WORLD - The African Mirror

Oct

21

2023

Ex-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell pleads guilty, could testify in Georgia case

WORLD

A former lawyer for Donald Trump pleaded guilty to aiding the former U.S. president's efforts to overturn his election defeat in the state of Georgia, agreeing to testify against him if called. The lawyer, Sidney Powell, pleaded guilty to six counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with performance of election duties, a misdemeanour charge. She agreed to testify against Trump and the other 16 co-defendants in the case if prosecutors asked her to. The Georgia case is one of four concurrent criminal cases that Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is facing, and one of two specifically focused on his attempts to overturn…

Oct

20

2023

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI and EMILY ROSE

Israeli defence chief says troops will soon see Gaza ‘from inside’

WORLD

ISRAELI Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told troops gathered at the Gaza border that they would soon see the Palestinian enclave "from inside", suggesting an expected ground invasion with the aim of annihilating Hamas could be nearing. Israel pounded Gaza with more air strikes on Thursday over the October 7 rampage by Hamas gunmen who killed 1,400 Israelis. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak followed U.S. President Joe Biden with a visit to demonstrate Western support for the war against Hamas militants. Israel has put the Gaza Strip's 2.3 million people under siege and bombarded the enclave in strikes that have killed…

Oct

20

2023

By DAN PELESCHUK

Wanted: Thousands of Ukrainian judges, in huge overhaul sought by EU

WORLD

VIRA Levko, a judge in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, typically handles dozens of administrative cases and several criminal hearings every day. And she says there are others who are far busier than her. When Levko tells colleagues abroad about her workload, they find it hard to believe. "They don't understand how a judge can hold so much information in their head," she told Reuters at the Dniprovskyi district court. Ukraine is desperately short of judges and is kick-starting a long-delayed nationwide hiring spree to fill more than 2,000 vacancies and vet around as many sitting judges for potential malfeasance. The…

Oct

20

2023

By The African Mirror

Freeze! Polish cops snag thief who pretended to be mannequin

WORLD

A Polish man has been arrested after he pretended to be a mannequin in front of a store window before stealing from a shopping centre after it closed, police in Warsaw said. "A 22-year-old with a bag in his hand froze motionless, pretending to be a mannequin in front of a shop window," police said in a statement. "In this way, he wanted to avoid being exposed by the cameras." After the shopping centre closed the man on one occasion robbed a jewellery stand, according to police. On another occasion he went into a restaurant to eat, before slipping under…

Oct

19

2023

By STEVE HOLLAND

Biden offers Israelis support, Palestinians aid in Tel Aviv

WORLD

U.S. President Joe Biden said that a deadly blast at a Gaza Strip hospital appeared to be from "an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group," and he pledged support to Israelis and humanitarian assistance to suffering Palestinians. Biden travelled to Tel Aviv on a rapid visit to offer staunch U.S. support in the aftermath of the October 7 attack on Israeli villages and military bases by Gaza-based Palestinian Hamas gunmen who killed 1,400 people and took about 200 hostages. His trip was upended by a deadly explosion at Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital on Tuesday evening. Palestinian officials blamed it on an Israeli…

Oct

19

2023

By DOMINIQUE VIDALON and MARINE STRAUSS

Eight French airports hit by security alerts

WORLD

EIGHT French airports faced security alerts and several were evacuated for checks, the DGAC aviation authority said, and the Palace of Versailles closed again due to its third security scare in five days. The airports affected were Toulouse, Biarritz and Pau in the southwest, Nice in the southeast, Lyon in the east, Lille in the north, and Rennes and Nantes in western France, according to a DGAC spokesperson and the interior ministry. Lille airport was evacuated due to a bomb scare, the airport had said earlier in the day on social media platform X. "State security teams are on site," the airport…

Oct

19

2023

By The African Mirror

Putin filmed in China accompanied by officers with Russian nuclear briefcase

WORLD

RARE footage was shown of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing accompanied by officers carrying the so-called nuclear briefcase which can be used to order a nuclear strike. Putin, after a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, was filmed walking to another meeting surrounded by security and followed by two Russian naval officers in uniform each carrying a briefcase. The camera zooms in on one of the briefcases. Russia's nuclear briefcase is traditionally carried by a naval officer. Known as the "Cheget" (named after Mount Cheget in the Caucasus Mountains), the briefcase is with the president at all times but…

Oct

18

2023

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI

In deadly day for Gaza, hospital strike kills hundreds

WORLD

GAZA'S health ministry spokesman said an Israeli air strike has killed hundreds of people at a hospital in the Palestinian enclave, but Israel said a Palestinian barrage had caused the blast. The death toll was by far the highest of any single incident in Gaza during the current violence, triggering protests in the occupied West Bank, Istanbul and Amman. The Palestinian Authority's health minister, Mai Alkaila, accused Israel of "a massacre" at Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital. The strike killed hundreds of people and occurred during Israel's intense 11-day bombing campaign in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "barbaric terrorists" in Gaza…

Oct

18

2023

By JACK QUEEN

Donald Trump turns up at New York fraud trial, complains it distracts from campaign

WORLD

DONALD Trump made a voluntary appearance at his New York civil fraud trial and used it to complain that it is distracting from his campaign to reclaim the White House in 2024. The former U.S. president and frontrunner for the Republican nomination also took the occasion to criticize a limited gag order imposed by a Washington judge in a separate criminal trial related to his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat. Trump appeared in a New York court on Tuesday for the third week of a civil fraud trial which is centered on allegations that he inflated his net…

Oct

18

2023

By The African Mirror

Brussels attacker arrived in Italy’s Lampedusa in 2011

WORLD

THE Tunisian man suspected of shooting dead two Swedish football fans in Brussels arrived in Italy's Lampedusa island in 2011, two Italian government and security sources said, confirming a report by the ANSA news agency. The suspect spent some time in Italy before moving to Sweden but was expelled from there under the EU's "Dublin" rules and returned to Italy, one of the sources said. He was identified in 2016 by police in Bologna as a subject at risk of Islamist radicalisation and came under observation from the intelligence services, but did not have at the time a significant criminal record, the…