WORLD - The African Mirror

Dec

31

2020

Eight abortion rights hotspots in 2021 after Argentina grants approval

WORLD

ARGENTINA became the first major country in Latin America to legalize abortion on Wednesday, allowing the procedure through the 14th week of pregnancy and bucking the traditionally strong influence of the Catholic Church in the region. The coronavirus pandemic has impacted abortions around the world, with lockdowns complicating access in some places, while other countries made it easier to get at-home medical abortions. But despite stay-at-home orders, the world's legislatures, courts and politicians have continued to make key decisions to expand or roll back rights. In October, 33 countries including the United States, Egypt and Brazil, signed a declaration that…

Dec

31

2020

By The African Mirror

UK parliament approves Brexit trade deal as both sides look to future

WORLD

WILLIAM JAMES and GABRIELA BACZYNSKA BRITISH lawmakers have approved Prime Minister Boris Johnson's post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union, as both sides looked to begin a new chapter of relations just days before their divorce becomes a reality. Britain and the European Union were signing the deal on Wednesday and the British parliament will finalise its implementation, ending over four years of negotiation and safeguarding nearly a $1 trillion of annual trade. Both sides said it was a chance to begin a new chapter in a relationship forged as Europe rebuilt after World War Two, but which has often…

Dec

31

2020

By The African Mirror

Russia buries Soviet double agent George Blake with honours

WORLD

RUSSIA has buried former British spy and Soviet double agent George Blake with military honours, the RIA news agency reported, four days after he died at the age of 98. Blake was buried at the Troyekurovskoye cemetery in western Moscow. President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer, offered his condolences over the weekend, describing him as an "outstanding professional". Britain says Blake exposed the identities of hundreds of Western agents across Eastern Europe in the 1950s, some of whom were executed as a result of his treason. He was sentenced to 42 years in prison in Britain after being unmasked…

Dec

30

2020

By The African Mirror

Earthquake strikes central Croatia, killing six and damaging buildings

WORLD

ANTONIO BRONIC AN earthquake of magnitude 6.4 struck central Croatia yesterday, killing six people, injuring more than 20 and rattling several neighbouring countries, officials and residents said. Rescuers pulled people from the rubble of collapsed buildings in the town of Petrinja and army troops were sent to the area to help. Tremors were also felt in Croatia's capital Zagreb and as far away as Austria's capital Vienna. Slovenia shut its only nuclear power plant as a precaution. It was the second quake to strike the area in two days. The GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences said it hit at…

Dec

30

2020

By The African Mirror

Biden: Trump aides setting ‘roadblocks’ for his transition team

WORLD

SIMON LEWIS and MATT SPETALNICK US President-elect Joe Biden says many of America's security agencies had been "hollowed out" under President Donald Trump and the lack of information being provided to his transition team by the outgoing administration was an "irresponsibility." "We've encountered roadblocks from the political leadership at the Department of Defense and the Office of Management and Budget," Biden said after a meeting with his foreign policy team. "Right now we just aren't getting all of the information that we need from the outgoing administration in key national security areas. It's nothing short, in my view, of irresponsibility,"…

Dec

30

2020

By The African Mirror

‘The sea is all we know’: Thai villagers fight industrial zone

WORLD

RINA CHANDRAN EVEN as a young girl, Khairiyah Ramanyah knew that the idyllic coast she lived on in southeast Thailand was increasingly at risk from development that threatened her fishing community. Khairiyah, 18, is now something of a local hero having led protests against a proposed industrial zone that she and other activists fear will devastate the coast, their homes and their livelihoods and that is now under review. Authorities say the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Chana district in southern Songkhla province will include a deep-sea port, power plants and industries on nearly 7,000 acres (11 sq miles) of land…

Dec

29

2020

By The African Mirror

U.S. bolsters support for Taiwan and Tibet, angering China

WORLD

CHINA expressed anger on Monday after the U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law measures to further bolster support for Taiwan and Tibet, which had been included in a $2.3 trillion pandemic aid and spending package. China has watched with growing alarm as the United States has stepped up its backing for Chinese-claimed Taiwan and its criticism of Beijing's rule in remote Tibet, further straining a relationship under intense pressure over trade, human rights and other issues. The Taiwan Assurance Act of 2020 and Tibetan Policy and Support Act of 2020 both contain language objectionable to China, including U.S. support…

Dec

29

2020

By The African Mirror

China jails citizen-journalist for four years over Wuhan virus reporting

WORLD

A Chinese court handed a four-year jail term to a citizen-journalist who reported from the central city of Wuhan at the peak of last year's coronavirus outbreak, on grounds of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble," her lawyer said. Zhang Zhan, 37, the first such person known to have been tried, was among a handful of people whose firsthand accounts from crowded hospitals and empty streets painted a more dire picture of the pandemic epicentre than the official narrative. "I don't understand. All she did was say a few true words, and for that she got four years," said Shao Wenxia,…

Dec

29

2020

By The African Mirror

Price of marriage pushes land out of reach in Sri Lanka

WORLD

SHIHAR ANEEZ IT was another day of agony for Rizeena, as she waited with her family at their home in eastern Sri Lanka to meet yet another potential husband for her sister - the 46th time they have tried to find someone to marry her in the past decade. Most of these meetings last only a few minutes before Rizeena's parents have to explain that they cannot afford to give her 35-year-old sister Fathima a house in their hometown of Sainthamaruthu, 350km (217 miles) from the capital Colombo. "The first question bridegrooms' families ask is if (she) will be given…

Dec

28

2020

By The African Mirror

U.S. jobless benefit cut-off pushes millions to financial cliff-edge

WORLD

SIMON LEWIS WHEN the U.S. Congress passed a pandemic aid bill a week ago, Meghan Meyer, a single mom from Lincoln, Nebraska, thought she would get some respite from the daily struggle to feed and house her two kids during an unprecedented health and economic crisis. But the next day President Donald Trump declared the long-awaited relief package "a disgrace" and said he would not sign it into law, decrying some of its spending measures while also demanding it include bigger stimulus checks for most Americans. By the weekend, he had refused to budge. That leaves Meyer, who has been…