WORLD - The African Mirror

Feb

22

2024

Inside the siege on Gaza’s largest remaining hospital

WORLD

NASSER Hospital in Khan Younis was until recently the largest medical facility still functioning in the Gaza Strip, despite facing severe challenges. But at the end of January, the Israeli military intensified ground operations in Gaza’s second-largest city, ordered civilians to evacuate, and began laying siege to the hospital. MOHAMED SOULAIMANE Freelance journalist based in Gaza, writing under a pseudonym for safety given the security situation The humanitarian situation inside is now catastrophic, with shortages of fuel, anaesthesia, and medical supplies, Gaza health ministry spokesperson Dr Ashraf al-Qudra told The New Humanitarian in a video interview. The Israeli military is preventing…

Feb

22

2024

By SUNIL KATARIA and ADNAN ABIDI

Police fire tear gas on Indian farmers marching to capital, government offers talks

WORLD

INDIAN farmers demanding higher prices for their produce paused their protest after the government made a new offer to resume talks, hours after police fired tear gas and used water cannons to scatter thousands staging a march to Delhi. The farmers, mostly from the northern state of Punjab, have been demanding higher prices backed by law for their crops. They form an influential bloc of voters Prime Minister Narendra Modi cannot afford to anger ahead of general elections due by May. Farmers' leader Sarwan Singh Pandher told reporters they would pause their protest for two days and deliberate their next…

Feb

22

2024

By LEWIS JACKSON

Sydney martial arts instructor arrested for alleged murder of South Korean family

WORLD

A Sydney martial arts instructor has been arrested for the alleged triple murder of a South Korean family living in the city after a child and woman were found dead in a Taekwondo centre, Australian police said. Police arrested the 49-year-old man in hospital late on Tuesday night, Detective Superintendent Daniel Doherty told a press conference. The man, who is under police guard and expected to be charged with three murders, was being treated for apparent stab wounds to his chest, arms and stomach, according to a separate police statement. Police said he arrived at Westmead Hospital in Sydney's northwest…

Feb

21

2024

By MICHELLE NICHOLS

US pushes for UN to support temporary Gaza ceasefire, oppose Rafah assault

WORLD

THE United States has proposed a rival draft United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a temporary ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war and opposing a major ground offensive by its ally Israel in Rafah, according to the text seen by Reuters. The move comes after the U.S. signalled it would veto on Tuesday an Algerian-drafted resolution — demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire — over concerns it could jeopardize talks between the U.S., Egypt, Israel and Qatar that seek to broker a pause in the war and the release of hostages held by Hamas. Until now, Washington has been averse to the word ceasefire in any U.N.…

Feb

21

2024

By The African Mirror

Russia calls pilot killed in Spain after defecting to Ukraine a “moral corpse”

WORLD

RUSSIA'S foreign intelligence chief described a Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine and was found shot dead in Spain as a "moral corpse" for betraying his country, in Moscow's first comment on the case since news of the killing emerged. Ukraine's GUR military intelligence service has confirmed that pilot Maxim Kuzminov, who flew to Ukraine with his Mi-8 helicopter last August, died in Spain, without giving the cause of death. Spanish officials have confirmed that a body was found riddled with bullets on February 13 in an underground garage in the town of Villajoyosa, near Alicante in southern Spain. Spanish and…

Feb

21

2024

By The African Mirror

Navalny’s mother tells Putin: Hand over my son’s body

WORLD

Lyudmila Navalnaya, the mother of dead Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, demanded that President Vladimir Putin hand over her son's body so she could bury him. Navalny, 47, fell unconscious and died suddenly on Friday after a walk at the "Polar Wolf" penal colony above the Arctic Circle where he was serving a three-decade sentence, the prison service said. Speaking in a video filmed in front of the prison as small snowflakes swirled in the air, his mother - dressed in black - complained she did not even know where her son's corpse was and demanded Putin give the order…

Feb

20

2024

By SAMIA NAKHOUL, JONATHAN SAUL and HUMEYRA PAMUK

Rafah attack: How Israel plans to hit Hamas and scale back war

WORLD

ISRAEL expects to continue full-scale military operations in Gaza for another six to eight weeks as it prepares to mount a ground invasion of the enclave's southernmost city of Rafah, four officials familiar with the strategy said. Military chiefs believe they can significantly damage Hamas' remaining capabilities in that time, paving the way for a shift to a lower-intensity phase of targeted airstrikes and special forces operations, according to the two Israeli and two regional officials who asked to remain anonymous to speak freely. There is little chance that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government will heed international criticism to call…

Feb

20

2024

By GUY FAULCONBRIDGE and ANDREW OSBORN

Navalny’s widow Yulia calls on Russians to fight Putin for freedom

WORLD

Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, said that she would press on with her husband's fight for a free Russia and called on supporters to battle President Vladimir Putin with greater fury than ever. Navalny's death robs Russia's disparate opposition of its most charismatic and courageous leader as Putin prepares for an election that will keep him in power until at least 2030. In a nine-minute video message laced with rage, Navalnaya, 47, said Putin had killed her husband and in doing so had robbed her of a husband and her two children of a father.…

Feb

20

2024

By GUY FAULCONBRIDGE and LIDIA KELLY

Russia takes full control of Avdiivka coke plant, Defence Ministry says

WORLD

RUSSIAN forces claimed full control of the vast Soviet-era coke plant in the ruined Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, cementing the biggest battlefield gain in nine months after one of the most intense battles of the war. The fall of Avdiivka is Russia's biggest gain since it captured the city of Bakhmut in May 2023, and comes almost two years to the day since President Vladimir Putin triggered a full-scale war by ordering the invasion of Ukraine. Russia's defence ministry said its troops had advanced about 9 km (5 miles) in that part of the 1,000-km (620 mile) front line, and…

Feb

19

2024

By GUY FAULCONBRIDGE and MAXIM RODIONOV

‘I love you,’ Navalny’s widow Yulia says beside a picture of them together

WORLD

"I love you," the widow of Alexei Navalny said in a post on social media beside a picture of them together, two days after President Vladimir Putin's most prominent domestic foe died in a Russian jail. Yulia Navalnaya's post on Instagram, the first since her husband died, showed a picture of the two together, their heads touching as they watched a performance. It brought a personal note to the loss she expressed more formally on a public stage just hours after her husband's death was announced by the Russian prison service. Navalny, 47, fell unconscious and died on Friday after a walk…