WORLD - The African Mirror

Feb

07

2024

North Korea defectors cite dwindling food rations, market reliance -study

WORLD

THE majority of North Koreans who resettled in South Korea over the last decade said they never received government rations in the isolated state and had to rely on an informal market to survive, a study issued by Seoul's unification ministry showed. The 280-page report on North Korea's economic and social situation issued on Tuesday was based on interviews with more than 6,300 defectors between 2013 and 2022. The ministry began such surveys in 2010, but this is the first time results have been publicly released. North Korea has faced serious food shortages in recent decades, including a famine in…

Feb

06

2024

By MICHAEL HOLDEN and MUVIJA M

King Charles diagnosed with cancer, will postpone duties and undergo treatment

WORLD

BRITAIN'S King Charles has been diagnosed with a form of cancer and the 75-year-old will postpone his public duties while he undergoes treatment, Buckingham Palace said. Charles, who became king in September 2022 following the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth, is "wholly positive" about his treatment and looks forward to returning to full public duty as soon as possible, the palace said. Charles spent three nights in the hospital last month where he underwent a corrective procedure for a benign enlarged prostate. The palace said a separate issue of concern had been spotted during the hospital visit but did not give…

Feb

06

2024

By ANDREW CHUNG and JOHN KRUZEL

Trump heads to US Supreme Court with a familiar claim: He is untouchable

WORLD

DONALD Trump will try to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court this week to reverse a judicial decision to kick him off the ballot in Colorado over his actions concerning the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack, arguing that the constitutional provision his opponents cite does not apply to him as a former president. It may not be the only time Trump makes this type of assertion to the justices. As he fights four criminal cases and civil litigation in lower courts, Trump has repeatedly advanced a bold argument: that he is formally immune or otherwise not subject to these legal challenges. "Trump appears obsessed with trying to place himself above the law.…

Feb

06

2024

By The African Mirror

Rapper Killer Mike taken away from Grammy Awards in handcuffs

WORLD

RAPPER Killer Mike was taken away from Sunday night's Grammy Awards in handcuffs by police after sweeping up three of the music industry's biggest prizes for rap music, witnesses said. Los Angeles police offered no statement on the matter and two separate press officers on duty said they had no information. Video posted on social media showed police escorting Killer Mike, his hands cuffed behind his back, through the concourse of Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The Hollywood Reporter, citing an arena security official, reported that Killer Mike was detained for an unspecified misdemeanour charge unrelated to the Grammy Awards.…

Feb

06

2024

By The African Mirror

Forest fires kill 112 in Chile’s worst disaster since 2010 earthquake

WORLD

FIREFIGHTERS in central Chile battled to quell fierce forest fires that have killed 112 people so far and razed entire neighbourhoods, while President Gabriel Boric warned the country faces a "tragedy of very great magnitude". Hundreds of people are still missing, authorities say, stoking fears the death toll will keep climbing as more bodies are found on hillsides and houses devastated by the wildfires. The fires that gathered momentum on Friday now menaced the outer edges of Vina del Mar and Valparaiso, two coastal cities popular with tourists. The urban sprawl of those cities accounts for more than a million…

Feb

05

2024

By BASSAM MASOUD and IBRAHEEMABU MUSTAFA

Gaza doctor describes ordeal of detention

WORLD

A Palestinian doctor says Israeli forces in Gaza detained him when they overran a hospital and subjected him to abuse during 45 days of captivity including sleep deprivation and constant shackling and blindfolding before releasing him last week. Doctor Said Abdulrahman Maarouf was working at al-Ahli al-Arab Hospital in Gaza City when it was surrounded by Israeli forces in December. He described having his hands cuffed, his legs shackled and his eyes masked for the nearly seven-week duration of his imprisonment. He said he was told to sleep in places that were covered with pebbles without a mattress, pillow or…

Feb

05

2024

By GIBRAN NAIYYAR PESHIMAM and ARIBA SHAHID

Imran Khan and his wife get seven-year prison sentence for unlawful marriage

WORLD

FORMER Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Khan were sentenced to seven years in prison and fined by a court that ruled their 2018 marriage broke the law, his party said. It was the third ruling against Khan this week and comes ahead of national elections on Thursday that he is barred from contesting. Khan, 71, has in recent days been sentenced to 10 years for leaking state secrets and 14 years along with his wife for illegally selling state gifts. His representatives say he will launch appeals in all three cases. It was not immediately clear if his various sentences would…

Feb

04

2024

By PHIL STEWART, IDREES ALI and TIMOUR AZHARI

U.S. launches strikes in Iraq, Syria, nearly 40 reported killed

WORLD

THE United States launched airstrikes in Iraq and Syria against more than 85 targets linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) and the militias it backs, reportedly killing nearly 40 people, in retaliation for a deadly attack on U.S. troops. The strikes, which included the use of long-range B-1 bombers flown from the United States, were the first in response to the attack last weekend in Jordan by Iran-backed militants, and more U.S. military operations are expected in the coming days. The strikes intensified a conflict that has spread into the region since war erupted between Israel and Hamas after the militant Palestinian group's deadly assault…

Feb

04

2024

By The African Mirror

Knife attack wounds three in Paris, police rule out terrorism

WORLD

A knife attack in the Gare de Lyon rail station in Paris left three people wounded, police said, ruling out terrorism at this stage. Police arrested the suspected attacker, who showed signs of mental disorders, Paris police chief Laurent Nunes told reporters. "We found medicine on him which suggests he was undergoing treatment." Two of the victims suffered light wounds while the third was more seriously hurt but was not in a life-threatening situation, police said. The attacker, who carried Italian residence permits and was in France legally, attacked travellers with a knife and hammer. French media said he was…

Feb

03

2024

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI and MOHAMMED SALEM

Backs to the fence, Gazans fear Israeli attack on last refuge

WORLD

ISRAELI forces shelled the outskirts of the last refuge on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, where the displaced population, penned against the border fence in their hundreds of thousands, feared a new assault with nowhere left to flee. More than half of Gaza's 2.3 million residents are now homeless and crammed into Rafah. Tens of thousands more have arrived in recent days, carrying belongings in their arms and pulling children on carts, since Israeli forces last week launched one of the biggest assaults of the war to capture adjacent Khan Younis, the main southern city. If the Israeli…