WORLD - The African Mirror

Nov

03

2020

U.S. TV news networks aim for credibility, not speed, on election night

WORLD

HELEN COSTER IN preparing for election night, some top U.S. television news executives see a cautionary tale in a notorious November evening two decades ago. After major networks projected Vice President Al Gore the winner in the crucial state of Florida, they pivoted in the wee hours to calling his Republican rival George W. Bush the next president. The margin was so slim, Gore conceded, then took it back an hour later. The election wouldn't be decided for more than a month. The only loss that night was the networks' credibility. "I think 2000 still sort of lingers over everyone,"…

Nov

03

2020

By The African Mirror

Three-year-old rescued from rubble in Turkey, quake death toll hits 94

WORLD

KEMAL ASLAN A three-year-old girl was rescued from a collapsed building in the western Turkish city of Izmir on Monday, nearly three days after a powerful earthquake in the Aegean Sea that has killed at least 94 people. Rescuers pulled the girl, Elif, out of the rubble, then took her on a stretcher to an ambulance as emergency crews searched for survivors in eight other buildings. Elif's two sisters and brother were found alive in the wreckage along with their mother on Saturday, but one of the children later died. "A thousand thanks to you, my God. We have brought…

Nov

03

2020

By The African Mirror

Several likely killed in suspected Vienna terror attack

WORLD

FRANCOIS MURPHY SEVERAL people were wounded in central Vienna and some probably killed in exchanges of gunfire in what the interior minister said was believed to be a terror attack. An area of central Vienna had been cordoned off and police said a large deployment was under way. Interior Minister Karl Nehammer told Austrian broadcaster ORF that the attack was believed to have been carried out by several people. "At the moment I can confirm we believe this is an apparent terror attack," he said. "We believe there are several perpetrators. Unfortunately there are also several injured, probably also dead."…

Nov

02

2020

By The African Mirror

Ten moments that defined the 2020 U.S. presidential campaign

WORLD

JAMES OLIPHANT WITH Donald Trump running for re-election, the 2020 U.S. presidential election was always expected to be a dramatic and eventful ride. But nobody predicted a global pandemic that would upend every facet of the campaign. Here are 10 pivotal moments from a dizzying election year: 1. TRUMP ACQUITTED, February 5, 2020 At the beginning of the year, things were looking up for the Republican president. Trump's Senate impeachment trial ended with him cleared on two charges brought by Democrats. The fallout from the Mueller Report was no longer hanging over his head. The economy was roaring – and…

Nov

02

2020

By The African Mirror

Six in custody over Nice church attack in France

WORLD

TWO more men were arrested in connection with a knife attack that left three dead at a church in Nice, bringing the number of people in custody to six as investigators look at the suspected assailant's last known contacts, a French police source said. The latest arrests took place on Saturday, the source said. An assailant shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) beheaded a woman and killed two other people in a church in Nice on Thursday, in France's second deadly knife attack in two weeks with a suspected Islamist motive. The suspected attacker, a 21-year-old from Tunisia, was shot…

Nov

02

2020

By The African Mirror

Ten dead, three missing as 2020’s strongest typhoon slams Philippines

WORLD

ENRICO DELA CRUZ AT least 10 people died and three others were missing after Typhoon Goni, the world's strongest typhoon this year, barrelled through the south of the Philippines' main island of Luzon, an initial government report showed. More than 300 houses were buried under volcanic rocks and mud flows from Mayon Volcano in severely hit Albay province in the Bicol region, a lawmaker said. Storm surges hit some coastal towns, while rivers overflowed and dikes were destroyed, submerging several villages in Bicol. The dead and missing were all in Bicol, including nine in Albay, the Office of Civil Defence…

Nov

01

2020

By The African Mirror

Three in custody in France following Nice attack

WORLD

SARAH WHITE and MICHEL ROSE A third person was taken into custody in France in connection with a knife attack which left three dead in Nice on Thursday, a police source said on Saturday, as the government ramps up security efforts against possible militant attacks. An assailant shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) beheaded a woman and killed two other people in a church in Nice, in France's second deadly knife attack in two weeks. The third arrest took place on Friday and followed another that day and a previous one on Thursday, the police source said. At least two…

Oct

14

2020

By The African Mirror

Chilean miner trapped underground a decade ago recalls the day he saw the light

WORLD

THE spectacular rescue a decade ago of 33 miners trapped for two months underground in Chile´s far-flung Atacama desert made headlines around the world. One of the survivors recalled in an interview with Reuters on Monday the drama of the last few moments before his escape, when rescuers threaded him through a narrow gap in the rock in a capsule designed for the purpose. Mario Sepúlveda, the group's leader and the second man to be rescued, remembered his fear as the capsule hauled him upwards out of the darkness, not knowing if the plan would work. "On the way out,…

Oct

14

2020

By The African Mirror

Humanitarian crisis feared as Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire buckles

WORLD

NVARD HOVHANNISYAN and NAILIA BAGIROVA ARMENIA and Azerbaijan accused each other on Tuesday of violating a ceasefire agreed three days ago to quell fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, drawing warnings from international groups of a humanitarian crisis. The Russia-brokered truce is buckling despite mounting calls from world powers to halt the fighting, with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo among those urging greater commitment to the ceasefire terms. Turkey and Armenia exchanged recriminations, each blaming the other for exacerbating the crisis around Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but governed and populated by ethnic Armenians. Earlier on…

Oct

14

2020

By The African Mirror

Over 10 million have already voted early in U.S. elections with 3 weeks to go

WORLD

BRAD BROOKS and JOHN WHITESIDES TEXANS have joined a wave of Americans casting ballots at a record-setting pace, jamming early-voting polling places ahead of a November 3 election showdown between Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden. Long lines of voters snaked out the doors and down the sidewalks at polling places in cities around the state, social media videos showed, with some people showing up long before the doors opened to claim a spot. In Georgia, where early voting began on Monday, people waited five hours or more to cast ballots in record-breaking early turnout for a…