WORLD - The African Mirror

Nov

11

2023

As crisis deepens, Cubans scramble to migrate by any means

WORLD

Cuban Idalberto Echavarria manoeuvred his wife Olga in a wheelchair to the front of the line at Terminal 2 of Havana's airport, dodging luggage and a sea of people bidding farewell to friends and family. The crowded terminal, a launch point for Cubans making their way by air to Nicaragua and then overland to the United States, is one barometer of the frenzy to migrate from the communist-run island nation. For many, like Echavarria and his wife, it has also become a last resort as Cuba's economic crisis deepens with no end in sight. "There are other ways, but you need money or…

Nov

10

2023

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI and DOINA CHIACU

Israel agrees to pauses in Gaza attacks, US says, but fighting rages

WORLD

ISRAEL has agreed to pause military operations in northern Gaza for four hours a day from Thursday, the White House said, in the first sign of a respite in more than a month of fighting that has killed thousands and stoked fears of a regional conflict. The pauses, which would allow people to flee along two humanitarian corridors and could be used for the release of hostages, were significant first steps, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said. Minutes later, U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters he was pushing for even longer pauses in Gaza to get hostages held…

Nov

10

2023

By NATE RAYMOND

US says prostitution ring counted politicians, tech execs, lawyers as clients

WORLD

U.S. prosecutors charged three people with running a high-end brothel network out of apartment complexes in greater Boston and northern Virginia whose customers included elected officials, tech and pharmaceutical executives, lawyers, professors and military officers. Federal prosecutors in Boston did not identify any of the "wealthy and well-connected clientele" that they say paid up to $600 per hour for sexual encounters with predominantly Asian women who were being exploited through sex trafficking. The brothels' alleged operators -- Han Lee, 41, and Junmyung Lee, 30, of Massachusetts and James Lee, 68, of California -- were arrested and charged with conspiring to…

Nov

10

2023

By GLEB STOLYAROV

Private jets of Russian oligarchs keep flying but not to Europe

WORLD

IN the two years before the war in Ukraine, a private Boeing 737 linked to Russian oligarch Vladimir Yevtushenkov crisscrossed the globe, taking in the French Riviera, the Maldives and Seychelles along with world capitals and financial centres. This year, instead of traditional playgrounds of the well-heeled, the jet has visited ex-Soviet states Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Belarus a handful of times, along with China, flight tracking data by Flightradar24 shows. In a sign of both the limitations and reach of Western sanctions in place since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, some of Russia's rich and powerful are finding ways to keep…

Nov

09

2023

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI and MAYTAAL ANGEL

Thousands of civilians flee north Gaza as Israeli troops and Hamas fighters battle

WORLD

THOUSANDS of Palestinian civilians trudged in a forlorn procession out of the north of Gaza seeking refuge from Israeli air strikes and fierce ground fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas militants. The exodus took place in a four-hour window of opportunity announced by Israel, which has told residents to evacuate the north encircled by its armoured forces or risk being trapped in the violence. But the central and southern parts of the small, besieged Palestinian enclave also came under fire again as the war between its Islamist Hamas rulers and Israel entered its second month. Palestinian health officials said an air strike…

Nov

09

2023

By JACK QUEEN and LUC COHEN

Ivanka Trump says at NY fraud trial she doesn’t recall deal details

WORLD

DONALD Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump testified that she did not recall details of real-estate deals she worked on at her father's company, in a New York civil fraud trial that threatens the former U.S. president's business empire. Like her brothers Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, who testified last week, Ivanka Trump sought to distance herself from the questionable valuation methods that have already been ruled fraudulent by the judge overseeing the trial. Trump, by contrast, has acknowledged on the witness stand that some of the estimates of golf courses, office towers and other company assets were inaccurate. The lawsuit by New…

Nov

09

2023

By ALVISE ARMELLINI

Italy’s deal with Albania on migrant camps capped at 3,000 migrants

WORLD

ALBANIA will hold a maximum of 3,000 migrants at any one time under a deal announced this week allowing Italy to build two migrant reception and detention camps there, official documents showed. The scheme is the first example of a non-EU country accepting migrants on behalf of an EU nation and is part of a bloc-wide drive to clamp down on irregular immigration. "Parties agree that the total number of migrants present at the same time on Albanian territory cannot be more than 3,000," an Italo-Albanian protocol states, according to a copy seen by Reuters and other media. The figure…

Nov

08

2023

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI

Gaza’s main hospital becomes teeming camp for displaced people

WORLD

CRAMMED under makeshift canvas shelters in the car park, sleeping in corridors or on landings, passing the hours of the day in stairwells, hanging laundry on the roof - thousands of displaced Gazans are filling every space at Al Shifa Hospital. The main hospital in Gaza City has turned into a giant refuge for people whose homes have been bombarded, or who fear that they will be, in Israel's military assault on the Gaza Strip, which is entering its second month. "We ran from our house because of the heavy air strikes," said Um Haitham Hejela, a woman sheltering with…

Nov

08

2023

By STEVE GORMAN

California boat captain guilty of ‘seaman’s manslaughter’ in fire deaths of 34 people

WORLD

THE captain of a dive boat that caught fire and sank off the California coast in 2019, killing 34 people on board in one of the state's deadliest maritime disasters, was found guilty of a federal charge of seaman's manslaughter. Jerry Boylan, 70, was convicted by a U.S. District Court jury in Los Angeles on a single charged count of "misconduct or neglect of a ship officer" under a federal homicide statute dating from steamboat accidents in the early 1800s. The felony conviction, capping a 10-day trial, carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, according to Thom Mrozek,…

Nov

08

2023

By ANANDA TERESIA and GAYATRI SUROYO

Indonesian judge found guilty of ethical violations over ruling that favoured president’s son

WORLD

A judicial panel in Indonesia found the Constitutional Court's chief justice guilty of a conflict of interest over his part in a ruling that allowed President Joko Widodo's son to run for the vice presidency. Anwar Usman, who is the president's brother-in-law, was ordered to step down as the court's senior judge for his failure to recuse himself from a case in which the outcome benefited his nephew, Gibran Rakabuming Raka. Gibran is Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto's running mate for the February 14 election. The ethics panel, which cannot change the outcome of the case, said Anwar could remain one of the…