WORLD - The African Mirror

Dec

05

2023

‘No plan B’ for Paris opening ceremony after knife attack – sports minister

WORLD

There is no "plan B" for the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games, the French sports minister said, after a man armed with a knife and hammer killed a German tourist and left two people wounded near the Eiffel Tower. "We have no plan B, we have a plan in which there are several sub-plans with a certain number of adjustment variables," Amelie Oudea-Castera told France Inter radio. The 26-year-old suspect, a French national arrested after the attack, had pledged allegiance to Islamic State in a video recorded beforehand, anti-terrorism Prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard said on Sunday. The attack occurred…

Dec

04

2023

By ARAFAT BARBAKH and NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI

Israeli bombing of Gaza intensifies, refugee camp reported hit

WORLD

ISRAELI forces bombed wide areas of the Gaza Strip, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians, as civilians in the besieged territory sought shelter in an ever-shrinking area of the south. The Hamas Palestinian militant group said its fighters clashed with Israeli troops about 2 km (1 mile) from the southern city of Khan Younis, as residents said they feared a fresh Israeli ground offensive was building there. There was no immediate comment from Israel. The Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the Hamas-ruled enclave was among the sites hit reported hit from the air. A Gazan health ministry spokesperson…

Dec

04

2023

By KAREN LEMA and NEIL JEROME MORALES

Islamic State claims responsibility for deadly Philippine bombing

WORLD

ISLAMIC State militants claimed responsibility for a deadly bombing at a Catholic Mass in the Philippines that killed at least four people and injured 50 others. The attack was carried out in a university gymnasium in Marawi, a city in the south of the country besieged by Islamist militants for five months in 2017. The Islamic State group, which wields influence in the country's south, said on Telegram its members had detonated the bomb. Earlier on Sunday, before Islamic State's claim, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr condemned "the senseless and most heinous acts perpetrated by foreign terrorists". Police and the…

Dec

04

2023

By DOMINIQUE VIDALON and GILLES GUILLAUME

Paris attack near Eiffel Tower leaves German tourist dead and two hurt

WORLD

A German tourist died and two other people, including a British citizen, were hurt after an attack by a man armed with a knife and hammer near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, in what President Emmanuel Macron described as "a terrorist attack". Police quickly arrested the 26-year-old man, a French national, after subduing him with a Taser stun gun, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told reporters on Saturday. The suspect had in 2016 been sentenced to four years in prison for planning another attack, and had been on the French security services' watch list, the minister said, adding that he was…

Dec

03

2023

By SUHAIB SALEM and NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI

Israel bombards southern Gaza as residents fear new ground offensive

WORLD

ISRAELI warplanes and artillery bombarded the south of the Gaza Strip, hitting mosques, homes and close to a hospital, after the collapse of a truce in the nearly two-month-old war between Israel and Hamas militants Residents feared the barrages were a prelude to an Israeli ground operation in the south of the Palestinian territory which would bottle them up in a shrinking area and possibly try to push them into neighbouring Egypt. The Gaza health ministry said at least 193 Palestinians had been killed and 650 wounded since the truce ended on Friday morning - adding to the more than 15,000 Palestinians…

Dec

03

2023

By The African Mirror

Judge rejects Trump immunity claim in 2020 election case

WORLD

DONALD Trump does not have immunity from criminal charges for actions he took as president, a U.S. judge ruled on Friday, rejecting his bid to toss out the case brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith accusing him of unlawfully trying to overturn his 2020 election loss. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan found no legal basis for concluding that presidents cannot face criminal charges once they are no longer in office. Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the 2024 U.S. election, served from 2017 to 2021. "Whatever immunities a sitting president may enjoy, the United…

Dec

03

2023

By The African Mirror

Earthquake of 7.5 strikes Philippines, tsunami expected in Philippines and Japan

WORLD

AN earthquake of at least magnitude 7.5 struck Mindanao in the southern Philippines late on Saturday, triggering evacuation orders for some areas and southwestern Japanese coasts because of warnings of tsunami waves of a metre (3 feet) or more. The Philippine Seismology Agency Phivolcs said the waves could hit the Philippines by midnight (1600 GMT) and continue for hours. The U.S. Tsunami Warning System said there could be waves of up to 3 metres above the tide level along some Philippine coasts. "Boats already at sea during this period should stay offshore in deep waters until further advised," Phivolcs said,…

Dec

02

2023

By SUHAIB SALEM and NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI

Scores reported killed in Gaza as fighting shatters Israel-Hamas truce

WORLD

ISRAEL'S warplanes pounded Gaza on Friday after talks to extend a week-old truce with Hamas collapsed, sending wounded and dead Palestinians into hospitals and forcing hundreds to flee in the streets. Eastern areas of Khan Younis in southern Gaza came under intense bombardment as the deadline lapsed shortly after dawn, with columns of smoke rising into the sky, Reuters journalists in the city said. Residents took to the road with belongings heaped up in carts, searching for shelter further west. In the north of the enclave, previously the main war zone, huge plumes of smoke rose above the ruins, seen…

Dec

02

2023

By The African Mirror

Swiss have frozen $8.8 billion of Russian assets

WORLD

SWITZERLAND has frozen an estimated 7.7 billion Swiss francs ($8.81 billion) in financial assets belonging to Russians, the government said, under sanctions designed to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. The figure, a provisional estimate, represented a slight increase from the 7.5 billion francs the Swiss government said it had blocked last year after the neutral country adopted European Union sanctions. The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the agency overseeing sanctions, said the 7.7 billion francs figure was only its latest estimate and was subject to change. It was difficult to give a precise figure due to new…

Dec

02

2023

By MAKINI BRICE and RICHARD COWAN

Indicted Republican lawmaker George Santos expelled from US House

WORLD

INDICTED Republican George Santos' brief career in the U.S. House of Representatives came to an end, when fellow lawmakers voted to expel him over criminal corruption charges and accusations of misspending campaign money. The House voted 311-114 to immediately remove the controversial freshman lawmaker, above the two-thirds majority required to oust one of its own. Embattled by revelations of lies about his past and a federal criminal indictment, Santos, 35, became only the sixth member to be expelled from the House. He was the first to be kicked out without having fought for the Confederacy or being convicted of a crime. Following…