WORLD - The African Mirror

Mar

22

2021

U.S., Europe press Turkey to rethink ditching violence-on-women pact

WORLD

JONATHAN SPICER U.S. and European leaders denounced what they called Turkey's baffling and concerning decision to pull out of an international accord designed to protect women from violence, and urged President Tayyip Erdogan to reconsider. Erdogan's government on Saturday withdrew from the Istanbul Convention, which it signed onto in 2011 after it was forged in Turkey's biggest city. Turkey said domestic laws, not outside fixes, would protect women's rights. The Council of Europe accord pledged to prevent, prosecute and eliminate domestic violence and promote equality. Killings of women have surged in Turkey in recent years and thousands of women protested…

Mar

21

2021

By The African Mirror

Tears and outrage in Georgia

WORLD

RICH McKAY and ALEXANDRA ULMER CLUTCHING a bouquet of flowers, Jami Webb wept alongside her fiance Kevin Chen at a makeshift memorial set up in front of Young's Asian Massage for the victims of this week's shooting rampage at three Atlanta-area spas. Most of those who stopped and prayed in front of the flowers, burning candles and signs condemning racism and violence were strangers to the eight victims. But for Webb, 29, and her family, the visit was personal and deeply painful. Her father, Michael, is the former husband of the spa's owner, Xiaojie "Emily" Tan, one of the six…

Mar

21

2021

By The African Mirror

COVID-19 strikes Brazil’s Congress as third senator dies

WORLD

ANTHONY BOADLE A third senator has died of COVID-19 in Brazil, raising questions around precautions taken in the country's Congress where as many as one-in-three lawmakers has been infected with the virus devastating Latin America's largest nation. Senator Major Olimpio, a former policeman who backed and later fell out with far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, was declared brain dead on Thursday by doctors at a Sao Paulo hospital where he had been in intensive care for three weeks. The two oldest senators in Congress, aged 87 and 83, also succumbed to COVID-19. But the death of Olimpio, just 58 and the…

Mar

21

2021

By The African Mirror

Scared of school? Bolivian girl takes her virtual classes in a cemetery

WORLD

NEYDI, a Bolivian primary school student, logs on to virtual classes like many kids around the world during the pandemic. The only difference is the setting: surrounded by tombstones in a public cemetery in highland city La Paz. Bolivia has kept its schools largely closed during the COVID-19 outbreak, pushing many parents to find novel ways to get their kids online for class. It is particularly challenging in a country with sporadic internet connectivity, limited access to expensive computers, and high costs for mobile data. Neydi's mother, Jeanete Alanoca, a 30-year-old indigenous Aymara who makes a living working at the…

Mar

20

2021

By The African Mirror

India’s richest state hit by biggest virus surge

WORLD

RAJENDRA JADHAV, ABHIRUP ROY AND SWATI BHAT INDIA’S financial capital Mumbai is facing a second wave of COVID-19 infections that could overwhelm its health facilities, doctors said on Friday, after a record daily increase in cases in its home state Maharashtra. New infections in India rose on the day by the highest in more than three months, heralding a return of school closures, shopping restrictions and other virus-fighting measures in parts of the world's worst affected country after the United States and Brazil. Many Indians have also started questioning the government's highly publicised vaccine exports campaign when only a fraction…

Mar

20

2021

By The African Mirror

A Myanmar doctor’s journey from a remote village to leading a revolution

WORLD

POPPY McPHERSON ON the night Myanmar's army seized power, Dr Sasa was in the capital, Naypyitaw, expecting to take a job in Aung San Suu Kyi's cabinet after running a successful election campaign for her party in his native Chin state. But as troops fanned out across the city in the early hours of February 1, detaining Suu Kyi along with most of her government and declaring a return to junta rule, the doctor turned politician fled disguised as a taxi driver, not wanting, in his words, "to be captured like a rat in a box". Since then, Sasa, who…

Mar

20

2021

By The African Mirror

‘No silver bullet’: torch relay struggles highlight hurdles for pandemic Olympics

WORLD

ELAINE LIES and KIYOSHI TAKENAKA GOLD medal Paralympian Rina Akiyama pulled out of the Olympic torch relay at the eleventh hour this month, worried about drawing crowds that might spread the coronavirus, the latest in a series of cancellations that have plagued the event. The withdrawal by Akiyama and more than a dozen celebrities from the relay, which starts Thursday, underscores the challenges facing organisers of one of the world's most complex events, hosted by a nation where vaccinations have barely begun, in the midst of a yet-untamed pandemic. "I'm a former athlete and know how important the Olympics and…

Mar

19

2021

By The African Mirror

Putin and Biden in a war of words

WORLD

ANDREW OSBORN and TOM BALMFORTH PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin retorted yesterday that it takes one to know one after U.S. President Joe Biden said he thought the Russian leader was a killer and already poor relations between Moscow and Washington sank to a new post-Cold War low. Putin was speaking on television after Biden, in an ABC News interview that prompted Russia to recall its Washington ambassador for consultations a day earlier, said "I do" when asked if he believed Putin was a killer. Biden also described Putin as having no soul, and said he would pay a price for alleged…

Mar

19

2021

By The African Mirror

Fears of ‘digital dictatorship’ as Myanmar deploys AI

WORLD

RINA CHANDRAN PROTESTERS in Myanmar fear they are being tracked with Chinese facial recognition technology, as spiralling violence and street surveillance spark fears of a "digital dictatorship" to replace ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Human rights groups say the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to check on citizens' movements poses a "serious threat" to their liberty. More than 200 people have been killed since Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi was overthrown in a Feb. 1 coup, triggering mass protests that security forces have struggled to suppress with increasingly violent tactics. Security forces have focused on stamping out dissent in cities…

Mar

19

2021

By The African Mirror

Sex consent app proposal sparks criticism in Australia

WORLD

BEH LIH YI ONE of Australia's top police officers faced criticism on Thursday for suggesting an app that records sexual consent could be used to address a rise in sexual assault cases. Mick Fuller, police commissioner for New South Wales, said an app that allowed people to digitally document their agreement before having sex could be "part of the solution", after cases of sexual assault in the state rose by 10% last year. "I am just suggesting: is it part of the solution? Maybe it's not, but if we don't do something then more and more women are going to…