WORLD - The African Mirror

Nov

17

2020

Top Syria diplomat Moalem, soft-spoken defender of Assad, dies

WORLD

SULEIMAN AL-KHALIDI SYRIA’S long-time foreign minister Walid al-Moalem, an unyielding defender of Syrian President Bashar al Assad's bloody crackdown on peaceful protesters that sparked a decade-old conflict, has died. The government gave no details of the cause of death, but the 79-year-old had been in poor health with heart problems. A source close to the government said it was expected his deputy, veteran diplomat Faisal Mekdad, would replace him as foreign minister. The genial public face of Assad's rule to the outside world, Moalem was branded a traitor by the opposition for supporting the violent crackdown on protesters at the…

Oct

31

2020

By The African Mirror

FACTBOX-Donald Trump’s legacy: six policy takeaways

WORLD

SAYING he knew best what ailed America and often governing by executive order, President Donald Trump dismantled or disrupted multilateral pacts, overhauled tax and immigration systems and, with the help of Senate Republicans, reshaped the judiciary. Trump's actions may be undone in many areas over time, but win or lose, his legacy will endure in the federal courts where his conservative lifetime appointees will influence every aspect of American life for decades. His record will be put to the test on Tuesday, Election Day, when Democrat Joe Biden challenges him for the White House. THE JUDICIARY Working in lockstep with…

Oct

31

2020

By The African Mirror

Strong earthquake kills 24 people in Turkey and Greek islands

WORLD

MEHMET EMIN CALISAN and MURAND SEZER TWENTY FOUR people were killed in Turkey and Greece after a strong earthquake struck the Aegean Sea, bringing buildings crashing down and setting off tidal waves which slammed into coastal areas and islands. People ran onto streets in panic in the Turkish city of Izmir, witnesses said, after the quake struck with a magnitude of up to 7.0. Neighbourhoods were deluged with surging seawater which swept debris inland and left fish stranded as it receded. Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) said 22 people died, one due to drowning, while 607 people were…

Oct

31

2020

By The African Mirror

Angry French city asks after church attack: Why us again?

WORLD

CAROLINE PAILLIEZ WHEN a suspected Islamist from Tunisia killed three people this week in a church in the French Riviera city of Nice, for many residents it brought painful memories flooding back. Four years ago, another suspected Islamist originally from Tunisia had driven a 19-tonne truck into a crowd about not far from the church, killing more than 80 people. The church attack, coming on top of the truck assault, left many people in Nice on Friday feeling they had angry, and wanting to fight back against the people they believe are to blame. "We've had enough," Nice resident Francois…

Oct

30

2020

By The African Mirror

France on alert as official warns of more militant attacks after Nice church killings

WORLD

FRANCE's interior minister said on Thursday more militant attacks on its soil were likely and the country was engaged in a war against Islamist ideology following the second deadly knife attack in its cities in two weeks. Minister Gerald Damarnin was speaking a day after an assailant shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) beheaded a woman and killed two other people in a church in Nice. The man was shot by police and is now in critical condition in a hospital. "We are in a war against an enemy that is both inside and outside," Damarnin told RTL radio. "We…

Oct

30

2020

By The African Mirror

In Pennsylvania woods, church in ‘spiritual battle’ to re-elect Trump

WORLD

JOE CAMPBELL and KEVIN FOGARTY DEEP in the woods of northeast Pennsylvania, heavy rain pummeled down at dawn on Wednesday as a few dozen worshippers kowtowed onto rubber mats at an outdoor memorial, ending the ceremony by chanting "four more years." And thus the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary Church, or just Sanctuary Church, founded by two men who broke away from their father Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, offers its contribution to U.S. President Donald Trump's re-election campaign. In Greeley, Pennsylvania, some 100 miles (160 km) north of Philadelphia, parishioners - joined by hundreds of visitors from Japan and…

Oct

30

2020

By The African Mirror

Britain resists COVID lockdown as Europe counts cost

WORLD

KATE HOLTON and MADELINE CHAMBERS EUROPE began counting the cost of the sweeping restrictions on social life imposed to contain a surge in coronavirus infections while Britain continued to hold out against following Germany and France in ordering a second lockdown. As the pandemic raced ahead across the continent, Europe has moved back to the centre of the global pandemic, facing the prospect of a prolonged economic slump alongside a public health crisis which has so far seen more than 44 million infections and 1.1 million deaths worldwide. France and Germany have imposed controls almost as strict as the lockdowns…

Oct

30

2020

By The African Mirror

Three dead as woman beheaded in attack in French church

WORLD

TANGI SALAUN and ERIC GAILLARD A knife-wielding attacker shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) has beheaded a woman and killed two other people in a church in the French city of Nice. A defiant President Emmanuel Macron, declaring that France had been subject to an Islamist terrorist attack, said he would deploy thousands more soldiers to protect important French sites, such as places of worship and schools. Speaking from the scene, he said France had been attacked "over our values, for our taste for freedom, for the ability on our soil to have freedom of belief". "And I say it…

Oct

29

2020

By The African Mirror

Saudi man arrested in Jeddah after knife attack on guard at French consulate

WORLD

A Saudi man was arrested in the Red Sea city of Jeddah after attacking and wounding a security guard with a "sharp tool" at the French consulate, local police said. A statement from the Mecca region's police said the guard suffered "minor injuries" and that "legal action" was being taken against the perpetrator. The French Embassy said the consulate was subject to an "attack by knife which targeted a guard", adding the guard was taken to hospital and his life was not in danger. "The French Embassy strongly condemns this attack against a diplomatic outpost which nothing could justify," it…

Oct

28

2020

By The African Mirror

France warns citizens to be cautious as anger seethes in Muslim world over cartoons

WORLD

CHRISTIAN LOWE and ANDREW OSBORN FRANCE warned its citizens in several Muslim-majority countries to take extra security precautions on Tuesday as anger surged over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, and the head of Russia's Chechnya region said Paris was pushing people towards terrorism. In Bangladesh, thousands of protesters marched through the capital, with some stamping on a poster of French President Emmanuel Macron, and Iran summoned the French charge d'affaires to register a protest over the cartoons. But in a sign that some countries want to limit the fallout, Saudi Arabia - while condemning the cartoons - held back from…