WORLD - The African Mirror

Mar

31

2023

North Korea executes people for South Korean videos, drugs

WORLD

HYONHEE SHIN NORTH Korea executes people for drugs, sharing South Korean media, and religious activities as it stifles its citizens' human rights and freedom, its rival, South Korea, said in a report. South Korea's Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, based the 450-page report on testimony collected from 2017 to 2022 from more than 500 North Koreans who fled from their homeland. "North Korean citizens' right to life appears to be greatly threatened," the ministry said in the report. "Executions are widely carried out for acts that do not justify the death penalty, including drug crimes, distribution of South Korean…

Mar

25

2023

By GRAM SLATTERY and NATHAN LAYNE

Trump warns of ‘death & destruction’ if charged with a crime

WORLD

FORMER U.S. President Donald Trump warned of potential "death & destruction" if he faces criminal charges, hours after New York prosecutors probing his hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels said they would not be intimidated. The early Friday post on Trump's Truth Social media site was the latest in a string of verbal attacks on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg since last Saturday when Trump wrongly predicted he would be arrested three days later. Trump falsely claims his defeat in 2020 was the result of fraud - a claim that inspired his followers to launch a deadly Jan. 6,…

Apr

03

2023

By The African Mirror

Pakistan posts highest-ever annual inflation; stampedes for food kill 16

WORLD

ASIF SHAHZAD CONSUMER price inflation in Pakistan jumped to a record 35.37% in March from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said, as at least 16 people were killed in stampedes for food aid. The March inflation number eclipsed February's 31.5%, the bureau said, as food, beverage and transport prices surged up to 50% year-on-year. Thousands of people have gathered at flour distribution centres set up across the country, some as part of a government-backed programme to ease the impact of inflation. At least 16 people, including five women and three children, have been killed in stampedes at such centres in recent…

Mar

25

2023

By The African Mirror

North Korea tests new nuclear-capable underwater drone

WORLD

SOO-HYANG CHOI and JU-MIN PARK NORTH Korea has tested a new nuclear-capable underwater attack drone, state media reported, as leader Kim Jong Un warned joint military drills by South Korea and the U.S. should stop. During the test, the new North Korean drone cruised underwater at a depth of 80 to 150 metres (260-500 feet) for over 59 hours and detonated a non-nuclear payload in waters off its east coast on Thursday, North Korean state news agency KCNA said. Analysts say North Korea is showing off its increasingly diverse nuclear threats to Washington and Seoul, though they are sceptical about…

Mar

25

2023

By GLEB STOLYAROV and ROMAN CHURIKOV

Russians reluctantly embrace Chinese cars after Western brands depart

WORLD

AS the exodus of Western carmakers narrows options for Russian consumers, Chinese automakers are filling the gap, forcing Russians to overcome their reluctance to embrace Chinese brands and stomach higher prices. Chinese brands such as Haval, Chery and Geely now account for almost 40% of Russia's new car sales, data from analytical agency Autostat and consulting company PPK showed, up from less than 10% in January-February of 2022, pouncing on the opportunity left by the exit of firms such as Renault, Nissan and Mercedes. But there are teething problems. Reuters spoke to several Russian car buyers - individuals and dealerships - who…

Mar

30

2023

By The African Mirror

Nashville school shooter had ’emotional disorder’ and small arsenal, police say

WORLD

JONATHAN ALLEN and JOSEPH AX The former student of a Christian grade school in Nashville who killed three 9-year-olds and three adults in a shooting spree there was under a doctor's care for an "emotional disorder" and had amassed a collection of guns, the city's police chief said. New details about assailant Audrey Elizabeth Hale, 28, emerged hours after police released a harrowing video showing officers storming the Covenant School in the midst of Monday's rampage and conducting a room-to-room search before confronting and fatally shooting Hale. Authorities said they were still trying to pin down a motive as detectives pored over…

Mar

30

2023

By The African Mirror

Ukraine hits Russian-held city deep behind front as talk of counteroffensive grows

WORLD

OLENA HARMASH UKRAINE struck a railway depot and knocked out power in the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol deep behind the front line on Wednesday amid growing talk from Kyiv of a counterassault against Russian forces worn out by a failed winter offensive. Unverified images on the internet showed explosions lighting up the night sky with streaks of contrails in Melitopol, the base of the Russian-controlled administration in Zaporizhzhia, one of five Ukrainian provinces Russia claims to have annexed. Ukraine's exiled mayor of the city confirmed there were explosions there. Russia's state TASS news agency, citing Moscow-installed officials, said a railway…

Mar

29

2023

By The African Mirror

At least 39 dead in fire at Mexico migrant center near U.S. border

WORLD

JOSE LUIS GONZALEZ AT least 39 migrants from Central and South America died after a fire broke out late on Monday at a migrant detention centre in the Mexican northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, apparently caused by a protest over deportations, officials said. Twenty-eight of the dead at the centre were Guatemalans, Guatemala's national migration institute said. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said authorities believed the blaze in the city opposite El Paso, Texas, broke out at 9:30 p.m. local time as some migrants set fire to mattresses in protest after discovering they would be deported. "They didn't…

Mar

24

2023

By The African Mirror

Any attempt to arrest Putin would be declaration of war on Russia, ally says

WORLD

GUY FAULCONBRIDGE ANY attempt to arrest President Vladimir Putin after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for the Kremlin chief would amount to a declaration of war against Russia, his ally Dmitry Medvedev said. The ICC issued an arrest warrant on Friday, accusing Putin of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. It said there are reasonable grounds to believe that Putin bears individual criminal responsibility. Former President Dmitry Medvedev told Russian media that the ICC, which countries including Russia, China and the United States do not recognise, was a "legal nonentity" that had never done…

Mar

29

2023

By The African Mirror

Israel’s ‘fired’ defence chief hangs on as Netanyahu hits pause

WORLD

DAN WILLIAMS THE Israeli defence chief whose dismissal by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brought the country's constitutional crisis to a boil is staying in office until further notice, aides said, suggesting government indecision on how to proceed. Beset by three months of unprecedented protests against his nationalist-religious coalition's signature plan to overhaul the judiciary, Netanyahu on Monday hit the pause button and called for compromise negotiations with the centre-left opposition. "Our goal is to reach agreements," he said in a pre-Passover toast to his staff, likening the crisis to a squabble among family gathered for the Jewish festival that begins…