WORLD - The African Mirror

Jan

23

2023

India blocks BBC documentary on Modi from airing in India

WORLD

INDIA has blocked the airing of a BBC documentary which questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership during the 2002 Gujarat riots, saying that even sharing of any clips via social media is barred. Directions to block the clips from being shared have been issued using emergency powers available to the government under the country's information technology rules, said Kanchan Gupta, an adviser to the government, on his Twitter handle on Saturday. While the BBC has not aired the documentary in India, the video was uploaded on some YouTube channels, Gupta said. The government has issued orders to Twitter to block…

Jan

22

2023

By The African Mirror

Davos 2023: Key takeaways from the World Economic Forum

WORLD

GLOBAL leaders and business executives departed a freezing World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting after a frank exchange of views over how the world will tackle its biggest issues in 2023. Here's what we learned: ECONOMY: Gloom and doom heading into Davos turned into cautious optimism by the end with the global economic outlook for the year ahead looking better than feared. But the WEF's annual meeting was filled with discussion of plenty of risks, including inflationary pressures from China's reopening and rising debt distress in the developing world. Not to mention that the hardest bit for Western nations is yet to come - getting…

Jan

22

2023

By The African Mirror

China says COVID outbreak has infected 80% of population

WORLD

THE possibility of a big COVID-19 rebound in China over the next two or three months is remote as 80% of people have been infected, a prominent government scientist said. The mass movement of people during the ongoing Lunar New Year holiday period may spread the pandemic, boosting infections in some areas, but a second COVID wave is unlikely in the near term, Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said on the Weibo social media platform. Hundreds of millions of Chinese are travelling across the country for holiday reunions that had been suspended…

Jan

21

2023

By The African Mirror

Alec Baldwin to be charged with involuntary manslaughter over ‘Rust’ shooting

WORLD

ANDREW HAY and BRENDAN O'BRIEN ACTOR Alec Baldwin will be charged with involuntary manslaughter, a felony punishable by prison time, in the fatal 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins while filming the movie "Rust" in New Mexico, a state prosecutor said on Thursday. District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies, the top prosecutor for Santa Fe, said Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armourer for the western, would also be charged with involuntary manslaughter. All charges would be filed by the end of this month, he added. Hutchins' family welcomed the announcement, while Baldwin attorney Luke Nikas said, "this decision distorts Halyna Hutchins' tragic death and…

Jan

21

2023

By The African Mirror

Hundreds evacuated as blaze erupts in slum next to Seoul’s posh Gangnam district

WORLD

HYONHEE SHIN and DAEWOUNG KIM FIRE swept through part of a shanty town in the South Korean capital, Seoul, destroying 60 homes, many constructed from cardboard and wood, and forcing the evacuation of around 500 people. Emergency services took five hours to put out the blaze, which erupted before daybreak in Guryong Village, a slum that lies just across a highway from Seoul's affluent Gangnam district. Officials said no casualties were reported so far. Home to around 1,000 people, Guryong is one of the last remaining shanty towns in the capital and has become a symbol of inequality in Asia's…

Jan

22

2023

By The African Mirror

In Mexico, a reporter published a story. The next day he was shot dead

WORLD

SARAH KINOSIAN JUST after sunset on Thursday, February 10th, two men in a white Dodge Ram pickup pulled up in front of Heber Lopez Vasquez's small radio studio in southern Mexico. One man got out, walked inside and shot the 42-year-old journalist dead. Lopez's 12-year-old son Oscar, the only person with him, hid, Lopez's brother told Reuters. Lopez was one of 13 Mexican journalists killed in 2022, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York-based rights group. It was the deadliest year on record for journalists in Mexico, now the most dangerous country for reporters in the…

Jan

21

2023

By The African Mirror

Allies offer more weapons to Ukraine, but no decisions made on tanks

WORLD

IDREES ALI and TOM BALMFORTH WESTERN allies dampened Ukraine's hopes for a rapid shipment of battle tanks to boost its firepower for a spring offensive against Russian forces, with the United States urging Kyiv to hold off from mounting such an operation. The United States' top general, speaking after a meeting of the allies at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, also said it would be very hard for Ukraine to drive Russia's invading forces from the country this year. The run-up to the Ramstein meeting had been dominated by the issue of whether Germany would agree to send Leopard 2 tanks…

Jan

20

2023

By The African Mirror

Putin ally warns NATO of nuclear war if Russia is defeated in Ukraine

WORLD

GUY FAULCONBRIDGE and FELIX LIGHT AN ally of President Vladimir Putin warned NATO that a defeat of Russia in Ukraine could trigger a nuclear war, while the head of the Russian Orthodox Church said the world would end if the West tried to destroy Russia. Such apocalyptic rhetoric is intended to deter the U.S.-led NATO military alliance from getting even more involved in the war, on the eve of a meeting of Ukraine's allies to discuss sending Kyiv more weapons. But the explicit recognition that Russia might lose on the battlefield marked a rare moment of public doubt from a…

Jan

20

2023

By The African Mirror

Jacinda Ardern steps aside as NZ PM with ‘no more in the tank’

WORLD

LUCY CRAYMER NEW Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made a shock announcement that she had "no more in the tank" to lead the country and would step down and not seek re-election. Ardern, holding back tears, said it had been a tough five and a half years as prime minister and that she was only human and needed to step aside. "I had hoped to find a way to prepare for not just another year, but another term - because that is what this year requires. I have not been able to do that," Ardern, 42, told a news conference. "I…

Jan

19

2023

By The African Mirror

Ukrainian interior minister killed in helicopter crash near Kyiv

WORLD

MAX HUNDER and TOM BALMFORTH Fourteen people including Ukraine's interior minister and a child were killed when a helicopter crashed in fog near a nursery outside Kyiv, in what President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called a "terrible tragedy". Several bodies lay on the ground of a courtyard, their boots sticking out from under blankets, after the helicopter - described by the air force spokesperson as a French Super Puma - slammed into a building in Brovary, northeast of the capital. The crash caused a large fire, and an entire side of the local nursery building was charred. The Kyiv region's governor said…