WORLD - The African Mirror

Dec

11

2023

Israeli tanks reach centre of Khan Younis in new storm of southern Gaza

WORLD

ISRAELI tanks battled their way to the heart of Khan Younis in a major new push into the main city of the southern Gaza Strip, as health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza said about 18,000 Palestinians had been killed in the war. Israeli leaders said dozens of Hamas fighters had surrendered, encouraging more of them to do so, but the Palestinian militant group denied this, calling the claim "false and baseless". Residents of Khan Younis said tanks had reached the main north-south road through the city after intense combat through the night that had slowed the Israeli advance from the east.…

Dec

11

2023

By The African Mirror

Cuba thwarts terrorist plot by South Florida man who arrived by jetski, state-run media says

WORLD

CUBA said that it had thwarted a terrorist plot hatched in neighboring south Florida, according to a report broadcast on state-run media, after a man allegedly arrived on the island by jetski to commit acts of violence. The resulting investigation, which state-run media said was still underway, alleged the plot was tied to at least two groups, Nueva Nacion Cubana and La Nueva Nacion Cubana en Armas, which Cuba has labeled as terrorist entities. Reuters was unable to contact either of the groups late on Saturday. The report said one of the men it had arrested, who appeared on the…

Dec

11

2023

By LUCILA SIGAL

Argentina’s dog-loving President Milei greets canine fan after inauguration

WORLD

ARGENTINA'S newly sworn in President Javier Milei, who famously has cloned dogs he calls his "kids with four paws", ordered his motorcade to stop unexpectedly after taking office to greet another canine fan: a lost golden retriever. The outsider libertarian, a wild-haired former TV pundit who has shaken up Argentine politics with radical economic ideas and theatrical rallies, got out of the car taking him to the Casa Rosada government palace from Congress and spent a minute petting the dog which appeared to have strayed from its owner. Milei has at least four cloned mastiffs, whom he has mentioned repeatedly during…

Dec

10

2023

By BASSAM MASOUD and NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI

Israel orders more evacuations in Khan Younis after US blocks Gaza ceasefire call

WORLD

ISRAEL ordered residents out of the centre of Gaza's main southern city Khan Younis and pounded the length of the enclave, after the United States wielded its U.N. Security Council veto to shield its ally from a demand for a ceasefire. Since a truce collapsed last week, Israel has expanded its ground assault into the southern half of the Gaza Strip by pushing into Khan Younis. Simultaneously, both sides have reported a surge in fighting in the north. Israel said its campaign was making progress. National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said Israeli forces had killed at least 7,000 Hamas militants so far,…

Dec

10

2023

By The African Mirror

Iran begins trial of Swedish EU employee detained in 2022

WORLD

AN Iranian court has begun the trial of a Swedish national employed by the European Union who was detained last year, Sweden's foreign minister said. "I have been informed that the trial of Johan Floderus has begun in Tehran," Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom told Swedish news agency TT. "The Swedish charge d'affaires was at the court but was refused the right to participate in the trial. Sweden has ... requested the right to be present when the trial resumes." Floderus was detained in April 2022 while on holiday in Iran for what his family said was alleged spying. Billstrom did not specify…

Dec

10

2023

By The African Mirror

Ukraine presses ahead with removal of Soviet monuments

WORLD

UKRAINIAN officials pressed on with a campaign to remove Soviet-era monuments as authorities in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv dismantled a statue of a Red Army commander from a central boulevard. Ukraine has doubled down on efforts to erase all traces of Russian rule amid a full-scale invasion by Kremlin troops, now nearing its two-year mark. Municipal workers on Saturday carefully hoisted the hulking statue of Mykola Shchors, a Soviet field commander during the Russian Civil War, off its pedestal. The structure had occupied a prominent spot on a central artery named after Ukraine's national poet. Onlookers stopped to watch and…

Dec

09

2023

By BASSAM MASOUD and NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI

Israel intensifies Gaza strikes, U.S. alarmed

WORLD

ISRAEL sharply stepped up strikes on the Gaza Strip, pounding the length of the Palestinian enclave and killing hundreds in a new, expanded phase of the war that Washington said veered from Israeli promises to do more to protect civilians. The Israeli military said on Friday it had struck more than 450 targets in Gaza from land, sea and air over the past 24 hours - the most since a truce collapsed last week and about double the daily figures typically reported since then. With most Gazans now displaced and unable to access any aid, hospitals overrun and food running…

Dec

09

2023

By SAM TOBIN

Former UK police officers sentenced for sending racist messages about Meghan, royals

WORLD

SIX former London police officers were given suspended prison sentences for sharing offensive and racist messages on WhatsApp, including references to Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, and other members of the royal family. In a statement after the sentencing hearing Commander James Harman, who leads the Metropolitan Police's Anti-Corruption and Abuse Command, said "The racist and discriminatory content of these messages is absolutely appalling". "Given the defendants once served as police officers, we recognise that this case may further damage confidence in policing," Harman said. The six officers, who have all retired, were charged after an investigation by the BBC's…

Dec

09

2023

By STEVE GORMAN

Las Vegas campus gunman described as struggling academic with ‘target list’

WORLD

THE gunman who killed three professors and wounded one at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, was a financially struggling academic whose job applications were rejected by several higher-education institutions in Nevada, police said. Anthony James Polito, 67, also had mailed nearly two dozen suspicious letters to faculty at universities across the country and had prepared a "target list" of people at both UNLV and a North Carolina university where he once worked, police said. Polito, facing eviction from his home in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, had a criminal record of computer trespass dating to 1992 in Virginia,…

Dec

08

2023

By The African Mirror

Son of Israeli minister killed in Gaza battles -statement

WORLD

THE son of an Israeli cabinet minister and former military chief Gadi Eizenkot was killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip, Benny Gantz, leader of the National Unity Party, said. Party members Eizenkot and Gantz, also a former army chief, joined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government shortly after Hamas' deadly October 7 attack which prompted an Israeli air, ground and sea offensive in the Palestinian Gaza Strip. The Israeli military did not provide precise details about the death of Gal Meir Eisenkot, 25, other than to say he was killed in combat in the northern Gaza Strip. "Together with all of Israel,…