WORLD - The African Mirror

Oct

04

2023

Canada wants private talks with India to resolve diplomatic spat

WORLD

CANADA wants private talks with India to resolve a diplomatic dispute over the murder of a Sikh separatist leader, Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said, after a report said India had asked the country to withdraw 41 diplomats. India has told Canada that it must repatriate the diplomats by October 10, according to the Financial Times. Neither Joly nor Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded when asked if the report was accurate. "We are in contact with the government of India. We take Canadian diplomats' safety very seriously and we will continue to engage privately because we think diplomatic conversations are best…

Oct

04

2023

By XINGHUI KOK

Singapore says $2 billion in assets seized in money laundering case

WORLD

SINGAPORE said it was expecting more arrests and seizures as the Asian financial hub investigates one of its biggest cases of suspected money laundering, in which the value of assets seized now stands at S$2.8 billion ($2 billion). Simultaneous raids in mid-August by authorities of the city-state known for its low crime rate led to the arrest of 10 foreigners and the seizure of luxury properties, cars, gold bars, designer handbags and jewellery worth S$1 billion. "This case is a reminder that even the most stringent preventive measures can be circumvented by determined criminals," Josephine Teo, the second minister for home…

Oct

03

2023

By JACK QUEEN and LUC COHEN

Trump reaped over $1 billion through fraud, New York says as trial starts

WORLD

A defiant Donald Trump attacked New York's attorney general and the judge overseeing his civil fraud trial as it began, with a state lawyer accusing the former president of generating more than $1 billion by lying about his real estate empire. Attorney General Letitia James is seeking at least $250 million in fines, a permanent ban against Trump and his sons Donald Jr and Eric from running businesses in New York and a five-year commercial real estate ban against Trump and the Trump Organization. Testimony in the Manhattan courtroom began following opening statements, with Donald Bender, a partner at Mazars USA and longtime…

Oct

03

2023

By NIVEDITA BALU

Couple killed in grizzly bear attack in Canada’s Banff National Park

WORLD

A grizzly bear attacked and killed two people and their dog in Alberta's Banff National Park, according to Canadian park officials and a friend of the victims. Parks Canada said in a statement on Saturday night it had received an alert late Friday from a GPS device indicating a bear attack in the Red Deer River Valley west of Ya Ha Tinda Ranch in Banff National Park. The bear was later euthanized after it displayed aggressive behaviour, the agency said. The victims were a Canadian couple and their dog, according to Kim Titchener, the founder of Bear Safety and More…

Oct

03

2023

By The African Mirror

Live Aid the musical coming to London decades after fundraising extravaganza

WORLD

LIVE Aid, the transatlantic concert that raised millions for famine relief in Ethiopia, is being turned into a stage musical that will premiere at London's Old Vic next year, the theatre said. Organised by rockers Bob Geldof and Midge Ure almost 40 years ago, Live Aid was watched by an estimated 1.5 billion people. "If this musical encourages just one person to have a positive impact for the better, then it will be a job well done," Geldof said in a statement on The Old Vic website. He said he had watched the production develop. "I'm looking forward to seeing…

Oct

02

2023

By The African Mirror

Nightclub fire kills at least 13 in Murcia in Spain

WORLD

AT least 13 people have been killed in a fire in a nightclub in Murcia in southeast Spain, emergency services said, adding that rescuers were still searching for people unaccounted for after the blaze. Outside the club, young people hugged, looking shocked as they waited for information after the fire that broke out in the early hours in Atalayas, on the outskirts of the city. "I think we left 30 seconds to 1 minute before the alarms went off and all the lights went out (and) the screams saying there was a fire," one survivor, who was not identified, said.…

Oct

02

2023

By The African Mirror

Iraq wedding fire caused by ‘gross negligence’, government investigation says

WORLD

A fire that swept through a crowded wedding hall in a northern Iraqi town killing more than 100 people was blamed on "gross negligence" and lack of safety measures, the results of a government investigation into the disaster said. The investigation results, announced at a news conference on Sunday by Interior Minister Abdul Amir al-Shammari, said the owner of the hall and three other staff members had allowed 900 people into the venue when it was designed for a maximum of 400. “The fire was accidental and unintentional and occurred due to gross negligence,” the investigation findings said. “Using flammable decoration helped…

Oct

02

2023

By GUY FAULCONBRIDGE

Mourners hail dead Russian mercenary Prigozhin as hero of the people

WORLD

AT memorials to Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed in an unexplained plane crash exactly 40 days ago, dozens of mourners hailed the mutinous mercenary chief as a patriotic hero of Russia who had spoken truth to power. The private Embraer jet on which Prigozhin was travelling to St. Petersburg crashed north of Moscow killing all 10 people on board on August 23, including two other top Wagner figures, Prigozhin's four bodyguards and a crew of three. It is still unclear what caused the plane to crash two months to the day since Prigozhin's failed mutiny. The Kremlin said on Aug. 30 that…

Oct

01

2023

By LISA RICHWINE and STEVE GORMAN

Suspect in rapper Tupac Shakur’s 1996 slaying charged with murder in Las Vegas

WORLD

AN admitted former street gang leader was arrested on a charge of murder in the Las Vegas shooting death of hip-hop star Tupac Shakur nearly three decades ago, a long-unsolved crime that became a defining moment in the history of rap music. Duane "Keffe D" Davis, who police said was long suspected and began implicating himself in a series of public statements in recent years, was taken into custody outside his home a day after a grand jury in Clark County, Nevada, returned an indictment against him. The indictment was presented during a brief hearing on Friday to a judge…

Oct

01

2023

By LAURA GOTTESDIENER, TED HESSON, MICA ROSENBERG and DAINA BETH SOLOMON

Migrants are being raped at Mexico border as they await entry to US

WORLD

WHEN Carolina's captors arrived at dawn to pull her out of the stash house in the Mexican border city of Reynosa in late May, she thought they were going to force her to call her family in Venezuela again to beg them to pay $2,000 ransom. Instead, one of the men shoved her onto a broken-down bus parked outside and raped her, she told Reuters. "It's the saddest, most horrible thing that can happen to a person," Carolina said. A migrant advocate who assisted Carolina after the kidnapping, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity due to security concerns,…