WORLD - The African Mirror

Nov

27

2020

Danish PM in tears after visiting mink farmer whose animals were culled

WORLD

DENMARK’S Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen broke down when visiting a mink farmer who lost his herd following the government's order this month to cull all 17 million mink in the country to curb the spread of coronavirus. Frederiksen has faced opposition calls to resign and a vote of no confidence in parliament after an order by the government in early November, which it later admitted was illegal, to cull the country's entire mink population. The order was given after authorities found COVID-19 outbreaks at hundreds of mink farms, including a new strain of the virus, suspected of being able to…

Nov

27

2020

By The African Mirror

Biden, Trump celebrate Thanksgiving quietly at home as U.S. pandemic rages

WORLD

SIMON LEWIS and JEFF MASON DEMOCRATIC President-elect Joe Biden and sitting Republican President Donald Trump, like millions of Americans, were celebrating Thanksgiving quietly at home on Thursday, as the coronavirus pandemic raged across the United States. Biden was spending the holiday in the small seaside town of Rehoboth, Delaware, where he and his wife Jill have a vacation home. The Bidens are hosting daughter Ashley Biden and her husband Dr. Howard Krein for the holiday meal. The former vice president, appearing with his wife Jill in a video message posted to his Twitter account on Thanksgiving, said his family typically…

Nov

27

2020

By The African Mirror

Maradona, football legend, was a champion of Latin America’s left

WORLD

SARAH MARSH ARGENTINA football legend Diego Maradona said his hero, late Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro - whom he considered a "second father" and whose face he had tattooed on his leg - once urged him to go into politics. Maradona, who died on Wednesday aged 60, never fulfilled those aspirations but he did play a role in championing leftist leaders across Latin America - such as Castro, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Bolivia's Evo Morales - and in helping to lend them broader international appeal. "Everything Fidel does, everything Chavez does for me is the best (that can be done),"…

Nov

26

2020

By The African Mirror

India’s low-caste women raped to keep them ‘in their place’

WORLD

ANURADHA NAGARAJ LOWER-caste Dalit women in northern India are targeted for rape by upper caste men who usually escape justice as survivors bow to pressure to drop their cases, researchers have found. Only 10% of 40 rape cases involving Dalit women and girls in Haryana state ended with the conviction of all those charged, and these involved murders or victims under the age of six, found two rights groups, Equality Now and the Swabhiman Society. In almost 60% of cases, the survivor withdrew her case and accepted a "compromise" settlement outside the legal system, usually after unofficial village councils, or…

Nov

26

2020

By The African Mirror

Biden lines up economic team, receives congratulations from China’s Xi

WORLD

SIMON LEWIS U.S. President-elect Joe Biden will reveal his economic team and other key nominees next week, aides have said, while he received belated congratulations for his election victory from China's President Xi Jinping. The Democratic former vice president was scheduled to give a speech later on Wednesday highlighting the challenges Americans face as COVID-19 cases surge on the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday. Biden introduced his foreign policy and national security team on Tuesday as he begins a formal transition to the White House after defeating Republican President Donald Trump. The president-elect has promised to make fighting the pandemic…

Nov

25

2020

By The African Mirror

Britain’s Duchess Meghan speaks about miscarriage in break with royal reserve

WORLD

ESTELLE SHIRBON MEGHAN, the Duchess of Sussex, has revealed that she had a miscarriage in July, an extraordinarily personal disclosure coming from a high-profile British royal. The wife of Prince Harry and former actress wrote about the experience in detail in an opinion article published in the New York Times on Wednesday, saying that it took place one morning when she was caring for Archie, the couple's son. "I knew, as I clutched my firstborn child, that I was losing my second," Meghan wrote, describing how she felt a sharp cramp after picking up Archie from his crib, and dropped…

Nov

28

2020

By The African Mirror

Brexit goes down to the wire: EU and UK say big differences remain

WORLD

GABRIELA BACZYNSKA and GUY FAULCONBRIDGE THE European Union and Britain said on Friday there were still substantial differences over a Brexit trade deal as the EU chief negotiator prepared to travel to London in a last-ditch attempt to avoid a tumultuous finale to the five-year Brexit crisis. With just five weeks left until the United Kingdom finally exits the EU's orbit on December 31, both sides are calling on the other to compromise on the three main issues of contention - fishing, state aid and how to resolve any future disputes. The two sides will shortly resume face-to-face negotiations after…

Nov

28

2020

By The African Mirror

EXCLUSIVE-Suspected North Korean hackers targeted COVID vaccine maker AstraZeneca -sources

WORLD

JACK STUBBS SUSPECTED North Korean hackers have tried to break into the systems of British drugmaker AstraZeneca in recent weeks, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, as the company races to deploy its vaccine for the COVID-19 virus. The hackers posed as recruiters on networking site LinkedIn and WhatsApp to approach AstraZeneca staff with fake job offers, the sources said. They then sent documents purporting to be job descriptions that were laced with malicious code designed to gain access to a victim's computer. The hacking attempts targeted a "broad set of people" including staff working on COVID-19…

Nov

28

2020

By The African Mirror

Suspected Iranian nuclear mastermind Fakhrizadeh assassinated near Tehran

WORLD

AN Iranian scientist long suspected by the West of masterminding a secret nuclear bomb programme was yesterday killed in an ambush near Tehran, likely to provoke confrontation between Iran and its foes in the last weeks of Donald Trump's presidency. The military adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed to strike against the killers of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who died of injuries in hospital after armed assassins fired on his car, state media reported. "We will strike as thunder at the killers of this oppressed martyr and will make them regret their action," tweeted Hossein Dehghan, also a military…

Dec

05

2020

By The African Mirror

“No presents:” Mexicans asked to curb Christmas plans to control pandemic

WORLD

PRESIDENT Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has asked Mexicans to cancel year-end travel plans, curb their movement and even stop giving Christmas presents amid rising coronavirus case numbers in the country. Lopez Obrador also announced more hospital beds as well as extra medical equipment and staff to help in the fight to curb the pandemic. Case numbers have been rising noticeably over the past two weeks in Mexico, with some of the highest figures so far for new daily cases. The Latin American nation has recorded 1,144,643 Covid-19 cases and 108,173 confirmed deaths, the fourth biggest coronavirus toll in the world.…