WORLD - The African Mirror

May

2021

Israel and Hamas both claim victory as ceasefire holds

NIDAL al-MUGHRABI, JONATHAN SAUL and RAMI AYYUB ISRAEL and Hamas both claimed victory on Friday after their forces ended 11 days of fighting, but humanitarian officials warned that the damage to Gaza would take years to rebuild. As Palestinians and Israelis began to assess the scale of the damage, one Gazan said his neighbourhood looked as if it had been hit by a tsunami. "How can the world call itself civilised?" Abu Ali asked, standing next to the rubble of a 14-storey tower block. Palestinian officials put the reconstruction costs at tens of millions of dollars, while economists said the…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

Hungarian woman with COVID awakes from coma to find she’s a mother

WORLD

HUNGARIAN mother Szilvia Bedo-Nagy only found out she had given birth to baby daughter Napsugar when she was brought out of an induced coma more than a month later, having tested positive for COVID-19 and contracted pneumonia. She was heavily pregnant when she was diagnosed with COVID-19 late last year and was sent home to quarantine. But as her condition worsened, she was rushed back to hospital. "I couldn't breathe," Bedo-Nagy told Radio Free Europe from her home in the rural town of Hatvan. "It turned out that it was pneumonia." She was transferred to Budapest and Napsugar, which is…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

Prince William says BBC failed Diana with interview deceit

WORLD

ALISTAIR SMOUT and MICHAEL HOLDEN BRITAIN'S Prince William accused the BBC of failing his mother Princess Diana and poisoning her relationship with Prince Charles after an inquiry found a journalist for the broadcaster deceitfully obtained an interview with her in 1995. William's astonishing rebuke to the public broadcaster comes after a report said the inquiry found that BBC journalist Martin Bashir used deceit to win a sensational 1995 interview with Diana, and that the broadcaster covered up the deception. During the "Panorama" interview, watched by more than 20 million viewers in Britain, Diana shocked the nation by admitting to an…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

G20 leaders to back COVID-19 vaccine voluntary licensing, no patent waiver

WORLD

FRANCESCO GUARASCIO LEADERS of the world's largest economies will today adopt a declaration recommending voluntary actions to boost COVID-19 vaccine production, snubbing a push from the United States and other nations on patent waivers, the final text shows. Several G20 leaders will speak at the summit, one of this year's major events to coordinate global actions against the pandemic. U.S. President Joe Biden is not listed among the speakers, with Vice President Kamala Harris representing the United States at the meeting, an EU Commission spokesman said. The White House did not immediately comment. The EU executive, which co-hosts the summit…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

Netanyahu vows to fight on as Biden urges Gaza ‘de-escalation’

WORLD

NIDAL al-MUGHRABI, JEFFREY HELLER and ANDREA SHALAL ISRAEL Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue fighting against Gaza militants after U.S. President Joe Biden urged him to seek a "de-escalation" yesterday in the 10-day conflict on the path to a ceasefire. An Egyptian security source said the two sides had agreed in principle to a ceasefire after help from mediators, although details were still being negotiated in secret amid public denials of a deal to prevent it from collapsing. Palestinian health officials said that since fighting began on May 10, 227 people had been killed in aerial bombardments that have…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

Trump says New York criminal probe is in ‘desperate search of a crime’

WORLD

KATANGA JOHNSON FORMER US President Donald Trump yesterday attacked New York state's attorney general for launching a criminal probe of his family business, saying he was "being unfairly attacked and abused." "There is nothing more corrupt than an investigation that is in desperate search of a crime," Trump said in a statement, adding that "we will overcome" any attempt at prosecution. The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James, which has been investigating whether the New York City-based Trump Organization falsely reported property values to secure loans and obtain economic and tax benefits, said on Tuesday its probe was…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

Europeans savour croissants and beers as cafes reopen

WORLD

YIMING WOO and LEO FOEGER FOR Parisian Elie Ayache, the world felt a little more normal yesterday: he was back at his favourite cafe, drinking his morning coffee and eating a croissant. Cafes, restaurants and beer gardens in France and Austria resumed serving customers on the premises, bringing to an end long shutdowns mandated by their governments to try to contain the spread of COVID-19. "I was impatient to get back to my life, and to the person that I was before," said Ayache as he sat at the terrace outside Les Deux Magots, a cafe that was once a…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

Truce calls mount as Israel-Palestinian conflict rages on

WORLD

NIDAL al-MUGHRABI, DAN WILLIAMS and STEPHEN FARRELL ISRAEL bombarded Gaza with air strikes and Palestinian militants resumed cross-border rocket fire on Tuesday after a brief overnight lull during which the U.N. sent a small fuel convoy into the enclave, where it says 52,000 people are now displaced. Israeli leaders said they were pressing on with an offensive to destroy the capabilities of the armed factions Hamas and Islamic Jihad, amid calls by the United States and other world powers for an end to the conflict. Two Thai workers were killed and seven people were wounded in a rocket strike on…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

Dozens held in Pakistan for trying to lynch brothers accused of blasphemy -police

WORLD

ASIF SHAHZAD PAKISTANI police arrested dozens of men yesterday on charges of attacking a police station in a bid to lynch two brothers held in custody accused of desecrating a Muslim mosque, officials said. A mob broke into the police station on the outskirts of the capital Islamabad on Monday ahead of an hours-long standoff with police. Some 36 have been arrested and charged with attacking the station under anti-terrorism laws. Police took the brothers, accused of blasphemy, to safety along with some wounded officials, police said. "Give us the accused. We will decide what to do with them," police…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

‘Gaza battle fought on an uneven killing field’

WORLD

IN most civil wars and military conflicts across the politically volatile Middle East, including in Syria, Yemen and Palestine, the ongoing battles are being fought not on a level playing field but on an uneven killing field. And it is more so in the current fighting between Israelis and Palestinians, described as a “Middle East carnage” where children are among the civilians killed in airstrikes. The fighting is largely a battle of weapons: sophisticated US-supplied state-of-the-art fighter planes vs home-made rockets and mortars. The overwhelming Israeli firepower that continues to be unleashed on Palestinians –which has so far killed 192,…