India economic goals for probable third term

WORLD

INDIAN Prime Minister Narendra Modi, confident of winning a national election starting this month, has set an ambitious target of roughly doubling the economy and exports this decade, according to a government document seen by Reuters. Modi has highlighted economic growth as one of his biggest achievements in election rallies and has "guaranteed" making the economy the third largest in the world from fifth now if he wins a third term in a row as polls predict. He has already asked officials to finalise plans by around May to expand the economy to $6.69 trillion in nominal terms by 2030, from around…

Apr

04

2024

By YIMOU LEE and FABIAN HAMACHER

Taiwan’s strongest earthquake in 25 years kills 9 people, 50 missing

WORLD

TAIWAN'S biggest earthquake in at least 25 years killed nine people and injured more than 900, while 50 workers travelling in minibuses to a hotel in a national park were missing. Some buildings tilted at precarious angles in the mountainous, sparsely populated county of Hualien, near the epicentre of the 7.2 magnitude quake, which struck just offshore at about 8 a.m. (0000 GMT) and triggered massive landslides. Linda Chen, 48, said her apartment in downtown Hualien city had been so badly damaged in an earlier earthquake in 2018 that they had to move house. But her new apartment block was…

Apr

04

2024

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI

Israel says airstrike unintentionally killed aid workers in Gaza, allies demand explanations

WORLD

PRIME Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel mistakenly killed seven people working for the aid charity World Central Kitchen in a Gaza airstrike, and the U.S. and other allies called for explanations amid widespread condemnation. Israel's military voiced "sincere sorrow" over the incident, which ratcheted up international pressure for steps to ease the disastrous humanitarian situation in Gaza nearly six months into Israel's siege and invasion of the Palestinian enclave. The strike on the World Central Kitchen convoy killed citizens of Australia, Britain and Poland as well as Palestinians and a dual citizen of the United States and Canada. WCK, which…

Apr

04

2024

By The African Mirror

Teen hero relives Moscow concert horror as mother worries about him

WORLD

TEENAGE cloakroom attendant Artem Donskov helped people flee to safety when gunmen stormed a concert hall near Moscow last month. Now his mother is trying to get him to see a psychologist. In an interview with Reuters, 14-year-old Artem said he and his colleagues helped people escape via a service corridor and directed them to the exits after the attackers sprayed concert-goers with gunfire and set the building ablaze. At one point panic broke out, he said. "As I understood it, some man yelled that the terrorists might be coming towards us and everyone was frightened. At first, some people…

Apr

03

2024

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI

Netanyahu says ‘tragic’ airstrike killed 7 World Central Kitchen aid workers

WORLD

PRIME Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said an Israeli airstrike that killed seven people working for the aid charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) in Gaza was unintended and "tragic", and the military pledged an independent inquiry. The Israeli military expressed "sincere sorrow" over the incident, which drew widespread condemnation and ratcheted up pressure for steps to ease the disastrous humanitarian situation in Gaza after nearly six months of war. The strike on the WCK convoy killed citizens of Australia, Britain and Poland as well as Palestinians and a dual citizen of the United States and Canada. WCK, which was founded by celebrity…

Apr

03

2024

By ESSI LEHTO and ANNE KAURANEN

Finland school shooting: 12-year-old suspect held after one child is killed, two are wounded

WORLD

ONE child was killed and two seriously wounded in a shooting at a school outside the Finnish capital police said, with a 12-year-old fellow pupil suspected of the attack taken into custody. The arrest of the boy was made without further violence in the Helsinki suburb of Siltamaki, 4 km (2.5 miles) south of the Viertola school in Vantaa district, police said. Education Minister Anna-Maja Henriksson broke into tears when speaking to reporters hours after the attack in a country where gun violence among youths is rare. "One 12-year-old child will never again return home from school," she said. The…

Apr

03

2024

By IRSHAD HUSSAIN and MUBASHIR NAIK

Russia jobs scam traps Indians on Ukraine war frontlines

WORLD

WHEN Raja Begum heard an Indian had died in Ukraine, she collapsed to the ground, convinced it was her missing son - one of dozens of young men lured to Russia on the promise of jobs, then sent to fight in the Ukraine war. "I can't stop thinking about the last message my son sent," said Begum, 60, who has not heard from the 31-year-old tech graduate since January - just weeks after he left the family's village in Indian-administered Kashmir to head to Moscow. Indian federal investigators say a major human trafficking network duped at least 35 men, who…