WORLD - The African Mirror

Dec

15

2023

Australian woman jailed for 20 years for death of her four children has conviction quashed

WORLD

A woman imprisoned for 20 years over the deaths of her four children, and pardoned in June, saw her convictions quashed by New South Wales state on Thursday, with her lawyer saying she plans to claim "substantial" compensation. Kathleen Folbigg was convicted in 2003 of murdering three of her children, and of manslaughter in the death of her fourth. Folbigg maintained her innocence and said the children had died of natural causes over a decade, from 1989 to 1999. In 2019, an initial inquiry into the case reaffirmed Folbigg's guilt. But in 2022, a second inquiry led by a former…

Dec

14

2023

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI and FADI SHANA

Israel suffers worst combat losses since October, diplomatic isolation

WORLD

ISRAEL announced its worst combat losses for more than a month after an ambush in the ruins of Gaza City and faced growing diplomatic isolation as civilian deaths mounted and a humanitarian catastrophe worsened. Intense fighting was underway in both north and south Gaza, a day after the United Nations demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. U.S. President Joe Biden said Israel's "indiscriminate" bombing of civilians was costing international support. Warplanes again bombed the length of Gaza and aid officials said the arrival of winter rain worsened conditions for hundreds of thousands sleeping rough in makeshift tents. The vast majority of Gaza's…

Dec

14

2023

By JAMES OLIPHANT

Yes, Trump can win the 2024 election. Here are four reasons why

WORLD

HE has been impeached twice, tried to thwart the peaceful transfer of power after losing the 2020 presidential election, faces scores of charges in multiple criminal cases, and his critics warn he is plotting to rule as an autocrat. Yet, Donald Trump could still return to the White House. Trump leads his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination by nearly 50 percentage points in national opinion polls, a remarkable comeback for a one-term president who three years ago appeared vanquished and humiliated. Here are four reasons why Trump could win the November 2024 election against Democratic incumbent Joe Biden: UNHAPPY VOTERS The…

Dec

14

2023

By The African Mirror

‘Russia is waking up’: a tango-dancing soldier’s wife finds purpose on Russian home front

WORLD

NATALIA Yermakova's husband, Alexander, has been fighting in Ukraine for over a year after responding to President Vladimir Putin's mobilisation call. Wounded on the battlefield, he was operated on and then sent back to the front after recovering. Now his wife, who shares his love of tango dancing, is doing her own bit for the war effort: toiling as a volunteer in a "Family Battalion". One of a group of around 40 mostly female relatives of mobilised men in Moscow who give up their free time to help out, she threads camouflage netting, makes signs to mark minefields, gathers candles…

Dec

13

2023

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI and BASSAM MASOUD

As Israel pounds southern Gaza, Biden warns it is losing support

WORLD

ISRAELI tanks and warplanes bombarded the Gaza Strip, killing dozens of Palestinians, and U.S. President Joe Biden warned Israel it was losing international support because of its "indiscriminate" bombing of civilians in its war against Hamas militants. In a further sign of world concern over the conduct of the conflict, now in its third month, Australia, Canada and New Zealand said they supported international efforts towards a sustainable ceasefire. They expressed alarm at the plight of civilians in Gaza. At the United Nations, the 193-member U.N. General Assembly was preparing to vote on a resolution calling for a ceasefire. Diplomats said it…

Dec

13

2023

By JULIETTE JABKHIRO

France to end contract with biggest Muslim high school amid fears of wider crackdown

WORLD

FRANCE is to end funding for its biggest Muslim high school on the grounds of administrative failures and questionable teaching practices, a local official said, the latest in what some rights groups say is a wider crackdown on Muslims. Private school Averroes, the first Muslim high school to open in mainland France in 2003 in the northern city of Lille, has more than 800 pupils and has been under contract with the state since 2008. Pupils follow the regular French curriculum and are also offered religion classes. But in an October report seen by Reuters, the interior ministry's local office said the…

Dec

13

2023

By SAKURA MURAKAMI

Japanese ex-soldier wins battle for justice in landmark sexual assault case

WORLD

A Japanese court found three former soldiers guilty of sexually assaulting a female colleague, in a victory for the victim whose battle for justice challenged taboos in a traditional, male-dominated society. The case of 24-year-old former Self-Defense Forces member Rina Gonoi relates to a 2021 incident during her time in the army when she said she was pinned down by three male colleagues who simulated a sex act on her. The defendants denied that their acts amounted to sexual assault. The men, aged from 29 to 31, seemed to show little expression as the judge read out his verdict, giving…

Dec

12

2023

By The African Mirror

Russia’s FSB says it cracks Ukrainian network planning assassinations in Crimea

WORLD

RUSSIA'S Federal Security Service (FSB), the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said that it had cracked a network of Ukrainian agents in Crimea who were involved in attempts to assassinate pro-Russian figures. It said the targets included the Moscow-appointed head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, and a former pro-Russian member of the Ukrainian parliament, Oleg Tsaryov. Tsaryov survived despite being shot twice in an attack in October in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. A source in Ukraine's SBU intelligence agency told Reuters at the time that the shooting was an SBU operation. The FSB said the Ukrainian network…

Dec

12

2023

By ARPAN CHATURVEDI and YP RAJESH

India’s top court upholds end of special status for Kashmir, orders polls

WORLD

INDIA'S Supreme Court upheld a 2019 decision by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to revoke special status for the state of Jammu and Kashmir and set a deadline of September 30 next year for local polls to be held. India's only Muslim-majority region, Jammu and Kashmir has been at the heart of more than 75 years of animosity with neighbouring Pakistan since the birth of the two nations in 1947 at independence from colonial rule by Britain. The unanimous order by a panel of five judges followed more than a dozen petitions challenging the revocation and a subsequent decision…

Dec

12

2023

By The African Mirror

Swiss police detain suspect after shooting kills two

WORLD

A gunman killed two people and wounded a third in the Swiss alpine town of Sion, and a suspect was later arrested, police said. Several shots were fired in two parts of the town, police in the southwestern Valais canton said. The victims were a 34-year-old woman and a 41-year-old man who lived in the area, police added. After the shooting, officers cordoned off the scene and set up a checkpoint, stopping and searching cars on the main road out of the canton. Switzerland has a high rate of gun ownership. The Swiss-based Small Arms Survey research group estimates that…