WORLD - The African Mirror

Oct

08

2023

Timeline of conflict between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza

WORLD

THE Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas launched its biggest assault on Israel in years early, firing a barrage of rockets from Gaza and sending fighters across the border. Israel said it was on a war footing and began its own strikes against Hamas targets in Gaza, with Israeli media reporting gunbattles between bands of Palestinian fighters and security forces in southern Israel. The following timeline, which begins with Israel's 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, details the major flare-ups in the conflict between Israel and Palestinian groups in the crowded coastal enclave, which is home to 2.3 million people. August 2005 - Israeli…

Oct

07

2023

By GWLADYS FOUCHE and TOM LITTLE

Jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi wins Nobel Peace Prize

WORLD

IMPRISONED Iranian women's rights advocate Narges Mohammadi won the Nobel Peace Prize in a rebuke to Tehran's theocratic leaders and a boost for anti-government protesters. The award-making committee said the prize honoured those behind recent unprecedented demonstrations in Iran and called for the release of Mohammadi, 51, who has campaigned for three decades for women's rights and abolition of the death penalty. "We hope to send the message to women all around the world that are living in conditions where they are systematically discriminated: 'Have the courage, keep on going'," Berit Reiss-Andersen, head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, told Reuters. "We want to give the…

Oct

07

2023

By MAX HUNDER

‘Half the village is gone’: Ukraine hamlet reels after missile strike

WORLD

IN a burial plot next to a field outside the remote Ukrainian hamlet of Hroza, residents removed undergrowth and cleared away litter to make space for more graves. Working quietly, it was something to distract them from the horror of what happened the day before. As dozens of people gathered in the local cafe for a meal to honour a soldier who died in the war against Russia, a missile struck, killing at least 52 people. It was one of the most deadly attacks during 20 months of fighting, and one that has devastated the tiny, tight-knit community. Shock is giving…

Oct

07

2023

By KANISHKA SINGH and KAREN FREIFELD

Trump files to dismiss $500 million lawsuit against his ex-lawyer

WORLD

FORMER U.S. President Donald Trump filed a notice to voluntarily dismiss his $500 million lawsuit against his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen, a court filing showed. Trump had sued Cohen in April seeking at least $500 million in damages from his onetime loyal "fixer" after Cohen testified before a Manhattan grand jury that indicted Trump. "Plaintiff, President Donald J. Trump, by and through undersigned counsel, hereby gives notice that .... he is voluntarily dismissing this action without prejudice," Trump's legal team said in a court filing made in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Trump was scheduled to…

Oct

06

2023

By The African Mirror

Scotland OKs extradition of US rape suspect accused of faking own death

WORLD

THE Scottish government said it had approved the extradition to the United States of an American man accused of rape who allegedly faked his own death. U.S. prosecutors say the man is Nicholas Rossi, linked to rape and sexual assault allegations in Utah, who fled the United States to avoid being charged and attempted to fake his own death in 2020 in an effort to avoid being located. The man says he is Arthur Knight and is a victim of mistaken identity who has never been to the United States. "The Scottish ministers have made their decision regarding Mr Nicholas…

Oct

06

2023

By SUBRATA NAG CHOUDHURY and JATINDRA DASH

Himalayan lake flooding in India kills 18, nearly 100 missing

WORLD

AT least 18 people were killed and nearly 100 were missing after heavy rains caused a Himalayan glacial lake in northeast India to burst its banks, the worst such disaster in the region in more than 50 years. Lhonak Lake in Sikkim state overflowed on Wednesday, causing major flooding that authorities said had impacted the lives of 22,000 people. It is the latest deadly weather event in South Asia's mountains being blamed on climate change. The weather department said Sikkim received 101 mm (4 inches) of rain in the first five days of October, more than double normal levels, unleashing…

Oct

06

2023

By PARISA HAFEZI and ELWELY ELWELLY

Iran rights group says mother of hospitalized teenage girl arrested

WORLD

AN Iranian rights group said that security forces arrested the mother of a teenage girl who was in a coma in a hospital following a confrontation with agents in the Tehran metro for not wearing the hijab. Iran's judiciary denied the report by the Iranian-Kurdish rights group Hengaw on the X social media platform. Iranian authorities also deny reports by rights activists that the 16-year-old girl, Armita Geravand, was injured on Sunday in a confrontation with officers enforcing the country's Islamic dress code, which requires women to wear a head covering. Hengaw said that security forces arrested Geravand's mother Shahin…

Oct

05

2023

By MANUEL SILVESTRI

At least 21 dead after Italian bus carrying tourists falls from Venice overpass

WORLD

AT least 21 people died on Tuesday and 18 were injured after a bus carrying tourists to a campground crashed off an overpass near Venice in northern Italy and caught fire, city officials said. The bus veered off the road and fell close to railway lines in the district of Mestre, which is connected to Venice by a bridge. The cause of the accident was unclear. Venice city councillor Renato Boraso said one line of enquiry was that the driver, a 40-year-old Italian who was among those killed, had been taken ill before the crash. "It's an appalling tragedy, the…

Oct

05

2023

By ASIF SHAHZAD

Taliban brands Pakistan expulsion threat to Afghan immigrants ‘unacceptable’

WORLD

PAKISTAN'S threat to forcibly expel illegal Afghan immigrants is "unacceptable", a spokesman for the Taliban administration in Kabul said, adding that Afghans were not to blame for Pakistan's security problems. Estimating that there were 1.73 million Afghan immigrants living in Pakistan without legal status, Pakistan's caretaker government on Tuesday set a November 1 deadline for them to leave or face forcible expulsion. "The behaviour of Pakistan towards Afghan refugees is unacceptable," Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman for the Taliban administration in Kabul, said in a post on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. The move to expel illegal migrants comes…

Oct

05

2023

By PHILIP PULLELLA

After conservative attack, pope calls on synod to set aside politics

WORLD

POPE Francis called on Catholic leaders to set aside politics and work to make the Church more welcoming for all, as he opened a global meeting that conservative critics say risks "poisoning" the faith. Delivering a homily in St Peter's Square at the start of the first global gathering of Church leaders, or synod, for four years, the pope said bishops should avoid "human strategies, political calculations or ideological battles". "We are not here to carry out a parliamentary meeting or a plan of reformation," he said in the homily of the Mass, which the Vatican said was attended by…