WORLD - The African Mirror

Jan

19

2023

Porn actor Ron Jeremy found mentally incompetent to stand trial for rape

WORLD

PORN star Ron Jeremy was declared mentally incompetent to stand trial in Los Angeles on rape and other sex charges involving 21 women, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said. Jeremy, 69, pleaded not guilty in August 2021 to more than 30 counts of sexual assault, including 12 of rape, in the Los Angeles area over a 23-year period. He has been in prison since his arrest in June 2020. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Harris said in a hearing that he had determined, based on reports from prosecutors and Jeremy's defence, that the…

Jan

19

2023

By The African Mirror

Chinese who lost relatives to COVID angry at failure to protect elderly

WORLD

MARTIN QUIN POLLARD FORMER high school teacher Ailia was devastated when her 85-year-old father died after displaying COVID-like symptoms as the virus swept through their hometown in the southeastern province of Jiangxi. While her father was never tested, Ailia and her mother were both confirmed positive around the same time and she believes that COVID was a cause in his death. As hundreds of millions of Chinese travel to reunite with families for the Lunar New Year holiday starting Jan. 21, many will do so after mourning relatives who died in the COVID-19 wave that has raged across the world's…

Jan

18

2023

By The African Mirror

Davos 2023: Germany’s allies press Scholz for green light on tanks for Ukraine

WORLD

JOHN IRISH GERMANY'S allies ramped up pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz to allow the supply of German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine for deployment against Russia's invasion, ahead of a crunch defence ministers meeting on Friday. Berlin has so far resisted providing the modern tanks or allowing partners which have them to do so, saying Western tanks should only be supplied to Ukraine if there is agreement among Kyiv's main allies, particularly the United States. Leopard battle tanks - the workhorse of armies across Europe - are widely seen as the only plausible choice to supply Ukraine with the large-scale tank force it needs. But…

Jan

18

2023

By The African Mirror

Sex pills, designer clothes found in mafia boss Messina Denaro’s hideout

WORLD

WLADIMIR PANTALEONE PERFUMES, designer clothes and sex pills were found in an apartment which investigators believe was the last hideout of Sicilian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, judicial sources said, a day after the arrest of the fugitive. Messina Denaro, 60, caught on Monday at a private hospital in Palermo after 30 years on the run, is being held in the central Italian city of L'Aquila, the Palermo prosecutor said. He was transferred from Sicily on the day of his arrest. The apartment is in a modest building near the centre of Campobello di Mazara, a town in the Western Sicilian province…

Jan

17

2023

By The African Mirror

A pilot couple killed in air crashes in Nepal – 16 years apart

WORLD

GOPAL SHARMA IN 2010, Anju Khatiwada joined Nepal's Yeti Airlines, following in the footsteps of her husband, a pilot who had died in a crash four years earlier when a small passenger plane he was flying for the domestic carrier went down minutes before landing. On Sunday, Khatiwada, 44, was the co-pilot on a Yeti Airlines flight from Kathmandu that crashed as it approached the city of Pokhara, killing at least 68 people in the Himalayan nation's deadliest plane accident in three decades. No survivors have been found so far among the 72 people on board. "Her husband, Dipak Pokhrel, died in…

Jan

17

2023

By The African Mirror

New York Mayor says “no room” in his city for migrants

WORLD

TIM REID THE mayor of New York travelled to the Mexican border city of El Paso and declared that "there is no room in New York" for busloads of migrants being sent to America's most populous city. Eric Adams, a Democrat, was also critical of the administration of Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden, saying "now is the time for the national government to do its job" about the immigrant crisis at America's southern border. The visit of a New York mayor to a southern border city about the issue of immigrants is unprecedented. Busloads of migrants have been shipped north…

Jan

17

2023

By The African Mirror

London police officer pleads guilty to 24 counts of rape

WORLD

SARAH YOUNG A serving London police officer has admitted carrying out 24 counts of rape in a nearly two-decade-long campaign of abuse against women, making him one of Britain's most prolific sex offenders. The Met police, already grappling with a collapse of confidence among the public after a string of scandals, apologised for failing to spot the pattern of abuse earlier. A spokesman for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called the case "appalling" and London Mayor Sadiq Khan said serious questions needed to be answered after Carrick pleaded guilty to 49 charges relating to 12 victims between 2003 and 2020.…

Jan

18

2023

By The African Mirror

Six dead in California home shooting, including 6-month-old baby and her mother

WORLD

KANISHKA SINGH SIX people including a six-month-old baby cradled in the arms of her 17-year-old mother were shot dead at a home in California's main agricultural valley in what authorities called a targeted attack and "horrific massacre." Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux linked the killings to the illegal drug trade, saying deputies had conducted a drug-related search warrant at the same home last week. "We believe this was a message being sent," Boudreaux told reporters at the scene. "We believe that this was a targeted family." Two suspects remained at large, he said. Authorities responded early on Monday after multiple…

Jan

16

2023

By The African Mirror

At least 68 killed in Nepal’s worst air crash in three decades

WORLD

GOPAL SHARMA AT least 68 people were killed when a domestic flight of Yeti Airlines crashed in Pokhara in Nepal, the worst air crash in three decades in the small Himalayan nation. Hundreds of rescue workers scoured the hillside where the flight carrying 72 people from the capital Kathmandu went down. Officials late in the evening called off the search operations for the day, saying they will resume on Monday. Local TV footage earlier showed rescue workers scrambling around broken sections of the aircraft. Some of the ground near the crash site was scorched, with licks of flames visible. The…

Jan

14

2023

By The African Mirror

Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis, dies at 54

WORLD

LISA RICHWINE SINGER Lisa Marie Presley, the only daughter of the "King of Rock 'n' Roll," Elvis Presley, died at the age of 54 after being rushed to a Los Angeles-area hospital, her mother said. "It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us," her mother, Priscilla Presley, said in a statement. "She was the most passionate, strong and loving woman I have ever known. We ask for privacy as we try to deal with this profound loss," the statement added. Lisa Marie Presley suffered cardiac arrest…