WORLD - The African Mirror

Dec

11

2022

Nobel awards to take place in Stockholm with full glitz and glamour

WORLD

NOBEL laureates congregated in the Swedish capital Stockholm for the first entirely in-person award ceremonies complete with a formal banquet since the COVID-19 pandemic that curtailed events in the past two years. The ceremony starts at 1500 GMT and features glamorous formal wear, with the men in white ties and tails and women in flowing gowns and elegant hairdos. Ceremonies in 2020 and 2021 were scaled back and there was no banquet. Many laureates from 2020 and 2021 will be attending this year as well as the 2022 winners - last year for example there was a ceremony but no…

Dec

11

2022

By The African Mirror

‘It hurts my soul’: Brazil’s Bolsonaro ends post-election silence

WORLD

BRAZILIAN President Jair Bolsonaro broke his silence for the first time since his election defeat on October 30 and spoke to supporters calling for a military coup to stop leftist President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office. Bolsonaro said he had kept silent for almost 40 days, adding, "it hurts my soul." "Who decides where I go are you. Who decides which way the armed forces go are you," Bolsonaro told his supporters at the gates of the presidential residence. In his ambiguous comments, Bolsonaro did not endorse their call for military intervention but said the armed forces…

Dec

10

2022

By The African Mirror

Russia shells eastern front as Putin says West ‘exploiting’ crisis

WORLD

DAN PELESCHUK RUSSIAN forces shelled the entire front line in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, officials in Kyiv said, as Russia's President Vladimir Putin accused the West of using Ukrainians as "cannon fodder" in its quest for global dominance. Putin also said, without elaborating, that Russia would probably have to do a deal over Ukraine someday while accusing France and Germany of betrayal over past efforts to bring peace to eastern Ukraine. In a sign of Russia's clampdown on public dissent since it invaded Ukraine on February 24, a Moscow court sentenced opposition politician Ilya Yashin to eight and a half…

Dec

10

2022

By The African Mirror

Brittney Griner arrives in the U.S. after prisoner exchange with Russia

WORLD

A plane carrying basketball star Brittney Griner landed in the United States early on Friday, nearly 10 months after she was detained in Russia. Griner was released in a prisoner swap with Russia in exchange for arms dealer Viktor Bout and was heading home on Thursday, ending what President Joe Biden called months of "hell" for her and her wife. Griner, 32, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and star of the Women's National Basketball Association's Phoenix Mercury, flew into San Antonio, Texas. She was arrested on February 17 at a Moscow airport after vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which is banned in…

Dec

10

2022

By The African Mirror

Lebanese actress questioned, detained in central bank graft probe

WORLD

LEBANESE actress Stephanie Saliba was detained after being questioned by investigators over a corruption case related to Lebanon's central bank governor, a judicial source told Reuters. Judge Ghada Aoun told Reuters on Thursday she had ordered security forces last week to bring Saliba, 35, in for interrogation over suspicions that governor Riad Salameh had bought her luxury property using ill-gotten gains. Salameh has denied any wrongdoing and Saliba has not yet been charged with any crime. She has not responded to attempts by Reuters to reach her by phone or social media platforms. Saliba landed at Beirut's international airport on Thursday and…

Dec

09

2022

By The African Mirror

Brittney Griner released from Russian custody in prisoner swap with Viktor Bout

WORLD

NANDITA BOSE and HUMEYRA PAMUK U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner has been released in a prisoner swap with Russia in exchange for Viktor Bout, a former arms dealer, and was heading back to the United States, ending what President Joe Biden called months of "hell" for her and her wife. The swap was arranged after talks spanning months during a time of high tensions between the two countries in the wake of Russia's February invasion of Ukraine. The exchange took place in the United Arab Emirates at Abu Dhabi airport, where the two walked past each other on a tarmac, a U.S. administration…

Dec

09

2022

By The African Mirror

German police set to make more arrests after coup plot thwarted

WORLD

MIRANDA MURRAY and RACHEL MORE GERMAN police plan further arrests as they investigate a far-right group that prosecutors say was preparing to overthrow the state and install a former member of a German royal family as national leader. Investigators have said the group, many of whom were members of the Reichsbuerger (Citizens of the Reich) movement, planned to install aristocrat Heinrich XIII Prinz Reuss as leader of a new state and found evidence that some members planned to storm the Bundestag and arrest lawmakers. Heinrich is a descendant of the royal House of Reuss in the eastern state of Thuringia. Aged 71,…

Dec

09

2022

By The African Mirror

Harry and Meghan decry “pain and suffering” of women brought into UK royal family

WORLD

MICHAEL HOLDEN PRINCE Harry said the British royal family had dismissed race-related hounding of his wife Meghan by the press as a rite of passage as the couple delivered a fierce attack on the media in their Netflix documentary series released. Harry also drew comparisons between how papers had treated Meghan and the intense media intrusion that his mother Princess Diana had suffered. Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997 as her limousine sped away from chasing paparazzi photographers. Harry, who along with Meghan stepped down from royal duties two years ago, said it was his…

Dec

09

2022

By The African Mirror

Russia attacks in east Ukraine but Kremlin appears to limit war ambition

WORLD

RUSSIAN forces attacked settlements in eastern Ukraine from the ground and air, officials said, in support of the Kremlin's apparently scaled-back ambition of only securing the bulk of Ukrainian lands it has claimed in the war. Fighting was underway along the entire line of demarcation in the Donetsk region, with the frontline town of Avdiivka shelled by Russian tanks on Thursday morning, said Tatiana Ignatchenko, a spokeswoman for the regional administration. Near the city of Lysychansk, Russia deployed more troops to try to capture the village of Bilohorivka, Ukraine's governor of the Luhansk region said, while a commander in another fought-over settlement…

Dec

08

2022

By The African Mirror

Taliban publicly execute man accused of murder, senior officials attend

WORLD

THE Taliban administration put to death a man accused of murder in western Afghanistan, its spokesperson said, in the first officially confirmed public execution since the group took over the country last year. The execution in western Farah province was of a man accused of stabbing another man to death in 2017, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said and was attended by senior officials of the group. The execution was carried out by the father of the victim, who shot the man three times, Mujahid added in a later statement. The case was investigated by three courts and authorised by the…