WORLD - The African Mirror

Mar

01

2024

Key facts about Iran’s elections on Friday

WORLD

IRANIANS will vote in a parliamentary election on March 1 seen as a litmus test of the clerical establishment's popularity amid growing discontent over economic, political and social strains. Iran's clerical rulers are seeking a big turnout to shore up their legitimacy, damaged following months of mass protests ignited by the death in custody of a young woman in 2022. On the same day as the parliamentary vote, Iran holds elections to pick 88 members of a powerful clerical body known as the Assembly of Experts, which is tasked with appointing or dismissing the supreme leader. Following are some facts about Iran's election process:…

Feb

29

2024

By The African Mirror

Israel presses on with settlement plans despite US criticism

WORLD

ISRAELI Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich pledged to continue expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank, defying international pressure on Israel to stop building on land Palestinians see as the core of a future independent state. Late on Tuesday, Smotrich announced the approval of a new settlement called Mishmar Yehuda, in Gush Etzion, a cluster of Jewish settlements located south of Jerusalem, and said work would continue on authorizing further settlements. "We will continue the momentum of settlement throughout the country," he said in a statement. The move comes just days after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington considered…

Feb

29

2024

By The African Mirror

Italy suspends army general over book disparaging minorities, lawyer says

WORLD

AN Italian army general reprimanded by the defence minister for publishing a book disparaging LGBT people, migrants, minorities and feminists has been suspended from duty for 11 months, his lawyer said. The opinions expressed in Roberto Vannacci's self-published book, "The World Upside Down" made headlines in the national press last year, winning applause from right-wing readers and sparking outrage among left-wing opposition parties. Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said in August the ministry would take disciplinary action, explaining that the book discredited the army, defence ministry and constitution. In a statement disclosing Vannacci's suspension, his lawyer Giorgio Carta said the ministry alleged the…

Mar

02

2024

By KANISHKA SINGH

Former US ambassador to plead guilty for spying for Cuba over decades

WORLD

A former U.S. ambassador will plead guilty to charges of spying for Cuba for decades, court records showed, in what the Justice Department described as one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the U.S. government by a foreign agent. WHY IT IS IMPORTANT Victor Manuel Rocha, who served as U.S. ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002, was charged in December with committing multiple federal crimes, including acting as an illegal foreign agent and using a fraudulently obtained passport. The U.S. had accused Rocha of having secretly supported Cuba and its clandestine intelligence-gathering mission against Washington since 1981. KEY QUOTES…

Feb

28

2024

By JEFF MASON

Biden: Israel agrees to halt military activity over Ramadan, risks losing world support

WORLD

U.S. President Joe Biden said Israel has agreed not to engage in military activities during Ramadan in the Gaza Strip, where it is at war with Hamas militants, and said the Jewish state risked losing support from the rest of the world as Palestinians die in high numbers. Biden, who made his remarks during an appearance on NBC's "Late Night with Seth Meyers," said Israel had committed to making it possible for Palestinians to evacuate from Rafah in Gaza's south before intensifying its campaign there to destroy Hamas. Biden, whose remarks were recorded on Monday and broadcast on Tuesday, said…

Feb

28

2024

By The African Mirror

Navalny ally urges Russians to join election day protest in his memory, drawing Kremlin ire

WORLD

A close ally of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny urged Russians on Tuesday to turn out in big numbers for an election day protest against President Vladimir Putin next month that Navalny had called for shortly before he died. The Kremlin warned there would be legal consequences for anyone who heeded what it called a provocative call from people it has labelled as dangerous U.S.-backed extremists. In a post on social media on February 1, Navalny had urged Russians to register their protest by all turning out to vote at the same time, at noon on March 17. Navalny died…

Feb

28

2024

By The African Mirror

US couple likely dead after Caribbean boat hijacking, police say

WORLD

A U.S. couple who disappeared a week ago after their catamaran was hijacked by three escaped prisoners in the Eastern Caribbean are likely dead, local police told a press conference, though they said the investigation was ongoing. Grenadian police Commissioner Don McKenzie said the prisoners had escaped custody on February 18 and the following day commandeered a catamaran named Simplicity - with U.S. citizens Kathy Brandel and Ralph Hendry on board. "Information suggests that while travelling between Grenada and St. Vincent, they disposed of the occupants," McKenzie said. The couple was last seen on the night of February 18 and…

Feb

27

2024

By GABRIELLE TÉTRAULT-FARBER

Security Council ‘perhaps fatally’ undermined by Gaza, Ukraine deadlock, says UN chief

WORLD

UNITED Nations chief Antonio Guterres deplored the U.N. Security Council's deadlock over the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, saying divisions among its members had "perhaps fatally" undermined its authority. Speaking at the opening of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Guterres said the U.N. Security Council often found itself "unable to act on the most significant peace and security issues of our time". "The Council's lack of unity on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and on Israel's military operations in Gaza following the horrific terror attacks by Hamas on 7 October, has severely – perhaps fatally – undermined its…

Feb

27

2024

By ANNIE BANERJI and DAVID SHERFINSKI

Indians risk illegal ‘donkey’ migration to chase American Dream

WORLD

IN Sumit Bhanwala's village in northern India, pictures of the Statue of Liberty adorn facades and tractors display stars and stripes bumper stickers - a way to let neighbours know that sons, brothers and nephews have made it to the United States. For 25-year-old Bhanwala, the images are a source of inspiration as he prepares for an arduous, months-long journey to sneak across the U.S. border - an odyssey that will cost his family tens of thousands of dollars in fees to people smugglers. "America is the solution. Look around you," he said, pointing out the modern multistorey houses that…

Feb

26

2024

By The African Mirror

Pope Francis urges diplomatic solution to Ukraine war on anniversary of invasion

WORLD

POPE Francis called for a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine that would lead to a just and lasting peace, as the second anniversary of Russia's invasion was marked a day earlier. "So many victims, wounded, destruction, anguish, and tears in a period that is becoming terribly long and whose end is not in sight. It is a war that not only devastates that region but also unleashes global waves of hate and fear", Pope Francis said during his weekly Angelus message. "I plead for that little bit of humanity to be found to create the conditions for a diplomatic solution…