WORLD - The African Mirror

May

06

2023

By FELIX LIGHT, CALEB DAVIS and ANDREW OSBORN

Russian mercenary chief says fighters to leave Ukraine’s Bakhmut to ‘lick wounds’

WORLD

YEVGENY Prigozhin, leader of Russia's Wagner Group mercenary force, said in a dramatic announcement on Friday that his forces would pull out of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut that they have been trying to capture since last summer. Prigozhin said they would withdraw on May 10 - ending their involvement in the longest and bloodiest battle of the war - because of heavy losses and inadequate ammunition supplies. He asked defence chiefs to insert regular army troops in their place. "I declare on behalf of the Wagner fighters, on behalf of the Wagner command, that on May 10, 2023, we…

May

06

2023

By ANTONIO BRONIC and ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC

Eight killed in second Serbia mass shooting, suspect arrested

WORLD

POLICE arrested a suspect after eight people were killed and 14 wounded in Serbia's second mass shooting in two days in what President Aleksandar Vucic called a "terrorist attack" as the government approved tough new gun controls. The Balkan country was already reeling from a mass shooting on Wednesday when authorities say a 13-year-old boy shot dead nine and wounded seven at a school in Belgrade before turning himself in. Serbs had just begun three days of mourning on Friday for those victims as news broke of the second shooting, which authorities said began late on Thursday in the village of Dubona,…

May

05

2023

By STEPHANIE VAN DEN BERG and TOBY STERLING

Putin and his invasion should be on trial in The Hague, says Zelenskiy on visit

WORLD

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin must be brought to justice for his war in Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in The Hague, calling for a new international tribunal for the "crime of aggression." "We're going to set up a specific tribunal... to show that these people are not untouchables," Zelenskiy told a press conference, underlining that the invasion itself should be seen as the "primary offence" committed by Moscow. Zelenskiy's declaration was made during his surprise visit to The Hague, known as the capital of international justice. But it was largely symbolic - the idea of such a court has…

May

05

2023

By The African Mirror

Trump jurors see video of ex-president mistaking rape accuser for ex-wife

WORLD

LUC COHEN and PADRAIC HALPIN JURORS in Donald Trump's civil rape trial saw a video deposition in which the former U.S. president mistook a photograph of E. Jean Carroll, his accuser, for his ex-wife Marla Maples. Carroll, 79, has testified that Trump, 76, raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan in the mid-1990s, and then tarred her reputation and career by lying about it online. Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican residential nomination, has said he could not have raped Carroll, because "she's not my type" and has called the case politically motivated. He will not…

May

04

2023

By The African Mirror

Belgrade school shooting: boy kills 9 in planned attack

WORLD

IVANA SEKULARAC and ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC A boy gunned down fellow pupils in a Belgrade school in a pre-planned attack, shooting dead eight plus a security guard, officials said, prompting Serbia's president to announce tougher curbs on gun ownership. Using two handguns that belonged to his father, the 13-year-old fired first at the guard and three girls in a hallway and then shot his teacher and classmates in a history lesson, police said. The teacher and six pupils were hospitalised, some with life-threatening injuries. Veselin Milic, head of Belgrade police, said the attacker had two guns and two petrol bombs and…

May

05

2023

By The African Mirror

From ‘Rottweiler’ to queen – the reinvention of King Charles’ wife Camilla

WORLD

MICHAEL HOLDEN and SARAH MILLS AFTER years of being depicted as the most hated woman in Britain, Camilla, the second wife of King Charles, will be crowned queen on Saturday, capping a remarkable turnaround in public acceptance few would have thought possible. When Charles' divorced first wife, the popular, glamorous Princess Diana, died in a car crash in Paris in 1997, Camilla bore the brunt of media hostility. Some declared the couple could never wed. But marry they did eight years later, and since then she has come to be recognised, albeit still grudgingly by some, as a key member…

May

04

2023

By The African Mirror

Bolsonaro home raided, phone seized in Brazil vaccine records probe

WORLD

LISANDRA PARAGUASSU and RICARDO BRITO BRAZILIAN police raided former President Jair Bolsonaro's home and seized his cell phone as part of an investigation into his COVID-19 vaccination records. The investigation may answer questions about how Bolsonaro, a strident coronavirus sceptic who vowed never to get a COVID vaccine, was registered as vaccinated in health records made public in February. Bolsonaro confirmed the raid on his home in Brasilia to journalists and reiterated that he had never taken a COVID vaccine. He denied any role in allegedly forging documents. "For my part, there was nothing falsified. I didn't take the vaccine. Period," he…

May

04

2023

By The African Mirror

Russia says Ukraine tried to kill Putin with night-time drone attack on Kremlin

WORLD

MARK TREVELYAN RUSSIA accused Ukraine of attacking the Kremlin with drones overnight in a failed attempt to kill President Vladimir Putin. A senior Ukrainian presidential official denied the accusation - the most serious that Moscow has levelled at Kyiv in more than 14 months of war - and said it indicated Moscow was preparing a major "terrorist provocation". The Kremlin said Russia reserved the right to retaliate, and hardliners demanded swift retribution against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. "Two unmanned aerial vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin. As a result of timely actions taken by the military and special services with…

May

03

2023

By EMILY ROSE and NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI

Rockets fired from Gaza after Palestinian hunger striker dies in Israeli custody

WORLD

PALESTINIAN armed groups fired salvoes of rockets from Gaza into southern Israel after an Islamic Jihad leader died in Israeli custody following an 87-day hunger strike, the first such death in more than three decades. Khader Adnan, who was awaiting trial, was found unconscious in his cell and taken to a hospital, where he was declared dead after efforts to revive him, Israel's Prisons Service said. Hundreds of people took to the streets in blockaded Gaza and the occupied West Bank to rally in support of Adnan and mourn his death, which Palestinian leaders described as an assassination. In Gaza,…

May

03

2023

By The African Mirror

Seven bodies, including two missing teens, found in Oklahoma town

WORLD

THE bodies of seven people, including two missing teens and a convicted sex offender, were found on a property near the small Oklahoma city of Henryetta, the county sheriff said. Corpses believed to be 14-year-old Ivy Webster and 16-year-old Brittany Brewer were found when officers searched the property where the sex offender, Jesse McFadden, lived, Okmulgee County Sheriff Eddy Rice said at a news briefing posted online by television station KOTV in Tulsa. Other bodies likely included McFadden and members of his family, Rice said, cautioning that none of the victims had yet been formally identified by the county medical…