WORLD - The African Mirror

Jan

16

2023

Rescue hopes fade after Russian attack in Ukraine’s Dnipro, dozens feared dead

WORLD

HERBERT VILLARRAGA UKRAINE saw little hope of pulling any more survivors from the rubble of an apartment block in the city of Dnipro on Sunday, a day after the building was hit during a major Russian missile attack, with dozens of people expected to have died. The regional governor's adviser, Natalia Babachenko, said 30 people were confirmed dead so far and more than 30 were in hospital, including 12 in serious condition. Between 30 to 40 people could still be trapped under debris, she said. Emergency workers said they had heard people screaming for help from underneath piles of debris…

Jan

14

2023

By The African Mirror

Analysis: Russian mercenary boss courts Putin with Ukrainian battlefield success

WORLD

ANDREW OSBORN IN the twilight of the Soviet Union, Yevgeny Prigozhin was languishing in prison for theft. Now as the founder of Russia's most powerful mercenary group, he is vying for Vladimir Putin's favour by claiming a rare battlefield win in Ukraine. His aim is to leverage the success that Wagner Group, his mercenary outfit, had this week in pushing Ukrainian forces out of the salt mining town of Soledar, a move that revives Russian plans to seize more of eastern Ukraine after multiple defeats. Russia claimed victory on Friday after Ukraine said its forces were holding on after a 'hot' night…

Jan

14

2023

By The African Mirror

China set for historic demographic turn, accelerated by COVID traumas

WORLD

FARAH MASTER LIVING under China's stringent COVID-19 restrictions for the past three years had caused Zhang Qi enough stress and uncertainty to consider not having babies in the country. When China abruptly dismantled its "zero COVID" regime last month to let the virus spread freely, the balance tilted to a definite "No", the Shanghai-based e-commerce executive said. Stories about mothers and babies not being able to see doctors, as medical facilities were overwhelmed by COVID infections, were the final straw for Zhang. "I heard that giving birth at a public hospital is just horrific. I really wouldn’t consider having a baby," the…

Jan

16

2023

By The African Mirror

‘Dress like a cabbage’: Surviving Yakutsk, the world’s coldest city

WORLD

TEMPERATURES have plunged to minus 50 degrees Celsius (-58 Fahrenheit) this week in Yakutsk during an abnormally long cold snap in the Siberian city known as the coldest on earth. Located 5,000 km (3,100 miles) east of Moscow on the permafrost of the Russian Far East, residents of the mining city often see the thermometer regularly drop well below minus 40. "You can't fight it. You either adjust and dress accordingly or you suffer," said Anastasia Gruzdeva, outside in two scarves, two pairs of gloves and multiple hats and hoods. "You don't really feel the cold in the city. Or…

Jan

13

2023

By The African Mirror

Scale of alleged torture, detentions by Russian forces in Kherson emerges

WORLD

ANTHONY DEUTSCH, ANNA VOITENKO and OLENA HARMASH OKSANA Minenko, a 44-year-old accountant who lives in the Ukrainian city of Kherson, said she was repeatedly detained and tortured by occupying Russian forces. Her husband, a Ukrainian soldier, died defending Kherson’s Antonivskyi bridge on the first day of full-scale war, she said. During several interrogations in the spring, Russian forces submerged her hands in boiling water, pulled out her fingernails and beat her in the face with rifle butts so badly she needed plastic surgery, according to Minenko. “One pain grew into another,” said Minenko, speaking while at an improvised humanitarian aid…

Jan

13

2023

By The African Mirror

Biden aides find second batch of classified documents at new location, reports say

WORLD

AIDES to U.S. President Joe Biden have discovered at least one more batch of classified documents in a location separate from a think tank office he used after serving as vice president, news outlets reported, citing unnamed sources. Biden aides have been searching for additional classified materials that might be in other locations since a set of classified documents was found in November at the Washington-based think tank, according to a report in NBC News, which first broke the news and CNN. The NBC News report said the classification level, number and precise location of the additional documents was not…

Jan

12

2023

By The African Mirror

Flight disruptions could last days after FAA outage snarls U.S. travel

WORLD

DAVID SHEPARDSON, RAJESH KUMAR SINGH and ABHIJITH GANAPAVARAM U.S. flights were slowly resuming departures and a ground stop was lifted after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) scrambled to fix a system outage overnight that had forced a halt to all U.S. departing flights. More than 7,300 flights were delayed and 1,100 cancelled according to the FlightAware website in the first national grounding of flights in about two decades, industry officials said. The total was still rising and officials said the outage could cause delays through at least Thursday, if not longer, according to several airlines. The cause of the problem…

Jan

12

2023

By The African Mirror

Exclusive: Myanmar junta chief family assets found in Thai drug raid

WORLD

PANU WONGCHA-UM and POPPY MCPHERSON THAI officials found assets belonging to adult children of Myanmar's junta leader during a raid on the Bangkok apartment of a Myanmar tycoon charged with drug trafficking and money laundering, according to an official record and two people with knowledge of the case. Title deeds and bankbooks belonging to Min Aung Hlaing’s daughter and son were found at the home of Tun Min Latt, 53, when he was arrested in the Thai capital last September along with three Thai nationals on charges of conspiracy to traffic narcotics and money laundering. Tun Min Latt, who has…

Jan

12

2023

By The African Mirror

Man wounds six people at Paris Gare du Nord station

WORLD

A man attacked and wounded six people at the Gare du Nord train station in Paris, leaving one with serious injuries, before being shot by off-duty police officers, authorities said. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told reporters the man attacked travellers with what looked like a home-made weapon at 0642 CET (0542 GMT) at the entrance and inside the station. Police had earlier said the man had used a knife or blade. Within a minute, off-duty police officers returning home after a night shift shot the attacker three times, Darmanin said. Gare du Nord, one of the busiest stations in Europe,…

Jan

13

2023

By The African Mirror

Robbers pull off multimillion-dollar copper heist in Chilean port

WORLD

CHILEAN authorities said they were investigating a violent heist in Chile's main seaport where thieves stole several shipping containers filled with copper belonging to state-owned giant Codelco. Juan Carlos Catalan, the local prosecutor, said in a statement that ten armed men entered the San Antonio port early on Tuesday morning, attacked workers and stole 13 containers, 12 of which had copper. "There was one guard and four workers that (the assailants)tied up and beat and left locked up," Catalan said, adding that workers alerted authorities after they freed themselves. Catalan said authorities are investigating and reviewing security footage but have…