WORLD - The African Mirror

Jul

19

2022

Buffalo mass shooting suspect pleads not guilty to federal hate, firearms charges

WORLD

THE man accused of killing 10 Black people at a western New York grocery store pleaded not guilty to 27 hate crimes and firearms charges stemming from the Buffalo shooting massacre, a court spokesperson said. The accused gunman, Payton Gendron, 19, appeared briefly in the Buffalo courtroom of U.S. Magistrate Judge Kenneth Schroeder Monday morning. He is charged with 14 hate crimes violations and 13 firearms offences. Prosecutors have 45 days to turn over discovery to the defendant's attorneys, Barbara Burns, a U.S. Department of Justice public information officer, told Reuters. Gendron is due for a December 9 status hearing,…

Jul

19

2022

By The African Mirror

Fans, hoses and air-con – heatwave-hit Britons seek relief

WORLD

SALES of electric fans, hoses, air conditioning units and sprinklers are soaring as Britons swelter amid record temperatures, retailers said. Britain was on course for its hottest day on record with temperatures forecast to hit 40C for the first time, forcing train companies to cancel services, schools to close early and ministers to urge the public to stay at home. Sainsbury's, Britain's No. 2 supermarket group which also owns the Argos general merchandise business, said sales of fans last week rose 1,876% versus the week before, while sales of air conditioning units were up 2,420% and sales of paddling pools…

Jul

18

2022

By The African Mirror

Russia’s Medvedev: Attack on Crimea will ignite ‘Judgement Day’ response

WORLD

THE refusal of Ukraine and Western powers to recognise Moscow's control of Crimea poses a "systemic threat" for Russia and any outside attack on the region will prompt a "Judgment Day" response, former President Dmitry Medvedev said. Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 after a pro-Moscow president in Kyiv was toppled amid mass street protests. Moscow then also backed pro-Russian armed separatists in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. In the event of an attack on Crimea, Medvedev was quoted by TASS news agency as saying, "Judgment Day will come very fast and hard.…

Jul

18

2022

By The African Mirror

Biden disputes Saudi account of Khashoggi murder discussion

WORLD

U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday differed with Saudi Arabia in their account of discussions at a bilateral summit about the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a major point of contention between the two countries. U.S. intelligence agencies believe Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing in 2018 of Khashoggi, a Saudi insider-turned-critic who had been living in self-imposed exile in Virginia. The de facto Saudi ruler denies it. Answering reporters as he arrived at the White House from his first Middle East trip as president, Biden disputed the Saudi foreign minister's account that he did not…

Jul

18

2022

By The African Mirror

Khamenei adviser says Tehran ‘capable of building nuclear bomb,’ Al Jazeera reports

WORLD

PARISA HAFEZI IRAN is technically capable of making a nuclear bomb but has not decided whether to build one, a senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Qatar's al Jazeera TV on Sunday. Kamal Kharrazi spoke a day after U.S. President Joe Biden ended his four-day trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia, vowing to stop Iran from "acquiring a nuclear weapon." Kharrazi's comments were a rare suggestion that Iran might have an interest in nuclear weapons, which it has long denied seeking. "In a few days we were able to enrich uranium up to 60% and we…

Jan

14

2021

By The African Mirror

Human Rights Watch slams China’s ‘appalling year’ of violations

WORLD

CHINA had an "appalling year" for human rights in 2020, a leading advocacy group has said, with a crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong, repression of Muslim Uighurs and the silencing of people reporting on the coronavirus outbreak. A Chinese court last month handed down a four-year jail term to a citizen-journalist who reported from Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus before it spread across the globe, while others who did the same have disappeared. "To crack down on whistleblowers and citizen-journalists at this particular moment ... helps highlight to the rest of the world what the consequences of violations…

Jan

14

2021

By The African Mirror

Global economy can shake off pandemic in 2021, leaders say

WORLD

MARK JOHN VACCINES and fresh economic stimulus promised by U.S. President-elect Joe Biden will give the global economy a chance to put the coronavirus pandemic behind it in 2021, policymakers and industry leaders told the Reuters Next conference. Their optimism came despite a resurgence in COVID-19 cases that has prompted the World Bank to downgrade its growth forecast for this year and warn that delays in vaccination programmes could pinch recovery even further. The head of German engineering giant Siemens AG said China is currently driving the world economy but was optimistic about recovery in the United States, where Biden…

Jan

14

2021

By The African Mirror

Brazilian mayor, elected while in a COVID-19 coma, dies

WORLD

MAGUITO Vilela, the Brazilian politician who was elected mayor of the city of Goiânia while in a coma due to COVID-19, has died from complications to the disease, it was announced on his personal Instagram account. "It is with deep regret that we report the death of the mayor of Goiânia, Maguito Vilela, which occurred this morning," the statement said. Local media said he was 71. Vilela's surprise election from his hospital bed made international headlines. It was a vivid example of the reach of the coronavirus pandemic in Brazil, which has the world's worst COVID-19 death toll outside the…

Jul

17

2022

By The African Mirror

Russia says it’s stepping up operations as more rockets hit Ukraine

WORLD

TOM BALMFORTH and MAX HUNDER RUSSIA has ordered its forces in Ukraine to step up operations, its defence ministry said, as rockets and missiles pounded the country in the latest of a series of bombardments that Kyiv says have killed dozens of people in recent days. In the latest strikes, missiles hit the northeastern town of Chuhuiv in Kharkiv region, killing three people including a 70-year-old woman and wounding three, regional governor Oleh Synehubov said. To the south, regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said more than 50 Russian Grad rockets fell on the city of Nikopol, on the Dnipro River. Two…

Jul

17

2022

By The African Mirror

Jan. 6 panel subpoenas Secret Service over text messages

WORLD

THE U.S. congressional panel probing the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol said it had subpoenaed the Secret Service as it investigates accusations by a watchdog that the agency erased text messages sought as evidence. "The Select Committee seeks the relevant text messages, as well as any after-action reports that have been issued in any and all divisions of the USSS pertaining or relating in any way to the events of January 6, 2021," the committee's chairman, Representative Bennie Thompson, said in a written statement. The watchdog on Friday met the House of Representatives panel after accusing the Secret…