WORLD - The African Mirror

Mar

26

2024

UN Security Council demands ceasefire amid Israeli airstrikes

WORLD

THE United Nations Security Council demanded an immediate ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas as Israeli forces carried out new airstrikes in Gaza and laid siege to two hospitals. After vetoing three earlier draft council resolutions on the war in the Gaza Strip, Israel's main ally, the United States, abstained in the vote following global pressure for a ceasefire to ease fears of famine after nearly six months of war. Hamas welcomed the resolution, which also demanded the unconditional release of all hostages seized by the militant group in its deadly October 7 raid on southern Israel.…

Mar

26

2024

By The African Mirror

Macron says intelligence shows Islamic State was behind Russia concert attack

WORLD

FRANCE joined the United States in saying intelligence indicated Islamic State was responsible for an attack on a concert hall outside Moscow that killed 137 people, while Russia continued to suggest that Ukraine was to blame. In the deadliest attack inside Russia for two decades, four men burst into the Crocus City Hall on Friday night, spraying bullets during a concert by the Soviet-era rock group Picnic. Alongside the dead, 182 people were wounded. Four men, at least one a Tajik, were remanded in custody on terrorism charges. They were led separately into a cage at Moscow's Basmanny district court. Islamic State…

Mar

26

2024

By FELIX LIGHT

Georgia’s ruling party proposes new law cracking down on LGBT rights

WORLD

GEORGIA'S ruling party introduced a bill curtailing LGBT rights, a move seen by opponents as an attempt to boost its popularity ahead of elections in the conservative South Caucasus country, a candidate for European Union membership. The draft law would ban sex changes and adoption by same-sex couples, as well as prohibiting "gatherings aimed at popularising same-sex family or intimate relationships", according to a summary published by the Georgian Dream party. Mamuka Mdinaradze, leader of the party's parliamentary caucus and a driving force behind the bill, said the law was necessary to protect "family values and our future generations" from…

Mar

25

2024

By The African Mirror

Russians lower flags, lay flowers to honour concert hall attack victims

WORLD

RUSSIA lowered flags to half-mast for a day of mourning after scores of people were gunned down with automatic weapons at a rock concert outside Moscow in the deadliest attack inside Russia for two decades. President Vladimir Putin declared a national day of mourning after pledging to track down and punish all those behind the attack on Friday evening, in which 137 people were killed, including three children, and 180 were injured. Over 100 people remained in hospital, some of them in a serious condition. Putin lit a candle at a church at his residence outside Moscow on Sunday evening to honour those who…

Mar

25

2024

By NAFISA ELTAHIR

Only effective way to ramp up Gaza aid is by road, Guterres says

WORLD

THE only effective and efficient way to deliver heavy goods to meet Gaza's humanitarian needs is by road and includes an exponential increase in commercial deliveries, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. Speaking after meeting Egypt's president and foreign minister in Cairo, Guterres also warned of the impact the war in Gaza was having around the globe. "The daily assault on the human dignity of Palestinians is creating a crisis of credibility for the international community," he said. Guterres is visiting Egypt and Jordan as part of an annual Ramadan solidarity tour to Muslim countries and travelled on Saturday to Egypt's…

Mar

25

2024

By PHILIP PULLELLA

Pope skips Palm Sunday homily, an unusual decision for a major event

WORLD

POPE Francis at the last minute skipped reading his homily during a Palm Sunday Mass for tens of thousands of people in St. Peter's Square but continued presiding at the service, read his noon prayer and was driven around the crowd in a popemobile. In recent weeks the 87-year-old pope has been suffering on and off from bronchitis and influenza and has delegated an aide to read his addresses for him, but on Sunday his prepared text was not read at all. It is very unusual for a pope to totally skip a homily at a major event such as Palm Sunday,…

Mar

24

2024

By GUY FAULCONBRIDGE, ALEXANDER MARROW and MARK TREVELYAN

Putin vows to punish those behind concert massacre

WORLD

RUSSIA said that it had arrested all four gunmen suspected of carrying out a shooting massacre in a concert hall near Moscow, and President Vladimir Putin pledged to track down and punish those behind the attack. Militant Islamist group Islamic State claimed responsibility for Friday's rampage but there were indications that Russia was pursuing a Ukrainian link, despite emphatic denials from Ukrainian officials that Kyiv had anything to do with it. Russia's state Investigative Committee said 133 people had been killed. State TV editor Margarita Simonyan, without citing a source, had earlier given a toll of 143. In a televised address, Putin said 11 people had…

Mar

24

2024

By DAPHNE PSALEDAKIS and DAVID BRUNNSTROM

Russia, China veto US-led UN resolution on Gaza ceasefire

WORLD

THE United Nations Security Council turned down a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an Israel-Hamas hostage deal after Russia and China vetoed the measure proposed by the United States. The resolution, on which Algeria also voted no and Guyana abstained, called for an immediate and sustained ceasefire lasting roughly six weeks that would protect civilians and allow for the delivery of humanitarian assistance. Eleven of the 15 council members voted for the resolution, but the Russia and China vetoes stopped its passage. The council will meet at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) on Monday to vote on an…

Mar

24

2024

By The African Mirror

Prince Harry and wife Meghan wish Kate health and privacy after cancer diagnosis

WORLD

PRINCE Harry and Meghan said they wished health and privacy for Kate, the wife of Harry's elder brother William, on Friday after she announced she was receiving treatment following the discovery of cancer. "We wish health and healing for Kate and the family and hope they are able to do so privately and in peace," Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, said in a statement.

Mar

23

2024

By GUY FAULCONBRIDGE and ANDREW OSBORN

Gunmen kill 40 in attack at concert near Moscow, over 100 injured, Russia says

WORLD

AT least 40 people were killed and over 100 hurt when gunmen in camouflage clothing opened fire with automatic weapons on people at a concert in the Crocus City Hall near Moscow, Russia's FSB security service said. In one of the worst such attacks in Russia in years, at least five gunmen were shown in unverified videos firing repeatedly at screaming civilians cowering in the concert hall as Soviet-era rock group "Picnic" was about to perform. The 6,200-seat concert hall in a suburb west of Moscow, which is near a shopping mall also called Crocus City, was sold out for…