WORLD - The African Mirror

Apr

19

2022

Six sentenced to death for lynching Sri Lankan factory manager in Pakistan

WORLD

MUBASHER BUKHARI A court sentenced six men to death in a mass trial for the mob lynching of a clothes factory's Sri Lankan manager in eastern Pakistan last year, the case's public prosecutor said. Scores of enraged workers in the city of Sialkot tortured and burned the man in December over accusations of blasphemy which a police official at the time linked to the removal of a poster with Islamic holy verses. Mobile phone footage shows him being chased onto a roof then beaten with sticks, dragged onto the streets, stripped and set alight. One man who seeks to help…

Apr

19

2022

By The African Mirror

Faced with criticism, Le Pen allies tone down rhetoric on proposed hijab ban

WORLD

A planned hijab ban if French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen is elected would come "little by little" and be determined by lawmakers, her allies said, marking a shift in tone less than a week ahead of the final presidential vote. The far-right core of Le Pen's programme has come under closer scrutiny as campaigning enters its final days. Louis Aliot, the far-right mayor of Perpignan and former life companion of Le Pen, said in an interview with France Inter radio that the hijab ban was one of several political tools to fight "Islamism", but that its implementation needed to…

Apr

18

2022

By The African Mirror

Ukrainian soldiers hold out in Mariupol, pope laments ‘Easter of War’

WORLD

ALESSANDRA PRENTICE and NATALIA ZINETS UKRAINIAN soldiers resisted a Russian ultimatum to lay down arms in the pulverised port of Mariupol, which Moscow said its forces had almost completely seized in what would be its biggest prize of the nearly two-month war. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said troops in Mariupol were still fighting despite a Russian demand to surrender by dawn. "The city still has not fallen," he told ABC's "This Week" programme, adding that Ukrainian soldiers continue to control some parts of the city. Russia said on Saturday it had control of urban parts of the city, with…

Apr

18

2022

By The African Mirror

Israeli police arrest nine as Palestinians seethe over Jerusalem shrine

WORLD

ISRAELI riot police faced off with fireworks-hurling Palestinians in the alleyways of Jerusalem's Old City as a visit by Jews to a disputed holy site stoked tensions during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Violence at the Al Aqsa mosque compound, which erupted on Friday, has raised fears about a slide back into deeper conflict over the site as Ramadan coincides with the Jewish festival of Passover. Christians also marked Easter in Jerusalem on Sunday. Sunday's confrontations were less violent, but Israeli police said several passengers on two buses had been lightly wounded when stone-throwing Palestinians smashed the vehicles' windows.…

Apr

18

2022

By The African Mirror

French prosecutor studying EU anti-fraud agency report on Le Pen

WORLD

FRENCH prosecutors said they are examining a report by the European Union's anti-fraud agency accusing far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen and members of her party of misappropriating thousands of euros' worth of EU funds. Le Pen is challenging Emmanuel Macron in a presidential election with opinion polls showing Macron edging ahead in next Sunday's second-round runoff. The Paris prosecutor's office confirmed that it was studying a report it received from the EU anti-fraud agency OLAF on March 11. Investigative website Mediapart wrote on Saturday that the OLAF report claimed Le Pen had misappropriated 140,000 euros of public money with…

Apr

17

2022

By The African Mirror

Russia strikes Kyiv suburb, presses offensive in Mariupol ruins

WORLD

PAVEL POLITYUK RUSSIAN air raids and missile strikes hit Ukraine's capital Kyiv and other major cities as Moscow launched more long-range attacks following the sinking of its Black Sea fleet's flagship. In the besieged port of Mariupol, the scene of the war's heaviest fighting and worst humanitarian catastrophe, Russian troops pressed their advances, hoping to make up for their failure to capture Kyiv by seizing their first big prize of the war. "The situation is very difficult" in Mariupol, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the Ukrainska Pravda news portal. "Our soldiers are blocked, the wounded are blocked. There is a humanitarian…

Apr

17

2022

By The African Mirror

Palestinians clash with Israeli police at Jerusalem holy site, 152 injured

WORLD

AT least 152 Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli riot police inside Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the latest outbreak in a recent upsurge of violence that has raised fears of a slide back to wider conflict. Most of the Palestinian injuries were incurred from rubber bullets, stun grenades and beatings with police batons, the Palestine Red Crescent said, at the most sensitive site in the generations-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israeli security forces have been on high alert after a series of deadly Arab street attacks throughout the country over the past two weeks. Confrontations at the Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem's…

Apr

17

2022

By The African Mirror

Main Paris attacks suspect apologises to victims

WORLD

SALAH ABDESLAM, believed to be the sole surviving member of the group of Islamist militants that killed 130 people in a night of gun and bomb attacks in Paris in 2015, apologised to the victims during his trial on Friday, French media reported. Investigators believe Abdeslam was part of the squad that assaulted six restaurants and bars, the Bataclan concert hall and the national soccer stadium. Among the 20 defendants, he is the only one directly accused of murder, attempted murder and hostage taking. He has denied the charges and is standing trial before a panel of judges. "I want…

Apr

16

2022

By The African Mirror

Recaptured Ukrainian village left with wrecked tanks, bodies and questions

WORLD

JAMES MACKENZIE SMASHED tanks in the mud, destroyed buildings and mourning families mark a recaptured east Ukrainian village whose residents are contemplating the price both they and their former Russian occupiers have had to pay. Ukrainian soldiers last month retook Husarivka, an agricultural village with a peacetime population of 500-600 around 150 km southeast of Kharkiv city, after heavy fighting following the Russian invasion on Feb. 24. As Russian forces pull back after failing to take major cities including Kyiv and Kharkiv to refocus their offensive on the Donbas region in the southeast, residents of the surrounding areas are beginning…

Apr

16

2022

By The African Mirror

Growing defiance of COVID curbs in China brings wave of arrests

WORLD

EDUARDO BAPTISTA SUN JIAN, a 37-year-old master's degree student in the Chinese city of Yantai, for months staged a solo campaign against his university's COVID-19 prevention measures, including blistering criticism on social media. The last straw for authorities came on March 27, when Sun walked around his campus carrying a placard that read "lift the lockdown on Ludong". Police detained him and on April 1 Ludong University expelled him, according to a letter from the university seen by Reuters. University officials did not respond to a request for comment. The Chinese public have been largely supportive of the zero-COVID policy…