WORLD - The African Mirror

Sep

28

2023

Russian Black Sea commander shown on video call after Ukraine said it killed him

WORLD

ADMIRAL Viktor Sokolov, the commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, was shown on Russian state television attending a defence leaders' meeting remotely, a day after Ukrainian special forces said they had killed him. In video and photographs released by the defence ministry, Sokolov was shown as one of several fleet commanders on video apparently joining an in-person meeting of Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and other army chiefs, although not speaking. It was not clear when the video was filmed. Ukraine's special forces said on Monday that Sokolov had been killed along with 33 other officers in a missile attack last week…

Sep

27

2023

By The African Mirror

Ukrainian captain says ‘deeply sorry’ about Budapest boat accident that killed 27

WORLD

THE Ukrainian captain of a Swiss cruise liner told a Hungarian court that he was "deeply sorry" about a 2019 accident in which his boat hit and sank a much smaller boat on the Danube, killing 25 South Korean tourists and its two crew. The court is expected to deliver a sentence later on Tuesday. The smaller tourist boat Mermaid, with 35 people on board, sank under a bridge during heavy rain.

Sep

27

2023

By WA LONE and STEVE SCHERER

Canadian Sikhs stage protests against Indian government over murder

WORLD

CANADIAN Sikhs staged small protests outside India's diplomatic missions, a week after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there may be a link between New Delhi and the murder of a Sikh separatist advocate in British Columbia. Trudeau a week ago stood in parliament to say that domestic intelligence agencies were actively pursuing credible allegations tying New Delhi's agents to the shooting of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, in June. About 100 protesters in Toronto burned an Indian flag and struck a cardboard cut-out of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a shoe. About 200 protesters also gathered outside the Vancouver consulate.…

Sep

27

2023

By FELIX LIGHT and GUY FAULCONBRIDGE

US calls on Azerbaijan to safeguard Armenians as thousands flee Karabakh

WORLD

HUNGRY and exhausted Armenian families jammed roads to flee homes in the defeated breakaway enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, while the United States called on Azerbaijan to protect civilians and let in aid. The Armenians of Karabakh - part of Azerbaijan beyond Baku's control since the dissolution of the Soviet Union - began fleeing this week after their forces were routed in a lightning military operation by Azerbaijan's military. At least 13,550 of the 120,000 ethnic Armenians who call Nagorno-Karabakh home arrived in Armenia on the first day of the exodus, with hundreds of cars and buses crammed with belongings snaking down the mountain…

Sep

26

2023

By The African Mirror

Ukraine says Russian Black Sea Fleet Commander killed, no comment by Moscow

WORLD

UKRAINE'S Special Forces said that Admiral Viktor Sokolov, the commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, had been killed in a Ukrainian attack last week on the fleet headquarters in the Crimean port of Sevastopol. The Russian Defence Ministry did not immediately respond when asked by Reuters to confirm or deny that Sokolov had been killed in the attack on Crimea, which Russia seized and annexed in 2014. The Ukrainian military said Friday's attack had targeted a meeting of the Russian Navy's leadership in the city of Sevastopol. "After the strike on the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, 34…

Sep

26

2023

By The African Mirror

Spanish prosecutor to probe AI-generated images of naked minors

WORLD

A Spanish prosecutor's office said it would probe whether AI-generated images of naked teenage girls, allegedly created and shared by their peers in southwestern Spain, constituted a crime. The rise in use by children of such technologies has sparked widespread concern among parents worldwide. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation warned in June that criminals were increasingly using artificial intelligence to create sexually explicit images to intimidate and extort victims. The prosecutor received a 200-page police dossier with about 20 complaints by families denouncing that fake nude pictures of their daughters generated with an AI app were circulating on social media and…

Sep

26

2023

By PHILIP PULLELLA

Oscar-winning Italian actress Sophia Loren hospitalised after fall

WORLD

OSCAR-winning Italian film star Sophia Loren, a national icon and one of the most enduring movie divas of the 20th century, has had surgery after a fall in her home in Geneva, her spokesperson said. The operation on Loren, 89, "went well and now she needs to rest and everything will be resolved," the spokesperson told Reuters in an email. He gave no details but said Italian media reports were correct. The reports said she had an accidental fall in her home in Geneva on Sunday and had suffered a broken hip. Loren has won two Oscars, the first in…

Sep

25

2023

By FATOS BYTYCI

Gunmen battle police in Kosovo monastery siege; four dead

WORLD

GUNMEN in armoured vehicles stormed a village in an ethnic Serbian-majority region of Kosovo, battling police and barricading themselves in a monastery in a resurgence of violence in the restive north. Kosovo police said one officer and three of about 30 attackers died in shootouts around the village of Banjska. Monks and pilgrims were locked in the Serbian Orthodox monastery's temple as the siege raged for hours. Ethnic Albanians form the vast majority of the 1.8 million population of Kosovo, a former province of Serbia. But some 50,000 Serbs form the majority in the north, where clashes in May injured dozens of protesters…

Sep

25

2023

By The African Mirror

Iran says it defused 30 bombs in Tehran, detained 28 people, Tasnim reports

WORLD

AUTHORITIES in Iran have neutralised 30 bombs meant to go off simultaneously in Tehran and detained 28 terrorists linked to Islamic State, Iran's Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday, citing the intelligence ministry. "Some of the members are of Islamic State (IS) and the perpetrators have a history of being affiliated with Takfiri groups in Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Kurdistan region of Iraq," Iran's intelligence ministry added in a statement. The militant group has claimed several attacks in Iran, including deadly twin bombings in 2017 that targeted Iran's parliament and the tomb of the Islamic Republic's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. More…

Sep

25

2023

By The African Mirror

Mexican police cuff crooked ‘demon doll’ Chucky

WORLD

HANDCUFFED, a knife still sticking out of his overalls, the Chucky doll hunches against the wall as police hold him by his bright orange hair to take his mug shot. In a bizarre twist, Chucky and his owner were taken into lock-up in a town in northern Mexico earlier this week. The puppet master, identified only as Carlos "N" under Mexican norms, allegedly used the "demon doll" to scare people and demand money, local media reported. Both were charged with disturbing the peace and putting others' integrity at risk. One officer at the police department in Monclova, in Coahuila state,…