WORLD - The African Mirror

Mar

06

2023

TikTok a potential target in upcoming US bill to ban some foreign tech – Senator

WORLD

TWO U.S. senators plan to introduce legislation this week aimed at letting the government "ban or prohibit" foreign technology products such as Chinese-owned TikTok, Senator Mark Warner said. Warner, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said TikTok would be "one of the potentials" for review under the bill. The Democratic senator made the comments on Fox News Sunday. The bill comes at a time when TikTok is under intensifying pressure over concerns that data about U.S. users could end up in the hands of the Chinese government. The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee voted on Wednesday to give President…

Mar

05

2023

By The African Mirror

Protests break out in Iran over schoolgirl illnesses

WORLD

WORRIED parents protested in Iran's capital Tehran and other cities over a wave of suspected poison attacks that have affected schoolgirls in dozens of schools, according to Iranian news agencies and social media videos. The so-far unexplained illnesses have affected hundreds of schoolgirls in recent months. Iranian officials believe the girls may have been poisoned and have blamed Tehran's enemies. The country's health minister has said the girls have suffered "mild poison" attacks and some politicians have suggested the girls could have been targeted by hardline Islamist groups opposed to girls' education. Iran's interior minister said on Saturday investigators had found "suspicious…

Feb

10

2023

By PHILIP PULLELLA

In surprise, Pope Francis receives cardinal on trial for corruption

WORLD

POPE Francis, in a surprise move, granted an official private audience to Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the once-powerful Vatican prelate who is on trial for corruption and embezzlement. While the pope and Becciu have met on an unofficial basis since Francis dismissed him in 2020, it was the first time since then that the cardinal had been on the pontiff's public list of official audiences in the Apostolic Palace. Giving the audience such an official and solemn nature gave rise to speculation in some Catholic media that a rapprochement between the two or a rehabilitation of the cardinal may be in…

Mar

05

2023

By The African Mirror

Bolsonaro denies ‘illegal acts’ over Saudi jewels; Lula government vows probe

WORLD

BRAZIL'S former President Jair Bolsonaro denied committing "illegal acts" after a report that jewellery allegedly gifted by Saudi Arabia to him and his wife was brought into the South American nation without being declared to authorities. The government of Bolsonaro's successor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, pledged to investigate the matter. The Saudi embassy in Brazil did not immediately respond to a request for comment. "I'm being accused of a gift I neither asked for nor received," Bolsonaro was quoted as saying in an interview with CNN Brasil. "There is no illegality on my part. I never committed illegal acts."…

Mar

05

2023

By The African Mirror

UK says Ukraine forces under increasingly severe pressure defending Bakhmut

WORLD

UKRAINIAN forces defending Bakhmut are facing increasingly strong pressure from Russian forces, British military intelligence said, with intense fighting taking place in and around the eastern city. Ukraine is reinforcing the area with elite units, while the regular Russian army and forces of the private military Wagner group have made further advances into Bakhmut's northern suburbs, the British Defence Ministry said in its daily intelligence bulletin. The Ukraine armed forces' general staff said in a Facebook post late on Saturday that Russian troops were trying but failing to surround Bakhmut, adding defenders had repelled numerous attacks in and around the…

Feb

09

2023

By The African Mirror

Amid rows of bodies, Turks check for relatives one by one after earthquake

WORLD

TURKS stepped over hundreds of bodies in stadiums and parking lots, carefully lifting blankets from their faces to try to identify dead relatives after a once-in-a-generation earthquake devastated the region. Nada, a Syrian woman, and her Turkish husband asked a staff member how best to find their niece and aunt among the more than 100 bodies lined up in the parking lot of the Hatay Research Hospital near the southern city of Antakya. "Check one by one," they were told. "My wife doesn't speak Turkish, and I can't see very well," said the husband, who did not give a name. "We have…

Feb

09

2023

By The African Mirror

Four takeaways from Biden’s State of the Union speech

WORLD

TREVOR HUNNICUTT HERE are some takeaways from U.S. President Joe Biden's State of the Union speech to Congress, an address that could serve as a blueprint for his 2024 re-election bid: BIDEN, REPUBLICANS SPAR Biden, a Democrat, told Republicans in Congress who have questioned his legitimacy and threatened to block his policies that "there's no reason we can't work together." Many Republicans found reason to disagree. While Democrats were quick to rise in applause, Republicans applauded only sporadically and remained silent when Biden listed his administration's accomplishments. Several Republican lawmakers remained seated throughout. JEERS, THEN AN OVATION Republicans jeered the loudest when…

Mar

04

2023

By The African Mirror

Greece train crash: families of victims grieve as protests grow

WORLD

ALEXANDROS AVRAMIDIS and STELIOS MISINAS FAMILIES and friends, dressed in black, clung to each other, in tears, as the coffin of a 34-year-old mother killed in Greece's deadliest train crash was lifted up the stairs of a church. The first known funeral after Tuesday night's accident, which killed at least 57, took place in the northern town of Katerini, as police said 52 bodies had so far been identified - almost all from DNA tests as the crash was so violent. Carriages were thrown off the tracks, some of them crushed and engulfed in flames when a passenger train and…

Feb

09

2023

By ELIZABETH PIPER and ALISTAIR SMOUT

Ukraine’s Zelenskiy calls for ‘wings for freedom’ fighter jets on trip to Europe

WORLD

PRESIDENT Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged Britain and others to give Ukraine "wings for freedom" by sending combat aircraft to help turn the tide against Russia's offensive, hoping to overcome Western reluctance to take that step. Western countries have scaled up their pledges of military aid for Ukraine this year with promises of hundreds of tanks and armoured vehicles as well as longer-range weapons, but have so far refused to deliver warplanes. Britain said it wanted to start training Ukrainian fighter pilots as soon as possible and was investigating which jets London could send, but with a caveat that this was long-term action rather…

Mar

04

2023

By The African Mirror

Russia close to encircling Ukraine’s Bakhmut after months of fighting

WORLD

LEONARDO BENNASATTO and LISI NIESNER RUSSIAN artillery pounded the last routes out of Bakhmut, aiming to complete the encirclement of the besieged Ukrainian city and bring Moscow closer to its first major victory in half a year after the bloodiest battle of the war. The head of Russia's Wagner private army said the city, which has been blasted to ruins in Russia's more than seven-month onslaught, was almost completely surrounded with only one road still open for Ukraine's troops. Reuters observed intense Russian shelling of routes leading west out of Bakhmut, an apparent attempt to block Ukrainian forces' access in…