WORLD - The African Mirror

Jun

19

2023

Family and friends mourn murdered model in Hong Kong

WORLD

FAMILY and friends of Abby Choi, a Hong Kong model who was murdered in a gruesome case in February, gathered at a memorial hall in the city on Sunday to pay their final respects. The vigil took place at Po Fook Memorial Hall in the Tai Wai area of Sha Tin district, adhering to Buddhist traditions. The murder of the 28-year-old influencer shocked the world after parts of her remains were found in a village house in Hong Kong. A funeral ceremony on Monday morning will be followed by a cremation at a monastery on the city's Lantau Island. Thomson…

Jun

18

2023

By The African Mirror

Greece boat disaster: 12 Pakistanis among survivors

WORLD

TWELVE Pakistanis were among survivors from a boat packed with migrants that capsized off the coast of Greece this week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said the government was unable so far to verify the number of Pakistanis who died, or their identities. People seeking missing relatives were urged to share with the ministry identity documents and DNA reports from authenticated laboratories, she said. The death toll in Wednesday's disaster could run to many hundreds as witness accounts suggested that between 400 and 750 people had packed the fishing boat that sank about 50 miles (80…

Jun

18

2023

By ANDREW OSBORN

Putin says Russia positions nuclear bombs in Belarus as warning to West

WORLD

PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin said that his deployment of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, something he confirmed for the first time had already happened, was a reminder to the West that it could not inflict a strategic defeat on Russia. Speaking at Russia's flagship economic forum in St Petersburg, Putin said Russian tactical nuclear warheads had already been delivered to close ally Belarus, but stressed he saw no need for Russia to resort to nuclear weapons for now. "As you know we were negotiating with our ally, (Belarusian President (Alexander) Lukashenko, that we would move a part of these tactical nuclear…

Jun

18

2023

By BILL TROTT

Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked ‘Pentagon Papers,’ dies at 92

WORLD

DANIEL Ellsberg, the U.S. military analyst whose change of heart on the Vietnam War led him to leak the classified "Pentagon Papers," revealing U.S. government deception about the war and setting off a major freedom-of-the-press battle, died on Friday at the age of 92, his family said in a statement. Ellsberg, who had been diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer in February, died at his home in Kensington, California, the family said. Long before Edward Snowden and Wikileaks were revealing government secrets in the name of transparency, Ellsberg let Americans know that their government was capable of misleading and even lying…

Jun

17

2023

By LEFTERIS PAPADIMAS and KAROLINA TAGARIS

Greece boat disaster: Emotional reunion for brothers as hopes of finding more survivors fade

WORLD

A Syrian teenager who survived a shipwreck that killed at least 78 people off Greece was emotionally reunited with his elder brother but there was no news for other relatives searching for loved ones. Witness accounts suggested between 400 and 750 people had packed the 20- to 30 metre-long (65- to 100-foot) fishing boat that capsized and sank early on Wednesday morning about 50 miles (80 km) from the southern coastal town of Pylos. In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, 104 survivors and 78 people who drowned were brought to shore by Greek authorities, but nothing has been found…

Jun

17

2023

By The African Mirror

Ukraine says Russia taking heavy losses in south, resisting near Bakhmut

WORLD

ADVANCING Ukrainian troops are facing "desperate resistance" from Russian forces around the eastern city of Bakhmut, and are inflicting big losses on Russian troops in the south, Ukrainian military chiefs said. Reuters could not verify the battlefield situation. Russia has not officially acknowledged Ukrainian advances in the early stages of a counteroffensive and said it had inflicted heavy losses on Kyiv's forces in the previous 24 hours. Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, who is in charge of Ukrainian ground forces, said the situation in the east was tense and Russia was bringing its best divisions into the Bakhmut sector with backup from artillery…

Jun

17

2023

By PHILIP PULLELLA

Pope Francis orders ex-aide of Pope Benedict to leave Vatican

WORLD

POPE Francis has ordered Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, the private secretary and long-time aide of the late Pope Benedict, to return to his native Germany by the end of the month without any new assignment, the Vatican said. A Vatican statement put an end to speculation about what role Gaenswein, a powerful figure in the Vatican for more than a decade before Francis sidelined him after a personal falling out, would have in the Church. Former Pope Benedict died on December 31, nearly a decade after he resigned in 2013, the first pontiff to do so in 600 years. Gaenswein is…

Jun

16

2023

By STAMOS PROUSALIS

Greece scours shipwreck site; hundreds feared drowned in boat’s hold

WORLD

RESCUERS scoured the seas off Greece following a shipwreck that killed at least 79 migrants, as hopes of survivors dwindled and fears grew that hundreds more, including children, may have drowned trapped inside the crowded vessel's hold. Reports suggested between 400 and 750 people had packed the fishing boat that capsized and sank early on Wednesday morning in deep waters about 50 miles (80 km) from the southern coastal town of Pylos. Greek authorities said 104 survivors had been brought ashore. As it began to flounder late on Tuesday night, people on the vessel's crowded outer deck repeatedly turned down…

Jun

16

2023

By VITALII HNIDYI

Russian soldiers’ corpses line road into liberated Ukrainian village

WORLD

THE road into the newly liberated Ukrainian village of Storozheve is lined with the corpses of Russian soldiers and burnt-out armoured vehicles. The grisly scenes bear witness to the ferocity of fighting as Ukrainian troops recaptured Storozheve and several other villages in the past few days as part of a counteroffensive in southern and eastern Ukraine. Some of the dead Russian soldiers lay on the dusty ground beside the husks of their vehicles when Reuters journalists reached the village on Wednesday. Others were crumpled in the grass and fields nearby where they died. Inside the village, the small one-storey houses that line…

Jun

16

2023

By RUPAM JAIN

Indian police charge lawmaker with sexual harassment in case brought by female wrestlers

WORLD

INDIAN police filed charges of sexual harassment and criminal intimidation against the chief of the country's wrestling federation, a powerful member of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), following complaints made by female wrestlers. Public Prosecutor Atul Srivastav read out the charges at a court hearing in the capital New Delhi. A police source said last week more than 155 people have been questioned in the investigations against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, a member of parliament from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party. The investigations followed months of complaints by the country's top wrestlers, including several Olympic and Asian Games medallists.…