WORLD - The African Mirror

Jan

20

2024

By PARISA HAFEZI, CHARLOTTE GREENFIELD and GIBRAN NAIYYAR PESHIMAM

Iran-Pakistan flare-up rooted in restive borderlands, not Mideast strife

WORLD

AN Iranian strike on Pakistan this week that drew a rapid military riposte and raised fears of greater regional turmoil was driven by Iran's efforts to reinforce its internal security rather than its ambitions for the Middle East, according to three Iranian officials, one Iranian insider and an analyst. Both the heavily armed neighbours, oftentimes at odds over instability on their frontier, appear to want to try to contain the strains resulting from the highest-profile cross-border intrusions in recent years, two analysts and two of the officials said. Iran sent shockwaves around the region on Tuesday with a missile strike against what it…

Jan

20

2024

By The African Mirror

Gaza doctor amputates niece’s leg at home, without anaesthesia

WORLD

PALESTINIAN doctor Hani Bseiso faced an agonising decision when his teenage niece was wounded by Israeli shelling of her Gaza City home: amputate her leg or risk her bleeding to death. Unable to reach a nearby hospital, and using little more than a pair of scissors and some gauze he had in his medical bag, he removed the lower part of A'Hed Bseiso's right leg in an operation carried out on the kitchen table without anaesthetic. Grainy video footage that went viral on Instagram shows him wiping the bloody stump of her right leg as she lies on the table.…

Jan

20

2024

By SAURABH SHARMA and TANVI MEHTA

Indian devotees splurge on jets, gold idols as Hindu temple opens

WORLD

THE private jet parking lots at airports near the Indian city of Ayodhya are full and the shops have run out of gold-plated idols, as wealthy devotees prepare for the invite-only opening ceremony of one of Hinduism's holiest temples. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Asia's richest man Mukesh Ambani are among the 8,000 or so attendees at Monday's inauguration event for the Ram Temple, which devotees believe is built on the birthplace of Lord Ram, a sacred Hindu deity. The construction of the temple, which began after the Supreme Court awarded the site to Hindus in 2019 more than…

Jan

19

2024

By ASIF SHAHZAD and GIBRAN NAIYYAR PESHIMAM

Pakistan fires retaliatory strike at Iran, stoking regional tension

WORLD

PAKISTAN said it used rockets and drones to strike separatist Baloch militants inside Iran, in a retaliatory strike two days after Tehran said it attacked the bases of another group within Pakistani territory. Iranian media said several missiles hit a village in the Sistan-Baluchestan province that borders Pakistan, killing at least nine people, including four children. The neighbours have had rocky ties in the past, but the strikes are the highest-profile cross-border intrusions in recent years and come amid growing worries about instability in the Middle East since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted on October 7. "A number of terrorists…

Jan

19

2024

By JAMES OLIPHANT and GRAM SLATTERY

A day in Trump’s world: morning in courtroom, evening on campaign trail

WORLD

DONALD Trump's schedule summed up the unprecedented nature of this year's election: spend the day in court fighting a defamation case and the evening rallying supporters in his bid to become the next U.S. president. That is how the former president, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination and the world's most famous defendant, has chosen to divide his time this week as he pursues his political comeback. Trump was not obliged to be in the federal courtroom in Manhattan, where a judge warned him he could be kicked out if he was disruptive. His appearances for the civil court case are entirely voluntary.…

Jan

19

2024

By XINGHUI KOK

Singapore minister charged with corruption resigns

WORLD

SINGAPORE'S Transport Minister S. Iswaran was charged with 27 offences in a graft investigation, the anti-corruption agency said, in one of the highest-profile cases involving a minister in the Asian financial hub in decades. In a resignation letter dated Tuesday but published by the prime minister's office on Thursday, Iswaran said he rejected the charges and "will now focus on clearing my name". The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) said Iswaran, who was arrested in July last year, was alleged to have obtained kickbacks worth S$384,340.98 ($286,181) from property tycoon Ong Beng Seng, partly to advance Ong's business interests. Charge…

Jan

18

2024

By The African Mirror

UN chief says parties to Gaza war ‘trampling’ on international law

WORLD

UNITED Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that parties to the conflict in Gaza were "trampling" on international law and urged them to implement an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Guterres said the warring parties were "ignoring international law, trampling on the Geneva Conventions, and even violating the United Nations Charter". "The world is standing by as civilians, mostly women and children, are killed, maimed, bombarded, forced from their homes and denied access to humanitarian aid," he said. "I repeat my call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, and a process that leads to sustained peace…

Jan

18

2024

By The African Mirror

Putin says Ukraine’s statehood at risk if pattern of war continues

WORLD

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin said that Ukraine's statehood could suffer an "irreparable blow" if the pattern of the war continued, and Russia would never be forced to abandon the gains it had made. Putin made his televised comments a day after Switzerland agreed to host a global summit at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Putin dismissed "so-called peace formulas" being discussed in the West and Ukraine and what he called the "prohibitive demands" they entailed. "Well, if they don't want (to negotiate), then don't!" he said. "Now it is quite obvious, not only (Ukraine's) counter-offensive failed, but the…

Jan

17

2024

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI, FADI SHANA and ARI RABINOVITCH

Hamas appears to show dead bodies of two hostages after warning Israel

WORLD

HAMAS appeared to show the dead bodies of two Israeli hostages after warning Israel they might be killed if it did not stop its bombardment of Gaza. A new video released by the Palestinian militant group purportedly showed the bodies of Yossi Sharabi, 53, and Itai Svirsky, 38, who had appeared in an initial video on Sunday. It also showed a third Israeli hostage, university student Noa Argamani, 26, seemingly reading a script in front of a blank white wall, saying the two were killed by Israeli strikes. Israel's military spokesperson said there was serious concern regarding the fate of the hostages purported…

Jan

17

2024

By PARISA HAFEZI and TIMOUR AZHARI

Iran says Revolutionary Guards attack Israel’s ‘spy HQ’ in Iraq, vow more revenge

WORLD

IRAN'S Revolutionary Guards said they attacked the spy headquarters of Israel in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, state media reported late, while the elite force said they also struck in Syria against the Islamic State. The strikes come amid concerns about the escalation of a conflict that has spread through the Middle East since the war between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas began on October 7, with Iran's allies also entering the fray from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. "In response to the recent atrocities of the Zionist regime, causing the killing of commanders of the Guards and the Axis of Resistance…