WORLD - The African Mirror

Oct

09

2020

Rapes show double struggle of low-caste women in India

WORLD

ANNIE BANERJI and SAURABH SHARMA THE victim of India's latest alleged gang rape faced the double discrimination of being born female and low caste, says her family, fearing she will get no justice in death either. They say it would all have been different if the 19-year-old victim of a brutal attack came from an upper-caste family or if the suspects were all lower-caste Indians, known as Dalit. "The police are twisting facts," her brother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "Things could have been different had we belonged to an upper caste." His…

Oct

09

2020

By The African Mirror

Azeris and ethnic Armenians fight as Russia, U.S. and France seek ceasefire

WORLD

NVARD HOVHANNISYAN, NAILIA BAGIROVA and STEPHANIE NEBEHAY AZERBAIJAN and ethnic Armenians have fought with artillery and heavy guns as the United States, France and Russia stepped up efforts to secure a ceasefire and avert a wider war in the South Caucasus. Azerbaijan said the city of Ganja had come under fire, deep inside its territory. Ethnic Armenians who control the mountain enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh inside Azerbaijan said Stepanakert, its main city, had been shelled by Azeri forces. In a sign of growing alarm in the region, the head of a six-country military alliance led by Russia and including Armenia warned…

Oct

08

2020

By The African Mirror

France, U.S. and Russia to meet on Nagorno-Karabakh amid fears of regional war

WORLD

NAILIA BAGIROVA, NVARD HOVHANNISYAN AND JOHN IRISH FRANCE, the United States and Russia will step up efforts to end fighting between Azeri and ethnic Armenian forces in the South Caucasus by holding talks in Geneva on Thursday, as fears of a regional war grow. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Russian, French and U.S. representatives would also meet in Moscow on Monday to look at ways to persuade the warring sides to negotiate a ceasefire. "We want everyone to understand that it's in their interest to immediately stop hostilities without conditions and that we start a negotiation," he told…

Oct

08

2020

By The African Mirror

Unemployment is world’s biggest risk, business leaders say

WORLD

UNEMPLOYMENT is seen as the biggest worry over the next 10 years for business executives around the world, closely followed by concern about the spread of infectious diseases, according to a survey by the World Economic Forum. Unemployment rates have rocketed due to lockdowns and other restrictions to combat the coronavirus pandemic, with fears of worse to come in countries which have furloughed workers. "The employment disruptions caused by the pandemic, rising automation and the transition to greener economies are fundamentally changing labour markets," said Saadia Zahidi, Managing Director at the World Economic Forum (WEF). "As we emerge from the…

Oct

08

2020

By The African Mirror

With Trump ailing, a steady Pence tries to keep the campaign afloat

WORLD

JAMES OLIPHANT MIKE Pence achieved on the debate stage what arguably President Donald Trump did not in a similar showdown last week: He offered a cogent and restrained case for why traditional Republicans and some swing voters should return the Trump-Pence ticket to the White House for four more years. For Wednesday night's vice presidential square-off, Pence was charged with trying to steady the ship after a tumultuous week in which the president was hospitalized with the coronavirus and opinion polls showed the Republican Trump's re-election bid against Democrat Joe Biden slipping away. But even if Pence had a strong…

Oct

07

2020

By The African Mirror

Russia warns that Nagorno-Karabakh could become Islamist militant stronghold

WORLD

NVARD HOVHANNISYAN and NALIA BAGIROVA THE Kremlin issued a new appeal for an end to hostilities in and around Nagorno-Karabakh on Tuesday after Moscow's foreign intelligence chief said the mountain enclave could become a launchpad for Islamist militants to enter Russia. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan Moscow expressed alarm after the deadliest fighting in more than 25 years between ethnic Armenian and Azeri forces entered the 10th day, though the French news agency AFP later said Armenia had offered concessions only if Azerbaijan was ready to do so. AFP gave no details of the offer it said had been made by…

Oct

07

2020

By The African Mirror

EU strikes down Hungary university reform, Soros wants EU to set example

WORLD

FRANSESCO GUARASCIO and MARTON DUNAI THE European Union's top court said on Tuesday that Hungary breached EU law with its reform of higher education rules, which forced a university founded by George Soros to move most of its activities out of the country. The ruling follows a complaint from the European Commission and is one of many issues in which the EU has clashed with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, accused in Brussels of a backslide on civil liberties, corruption and the rule of law. Hungary's justice minister said Budapest would implement the European Court of Justice ruling but reiterated…

Oct

07

2020

By The African Mirror

Trump stirs controversy over COVID-19 death toll, aid package

WORLD

ALEXANDRA ALPER and SUSAN HEAVEY PRESIDENT Donald Trump has stirred controversy on his first full day as a COVID-19 outpatient, by pulling out of talks with Democrats on an economic aid package for the country and drawing rebukes from Facebook and Twitter for spreading misinformation about the coronavirus. After days of conflicting messages from doctors and aides about his condition, the Republican president, 74, showed he still had what it takes to fire off startling Twitter posts. Trump played down the seriousness of the virus in online posts, seeking to get more Americans back to work and to generate optimism…

Oct

07

2020

By The African Mirror

Receiving top care, Trump says Americans are learning to live with COVID-19

WORLD

ALEXANDRA ALPER and DEENA BEASLEY U.S. President Donald Trump said Americans were learning to live with COVID-19, a day after returning from hospital to the White House where he will receive intensive treatment for coronavirus unavailable to most people. Trump, who spent three days at Walter Reed Medical Center outside Washington, was due to receive a fifth transfusion of the antiviral drug Remdesivir while being treated with the steroid dexamethasone, normally used in the most severe cases. The Republican president, running against Democrat Joe Biden in November's election, has repeatedly played down the disease, which has now killed more than…

Nov

13

2020

By The African Mirror

Shunned in New York, Brazil leader plans to meet Bush, Cruz in Texas

WORLD

BRAZIL President Jair Bolsonaro plans to meet with former U.S. President George W. Bush and Senator Ted Cruz in Texas next week, after cancelling a New York trip. The far-right Brazilian leader cancelled plans last week to attend an event in New York City amid pressure from environmentalists, gay rights activists and Mayor Bill de Blasio, who called him a "dangerous man." Bolsonaro was set to be honoured as person of the year by the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce at a ceremony in the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. Under public pressure, the museum ultimately declined to host the…