WORLD - The African Mirror

Dec

02

2020

Iranian MPs seek hardening of nuclear stance after scientist killed

WORLD

A bill requiring Iran's government to step up uranium enrichment closer to the level needed for a nuclear weapon, and ignore other restraints on its nuclear programme agreed with major powers, has cleared its first hurdle in parliament. But the government promptly said the move, proposed in response to the assassination of a top nuclear scientist on Friday, could not change Iran's nuclear policy, which was the province of the Supreme National Security Council. "Death to America! Death to Israel!" some lawmakers chanted after the hardline-dominated parliament cleared the draft at its first reading in a session broadcast live on…

Dec

02

2020

By The African Mirror

Bipartisan U.S. lawmakers seek fast approval of $908 bln COVID-19 relief

WORLD

RICHARD COWAN and DOINA CHIACU A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers have unveiled a $908 billion COVID-19 relief bill aimed at breaking a monthslong deadlock between Democrats and Republicans over new emergency assistance for small businesses, unemployed people, airlines and other industries during the pandemic. The measure has not yet been written into legislation. Nor has it been embraced yet by the Republican Trump administration, Democratic President-elect Joe Biden or leaders in the Senate or House of Representatives, all of whom would be needed for passage. But it comes with the backing of a group of conservatives and moderates who…

Dec

01

2020

By The African Mirror

EU tech ban seen putting children worldwide at risk of online sex abuse

WORLD

SOPHIE DAVIES ONLINE child sexual abuse could become harder to detect due to privacy protections set to take effect in the European Union next month - putting millions of children at increased risk worldwide, critics of the proposals have warned. Under the changes, big tech firms like Facebook and Microsoft would be banned from using automatic detection tools that are routinely employed to identify material containing images of child abuse or to detect online grooming. Opponents say such automatic scanning infringes the privacy of people using chat and messaging apps, but the looming ban has drawn strong criticism around the…

Dec

01

2020

By The African Mirror

Biden names top economic advisers, setting state for more diverse White House

WORLD

SIMON LEWIS PRESIDENT-ELECT Joe Biden has unveiled his picks for several top economic positions, including former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen as his nominee for Treasury Secretary, setting the stage for a more diverse White House. While Biden's transition to the White House appeared to be hitting its stride, the president-elect was hobbling after fracturing his foot while playing with his dog on Saturday. The incoming administration has been hampered for weeks by President Donald Trump who has refused to concede claiming, without evidence, that Biden's November 3 electoral victory was due to fraud. Biden named leading members of an…

Dec

01

2020

By The African Mirror

Iran opposition suspected alongside Israel in scientist’s killing

WORLD

PARISA HAFEZI A senior Iranian official has revealed that an opposition group was suspected alongside Israel in the killing of a prominent Iranian nuclear scientist, an attack that has raised the prospect of a new standoff between Tehran and its longtime enemy. Iran's English-language Press TV reported the weapon used in Friday's killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was made in Israel. "The weapons collected from the site of the terrorist act bear the logo and specifications of the Israeli military industry," an unnamed source told Press TV. In Jerusalem, there was no immediate reply from Israeli officials contacted for comment on…

Nov

30

2020

By The African Mirror

HK’s top leader piles up cash at home after U.S. sanctions

WORLD

HONG Kong leader Carrie Lam says she has to pile up cash at home as she has been unable to open a bank account in the global financial centre since Washington sanctioned her shortly after Beijing imposed a national security law on the city. Beijing circumvented Hong Kong's legislature and imposed a national security law on the former British colony on June 30, a move condemned by some foreign governments, business groups and rights groups. Hong Kong and authorities in Beijing said the law was necessary to restore stability after more than a year of anti-government protests. "Sitting in front…

Nov

30

2020

By The African Mirror

Opposition calls on Hungary’s Orban to sack museum head for likening Soros to Hitler

WORLD

A leading Hungarian opposition party has joined calls for Prime Minister Viktor Orban to sack the head of a state-funded museum for making extreme anti-Semitic comments likening U.S. financier George Soros to Adolf Hitler. Nationalist Orban has long vilified Soros, a Hungarian Jew who emigrated after World War Two, as part of a general campaign against immigration. Orban accuses Brussels of trying to force Hungary to accept migrants under the influence of Soros. In an op-ed published on Saturday, Szilard Demeter, who heads the Petofi Literary Museum and serves as a government cultural commissioner, called Soros "the liberal Fuhrer" and…

Nov

30

2020

By The African Mirror

Iran to give a ‘calculated’ response to nuclear scientist killing, says official

WORLD

IRAN will give a "calculated and decisive" response to the killing of its top nuclear scientist, said a top adviser to Iran's supreme leader, while a hardline newspaper suggested Tehran's revenge should include striking the Israeli city of Haifa. "Undoubtedly, Iran will give a calculated and decisive answer to the criminals who took Martyr Mohsen Fakhrizadeh from the Iranian nation," Kamal Kharrazi, who is also head of Iran's Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, said in a statement. Fakhrizadeh, long suspected by Western and Israeli government of masterminding a secret nuclear weapons program, was ambushed on a highway near Tehran on…

Nov

29

2020

By The African Mirror

Norway to extradite suspect in 1982 attack on Paris Jewish restaurant

WORLD

NORWAY will extradite a man to France who is suspected of taking part in an attack that killed six people in a Jewish restaurant in Paris 38 years ago, the government said on Friday. At least 20 others were wounded in the bombing and shooting assault on the Jo Goldenberg restaurant in the Marais quarter in August 1982. In 2015, arrest warrants were issued against three former members of the Abu Nidal Organization, a splinter group of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), a source told Reuters at the time. The suspects were identified long after the attacks because of statements…

Nov

29

2020

By The African Mirror

Iran’s Rouhani accuses Israel of killing nuclear scientist

WORLD

IRAN’S president has accused Israel of killing a prominent Iranian scientist long suspected by the West of masterminding a secret nuclear bomb programme, state TV reported. Iran's clerical and military rulers have threatened revenge for Friday's killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who Iranian media said died in hospital after assassins gunned him down in his car near Tehran. "Once again, the evil hands of global arrogance were stained with the blood of the mercenary usurper Zionist regime," a term for Israel, President Hassan Rouhani said in a statement, according to state TV. "The assassination of martyr Fakhrizadeh shows our enemies' despair…