WORLD - The African Mirror

Feb

03

2023

Spain, Morocco seek reset of testy relationship at Rabat summit

WORLD

BELÉN CARREÑO and AHMED ELJECHTIMI SPAIN and Morocco have agreed to set aside their differences, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said, as they seek to repair a relationship marked by frequent disputes over migration and territory. Sanchez was speaking at a summit in Rabat where the two countries signed as many as 20 agreements to boost trade and investment, including credit lines of up to 800 million euros ($873 million). "We have agreed on a commitment to mutual respect, whereby in our discourse and in our political practice we will avoid everything that we know offends the other party, especially regarding our…

Feb

03

2023

By The African Mirror

Sex, lies and video cams: Andrew Tate turned women into slaves, prosecutors say

WORLD

LUIZA ILIE, OCTAV GANEA and ANDREW R.C. MARSHALL THE woman from Moldova thought it was love. Internet celebrity Andrew Tate had offered her a new life. They'd even discussed marriage. He asked for only one thing: absolute loyalty. "You must understand that once you are mine, you will be mine forever," Tate told her on February 4 last year in one of the dozens of WhatsApp messages cited by Romanian prosecutors who allege he trafficked and sexually exploited several women. Tate, an influencer with millions of online followers, urged the Moldovan woman to join him in Romania. "Nothing bad will…

Feb

02

2023

By The African Mirror

Ukrainian police rescue six-year-old girl from besieged Bakhmut

WORLD

IVAN LYUBYSH-KIRDEY UKRAINIAN police staged a risky rescue mission in the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut this week to evacuate a six-year-old girl who had become separated from her pregnant mother. Young Arina was found living with her grandparents in a run-down apartment building in Bakhmut, which has been pummelled by Russian forces in heavy fighting. After trudging through the snow to reach Arina, with artillery fire echoing in the distance, policeman Pavlo Dyachenko and two colleagues in combat gear drove Arina to the nearby city of Sloviansk to be reunited with her mother, Halyna Danylchenko. "A shell exploded in our…

Feb

02

2023

By The African Mirror

New York attorney general calls for new sanctions against Donald Trump

WORLD

JONATHAN STEMPEL NEW York's attorney general asked a judge to sanction former U.S. President Donald Trump, his adult children, the Trump Organization and their lawyers over their responses to her $250 million civil fraud lawsuit against them. The lawsuit by Attorney General Letitia James last September accused the defendants of involvement in a decade-long scheme to manipulate asset values and Trump's net worth, in order to induce banks and insurers to provide better terms. On Jan. 26, the defendants filed formal "answers" where, as often occurs in similar lawsuits, they denied or claimed to lack sufficient knowledge about dozens of…

Feb

02

2023

By The African Mirror

Missing radioactive capsule found in Western Australia

WORLD

AUSTRALIAN authorities found a radioactive capsule that was lost in the vast Outback after nearly a week-long search along a 1,400 km (870-mile) stretch of highway, an emergency services official said. The military was verifying the capsule and it would be taken to a secure facility in the city of Perth on Thursday, Emergency Services Minister Stephen Dawson said in a news conference. "When you consider the scope of the research area, locating this object was a monumental challenge, the search groups have quite literally found the needle in the haystack," Dawson said. The radioactive capsule was part of a…

Feb

01

2023

By The African Mirror

Russia claims village on outskirts of Bakhmut in big push in east

WORLD

DAN PELESCHUK RUSSIA claimed to have captured a village just to the north of Bakhmut, a city it is trying to surround in a major push for what would be its biggest battlefield prize in Ukraine since last summer. A Belarusian volunteer fighting for Ukraine told Reuters from inside Bakhmut that Russia was shelling the city constantly and its troops were trying to encircle it. Fighting was underway building by building, the volunteer said. There was no immediate response from Kyiv to Moscow's claim about the village of Blahodatne, and Reuters was not immediately able to verify the situation there.…

Feb

01

2023

By The African Mirror

N.Y. case against Trump over hush money to porn star goes to grand jury Monday

WORLD

KAREN FREIFELD A grand jury is hearing evidence in New York over former President Donald Trump's role in hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. A grand jury could lay the groundwork for possible criminal charges against the former president by the Manhattan district attorney's office. Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker testified before the grand jury, one source told Reuters. Pecker was seen entering the lower Manhattan building where the grand jury is empaneled, according to the New York Times, which first reported on…

Feb

01

2023

By The African Mirror

Australia deploys more experts, equipment to search for lost radioactive capsule

WORLD

MELANIE BURTON and LEWIS JACKSON AUSTRALIAN authorities sent out more personnel and specialised detection equipment to search for a tiny radioactive capsule missing somewhere in the outback, including a team from the country's nuclear safety agency. The capsule is believed to have fallen from a road train - a truck with multiple trailers - that made a 1,400 km (870 miles) journey in Western Australia and its loss has triggered a radiation alert for large parts of the vast state. The Department of Fire and Emergency Services said on Monday that it would take five days to retrace the road…

Jan

31

2023

By The African Mirror

Suicide bomber breaches high security in Pakistan mosque, kills 59

WORLD

JIBRAN AHMAD and ASIF SHAHZAD A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a crowded mosque in a highly fortified security compound in Pakistan, killing 59 people, including 27 police officials, the latest attack by resurgent Islamist militants targeting police. The attacker appeared to have passed through several barricades manned by security forces to get into the "Red Zone" compound that houses police and counter-terrorism offices in the volatile northwestern city of Peshawar, police said. "It was a suicide bombing," Peshawar Police Chief Ijaz Khan told Reuters. Many of the 170 wounded people were in critical condition, he said. The death…

Jan

31

2023

By The African Mirror

Britain’s Boris Johnson says Putin threatened him with missile strike

WORLD

FORMER British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened him with a missile strike during a phone call in the run-up to the invasion of Ukraine, a charge denied by Moscow. Johnson, speaking to the BBC for a documentary, said the Russian leader had asked him about the prospects of Ukraine joining NATO, to which he had responded it would not be "for the foreseeable future". "He threatened me at one point, and he said, 'Boris, I don't want to hurt you but, with a missile, it would only take a minute' or something like that.…