WORLD - The African Mirror

Dec

07

2021

The trials of Aung San Suu Kyi, from heroine to villain to convict

WORLD

PUT on trial by the generals who overthrew her elected government in a coup that cut short democratic reforms she had fought for decades to bring about, Myanmar's ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced on Monday to four years in prison. The 76-year-old's sentence was later reduced to two years' detention in an undisclosed location after she was convicted of incitement and violations of a law on natural disasters in the first verdicts in more than a dozen criminal cases filed against her since the Feb. 1 military takeover. Just 14 months before the coup, she had…

Dec

07

2021

By The African Mirror

Biden and Putin head into Ukraine talks with scant room for compromise

WORLD

TOM BALMFORTH and TREVOR HUNNICUTT PRESIDENTS Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin have a chasm of mutual distrust to bridge when they hold a virtual meeting on Tuesday in the shadow of what the United States believes is a threatened Russian invasion of Ukraine. "A lamentable state," was how the Kremlin described relations ahead of the extended video conference call, which it expects to start around 1500 GMT/10 a.m. ET. Washington has accused Russia of massing troops near the border with Ukraine to intimidate an aspiring NATO member, suggesting it could be a repeat of Moscow's 2014 playbook when it seized…

Dec

06

2021

By The African Mirror

U.N. rights boss Bachelet denounces Suu Kyi conviction in ‘sham trial’

WORLD

STEPHANIE NEBEHAY U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet has denounced a four-year jail term handed down to Myanmar's ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi after a "sham trial" and called for her immediate release. The conviction of Suu Kyi "closes yet another door to political dialogue" in Myanmar, where the military took power on Feb. 1, and "will only deepen rejection of the coup", Bachelet said in a statement in Geneva. A court jailed Suu Kyi for four years on Monday on charges of incitement and breaching coronavirus restrictions, said a source in a case that critics described as "farcical".…

Dec

06

2021

By The African Mirror

Violence escalates in India’s northeast after forces mistakenly fire on civilians

WORLD

ZARIR HUSSAIN PROTESTERS threw stones and set fire to areas around a camp belonging to Indian forces in the remote northeast, with one civilian shot dead in renewed violence a day after 14 people were killed by defence forces, officials said. At least 14 civilians and one member of the security forces were killed in Nagaland state on Saturday night after Indian forces mistook a group of labourers for militants and opened fire. More than a dozen civilians and some members of the security forces were also wounded in the incident and violence that followed, said a federal defence ministry…

Dec

06

2021

By The African Mirror

In new blow to Venezuelan opposition, major leader quits interim government

WORLD

DEISY BUITRAGO and VIVIAN SEQUERA JULIO Borges, the politician who serves as foreign minister for Venezuela's U.S.-backed interim government, said on Sunday he would leave his post, further weakening the opposition just weeks after it was routed in regional elections. The United States and dozens of other countries recognize the interim government, led by Juan Guaido and formed at the beginning of 2019, and consider the 2018 re-election of President Nicolas Maduro to be fraudulent. The interim government is not serving its purpose, Borges, whose differences with Guaido are well-known, said in an online press conference. "The (interim) government makes…

Dec

06

2021

By The African Mirror

Pope calls migrant crisis ‘shipwreck of civilisation’

WORLD

PHIIP PULLELLA and LEFTERIS PAPADIMAS POPE Francis condemned the exploitation of migrants for political purposes on Sunday during a visit to the Greek island of Lesbos, branding the global indifference to their plight the "shipwreck of civilisation". Francis walked through the Mavrovouni camp, which holds about 2,300 people, stopping to greet dozens of refugees and giving a high five to a young African boy. He first visited the island, one of the main entry points for migrants, in 2016 and took 12 Syrian refugees back to Italy with him. He lamented that "little has changed" since then. The Mediterranean, where…

Dec

05

2021

By The African Mirror

Key moments from the first week of Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex abuse trial

WORLD

LUC COHEN GHISLAINE Maxwell's sex abuse trial in Manhattan federal court began this week. Prosecutors have accused the British socialite of grooming teenage girls for abuse by now-deceased investor Jeffrey Epstein. Maxwell has pleaded not guilty. Here are five key moments from the first week of trial: - In her opening statement, prosecutor Lara Pomerantz called Maxwell a predator who "preyed on vulnerable young girls, manipulated them, and served them up to be sexually abused." - Defense attorney Bobbi Sternheim countered that Maxwell was being scapegoated since Epstein is no longer alive. "The charges against Ghislaine Maxwell are for things…

Dec

05

2021

By The African Mirror

Warnings of worrying rise in northwest Syria suicide rate among women

WORLD

LARA BELLONE D’ALTAVILLA and SAMER DABOUL STARING out into the Idlib countryside, Umm Amal gazes at the young children walking through the muddy roads of northwest Syria and tearfully remembers her own daughter will never return home. Her daughter, Amal, took her own life earlier this year at 21, having spent her adolescence in a war zone, then survived child marriage, and then been forced to flee her home and settle in a displacement camp. “Amal was the joy of my life. She was loved by everyone. How I long to see her smile again,” said Umm Amal, who asked…

Dec

05

2021

By The African Mirror

Biden says he is crafting a plan for Russia-Ukraine crisis

WORLD

TREVOR HUNNICUT U.S. President Joe Biden says he is developing comprehensive initiatives to make it difficult for Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine and that he would not accept Moscow's "red lines," as fears mounted that the simmering conflict could erupt into war. A video teleconference between the two leaders is anticipated within days. More than 94,000 Russian troops are massed near Ukraine's borders, said Ukraine's defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, who cited intelligence reports suggesting Moscow may be planning a large-scale military offensive for the end of January. Moscow, in turn, has accused Ukraine and the United States of…

Aug

02

2021

By The African Mirror

100-year-old former death camp guard to go on trial in Germany -report

WORLD

A 100-year-old former guard at the Sachsenhausen Nazi concentration camp near Berlin will face trial in the autumn, 76 years after the end of the Second World War, German weekly Welt am Sonntag reported. The district court of Neuruppin admitted the charges of accessory to murder in 3,500 cases, and the trial is slated to start in October. The defendant should be able to stand trial for 2 to 2-1/2 hours a day, a court spokesman told the paper. The court was not available for comment at the weekend. The accused, who was not named in accordance with German media…