WORLD - The African Mirror

Mar

21

2024

Second British royal photograph involving Kate was digitally altered

WORLD

A second royal photograph issued to the media by Kensington Palace, the office of Prince William and his wife Kate, was digitally altered in eight places, Reuters said after an analysis of the picture by the news organisation's photo editors. The picture, released in April last year to mark what would have been the 97th birthday of the late Queen Elizabeth, showed the former monarch surrounded by some of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It had been taken by Kate, 42, at the Scottish royal residence Balmoral Castle the previous summer, Kensington Palace said at the time. Earlier on Tuesday, Getty…

Mar

20

2024

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI, DAN WILLIAMS and AIDAN LEWIS

Gaza’s catastrophic food shortage means mass death is imminent, monitor says

WORLD

EXTREME food shortages in parts of the Gaza Strip have already exceeded famine levels, and mass death is now imminent without an immediate ceasefire and surge of food to areas cut off by fighting, the global hunger monitor said. The Integrated Food-Security Phase Classification (IPC), whose assessments are relied on by U.N. agencies, said 70% of people in parts of northern Gaza were suffering the most severe level of food shortage, more than triple the 20% threshold to be considered famine. The IPC said it did not have enough data on death rates, but estimated residents would be dying at famine…

Mar

20

2024

By BRENDAN O'BRIEN

Former Mississippi police officer sentenced to 20 years in federal assault case

WORLD

A former Mississippi law enforcement officer who was part of a group that called itself the "Goon Squad," according to prosecutors, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on U.S. civil rights charges for brutally assaulting two Black men, including shooting one in the mouth, local media reported. Hunter Elward, who pled guilty last year, was the first of six white former law enforcement officers involved to be sentenced over the next three days in a U.S. District Court in Mississippi. The men are charged with several federal crimes including deprivation of rights and obstruction of justice. "I don’t think…

Mar

20

2024

By The African Mirror

Prosecutors seek death penalty for mastermind of Vietnam’s largest financial scam

WORLD

VIETNAMESE prosecutors called for the death penalty to be handed to Truong My Lan, the mastermind of the Southeast Asian nation's largest financial fraud on record, state media said. Lan, the chairwoman of real estate developer Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, faces a trial in the economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City on accusations of leading a scam that caused damages of $20 billion, or about 4.9% of Vietnam's gross domestic product. The trial, expected to run until the end of April, is part of a campaign against graft that the leader of the ruling Communist Party, Nguyen Phu…

Mar

19

2024

By GUY FAULCONBRIDGE

Putin warns the West a Russia-NATO conflict is just one step from World War Three

WORLD

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin warned the West that a direct conflict between Russia and the U.S.-led NATO military alliance would mean the planet was one step away from World War Three but said hardly anyone wanted such a scenario. The Ukraine war has triggered the deepest crisis in Moscow's relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Putin has often warned of the risks of nuclear war but says he has never felt the need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron last month said he could not rule out the deployment of ground troops in Ukraine…

Mar

19

2024

By The African Mirror

Paris Olympics area secured following attack on police station

WORLD

PARIS authorities strengthened the police presence in the northern suburb of La Courneuve near the Paris 2024 Olympics Village following an attack on a police station late on Sunday. Paris police chief Laurent Nunez told reporters that nine people had been arrested after some 50 youths clashed with police and attacked the La Courneuve police station with fireworks launchers on Sunday. The attack was in protest at the death of a young man from La Courneuve who died in the nearby town of Aubervilliers during a police chase last week, after he had refused to stop his motorbike when police…

Mar

19

2024

By The African Mirror

More Chinese tied the knot in 2023, lifting marriage rates for first time in nine years

WORLD

THE number of new marriages in China jumped 12.4% in 2023 from a year earlier, reversing a downtrend that has lasted for almost a decade as more youth tied the knot after delaying their nuptials due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of newlyweds rose to 7.68 million last year, according to data released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs last week. This was up 845,000 couples from 2022 but still far below the peak of 13.47 million couples hit in 2013. The data comes after China's Premier Li Qiang pledged in March that the government would work towards "a birth-friendly society…

Mar

18

2024

By The African Mirror

Reactions abroad to Russia’s presidential election

WORLD

FOLLOWING are reactions from foreign governments and officials to Russia's presidential election, which handed Vladimir Putin a landslide win and another six-year term in office, according to first official results. WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL SPOKESPERSON "The elections are obviously not free nor fair given how Mr. Putin has imprisoned political opponents and prevented others from running against him." UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKIY "These days, the Russian dictator is simulating another election. It is clear to everyone in the world that this figure, as it has already often happened in the course of history, is simply sick for power and is doing everything to…

Mar

18

2024

By STEPHANIE KELLY

Biden jokes about Trump’s mental fitness at Washington’s Gridiron dinner

WORLD

U.S. President Joe Biden took jabs at former President Donald Trump with jokes about the mental fitness of his election opponent during a speech at the Gridiron Club dinner, a Washington tradition that began in the 1880s. Biden's appearance at the dinner, in which politicians and journalists trade humorous barbs in a white-tie formal affair, was the first time a president has attended in person since former President Donald Trump in 2018. Biden, 81, recently clinched the Democratic Party's nomination for this year's presidential election and will face off against Trump, 77, in a rematch in November. Biden is trying…

Mar

18

2024

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI and ARI RABINOVITCH

Netanyahu says Israel to press on with Rafah assault plan

WORLD

ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would keep on with the military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, where aid agencies say famine is looming, while ceasefire talks were set to resume. Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting that Israel would push into Rafah, the last relatively safe place in the tiny, crowded Gaza enclave after more than five months of war, despite international pressure for Israel to avoid civilian casualties. "We will operate in Rafah. This will take several weeks, and it will happen," he said, without clarifying if he meant the assault would last for weeks or would begin…