WORLD - The African Mirror

Jul

02

2023

Moldova airport shooting suspect in coma, wanted in Tajikstan for abduction

WORLD

THE chief suspect in a shootout in Moldova's main international airport remained in a coma and was wanted in his native Tajikistan in connection with the abduction of a bank officer, Moldovan authorities said. The 43-year-old man grabbed a gun and shot dead two security officers and wounded a civilian on Friday after being denied entry to ex-Soviet Moldova, they said. Acting Chief Prosecutor Ion Musteata said the suspect, who seized a gun from a security officer, remained unconscious after being wounded in the exchange of fire while being led away to an area for a flight back to Istanbul,…

Jul

02

2023

By TOBY STERLING

King apologises for Netherlands’ historic role in slavery

WORLD

DUTCH King Willem-Alexander apologised for the Netherlands' historic involvement in slavery and the effects that it still has today. The king was speaking at a ceremony marking the 160th anniversary of the legal abolition of slavery in the Netherlands, including its former colonies in the Caribbean. "On this day that we remember the Dutch history of slavery, I ask forgiveness for this crime against humanity," he said. He said racism in Dutch society remains a problem and not everyone would support his apology. However "the times have changed and Keti Koti ... the chains have truly been broken," he said…

Jul

02

2023

By WILL DUNHAM

Versatile Oscar-winning American actor Alan Arkin dies at 89

WORLD

ALAN Arkin, a versatile and prolific American actor who thrived in both comic and dramatic roles and won an Oscar for playing a heroin-using grandfather in the 2006 film "Little Miss Sunshine," has died at 89, his family said. "Our father was a uniquely talented force of nature, both as an artist and a man. A loving husband, father, grand and great grandfather, he was adored and will be deeply missed," Arkin's sons Adam, Matthew and Anthony wrote in a joint statement. Arkin died at his home in Carlsbad, California, on Thursday, Variety reported. Arkin appeared in scores of films,…

Jul

01

2023

By STEVE HOLLAND and NATHAN LAYNE

Exclusive: Trump says aborted mutiny ‘somewhat weakened’ Putin

WORLD

FORMER U.S. President Donald Trump, a longtime admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Putin has been "somewhat weakened" by an aborted mutiny and that now is the time for the United States to try to broker a negotiated peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine. "I want people to stop dying over this ridiculous war," Trump told Reuters in a telephone interview. Speaking expansively about foreign policy, the front-runner in opinion polls for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination also said China should be given a 48-hour deadline to get out of what sources familiar with the matter say is a Chinese…

Jul

01

2023

By The African Mirror

Ukraine says its forces advance in all directions of counteroffensive

WORLD

UKRAINIAN troops are advancing in all directions of their counteroffensive against occupying Russian forces, a senior defence official said. Since the start of the counteroffensive this month, Ukraine says it has reasserted control over clusters of villages in the southeast although Russia still holds swathes of territory in the east, south and southeast. "If we talk about the entire frontline, both east and south, we have seized the strategic initiative and are advancing in all directions," Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar told Ukrainian television. Reuters was unable to verify the situation on the battlefield. Russia, which began its full-scale invasion in February…

Jul

01

2023

By MICHAEL HOLDEN

U.S. actor Kevin Spacey is a ‘sexual bully’, London court told

WORLD

KEVIN Spacey is an aggressive "sexual bully" who assaults men and gets turned on when his unwanted advances provoke anger, a British prosecutor said at the start of the Oscar-winning U.S. actor's trial on sex offence charges. Spacey, 63, has pleaded not guilty to a dozen allegations of historic sex offences committed against four men, then aged in their 20s and 30s, which are said to have taken place between 2001 and 2013. His lawyer said the claims were "damned lies". Opening the prosecution case at London's Southwark Crown Court, lawyer Christine Agnew told the jury the "predatory" Spacey was…

Jun

30

2023

By The African Mirror

Russian elites trembled as Wagner rebellion took hold

WORLD

GUY FAULCONBRIDGE, DARYA KORSUNSKAYA and GLEB STOLYAROV AS one of the most brutal mercenary forces marched on Moscow, some among Russia's elite trembled in fear that the world's biggest nuclear power was teetering on the brink of what President Vladimir Putin said could have been a civil war. With Putin facing the biggest public challenge of his 23 years as paramount leader, some private jets sped out of Moscow, according to flight tracking data and one source with knowledge of the matter. One fear was that Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner mercenary group, if he entered Moscow, would try to take over…

Jun

30

2023

By The African Mirror

France unrest: Riots spread, thousands march in memory of shot teenager

WORLD

LAYLI FOROUDI and NOEMIE OLIVE PRESIDENT Emmanuel Macron fought to contain a mounting crisis as unrest erupted for a third day over the deadly police shooting of a teenager of Algerian and Moroccan descent during a traffic stop in a Paris suburb. Forty thousand police officers were to deploy across France -- nearly four times the numbers mobilised on Wednesday -- but there were few signs that government appeals to de-escalation in the violence would quell the widespread anger. In Nanterre, the working-class town on the western outskirts of Paris where 17-year-old Nahel M. was shot dead on Tuesday, protesters…

Jun

30

2023

By The African Mirror

Presumed human remains and shattered Titanic submersible returned to shore

WORLD

ISMAIL SHAKIL and STEVE GORMAN PRESUMED human remains and debris from the tourist submersible crushed to pieces in an undersea implosion that killed all five people aboard were recovered from the ocean bottom and brought ashore to Canada on Wednesday, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The possible remains and shattered bits of the submersible Titan, destroyed while diving to the century-old wreck of the Titanic, were carried to St. John's, Newfoundland, about 400 miles (650km) north of the accident site, by the Canadian-flagged vessel Horizon Arctic, according to the Coast Guard. The evidence will be transported by a Coast Guard…

Jun

29

2023

By GUY FAULCONBRIDGE and LIDIA KELLY

Putin wanted to ‘wipe out’ Wagner chief Prigozhin during mutiny attempt, says Lukashenko

WORLD

BELARUSIAN President Alexander Lukashenko said he persuaded Russian President Vladimir Putin not to "wipe out" mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, in response to what the Kremlin cast as a mutiny that pushed Russia towards civil war. Putin initially vowed to crush the mutiny, comparing it to the wartime turmoil that ushered in the revolution of 1917 and then a civil war, but hours later a deal was clinched to allow Prigozhin and some of his fighters to go to Belarus. Prigozhin flew to Belarus from Russia on Tuesday. While describing his Saturday conversation with Putin, Lukashenko used the Russian criminal slang…