WORLD - The African Mirror

Sep

17

2021

Chinese scammers enslave jobless teachers and tourists in Cambodia

WORLD

MATT BLOMBERG FOREIGN workers and tourists stranded in Cambodia during the COVID-19 pandemic have been trafficked and forced to work in sophisticated Chinese-run online scams, a Thomson Reuters Foundation investigation has found. In interviews, nine trafficking victims said they were lured by social media adverts promising well-paid jobs in call centres. Instead, they ended up in shuttered hotel casinos and guarded compounds where they had their passports confiscated before being put to work online. The victims, mainly from Africa and Asia, said they were ordered to create fake profiles on Tinder, WhatsApp and Facebook to entice people into fraudulent investment…

Sep

17

2021

By The African Mirror

Chauvin, convicted in Floyd’s murder, pleads not guilty to violating teen’s rights

WORLD

THE former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd has pleaded not guilty to violating a teenager's civil rights by using a neck restraint similar to the one that killed Floyd, a Black man whose death galvanized a national protest movement against racism. In the current case, the former officer, Derek Chauvin, who is white, stands accused of violating the rights of a then-14-year-old Black boy in 2017 by hitting him with a flashlight and holding a knee on his neck while he was prone, handcuffed and not resisting arrest. Chauvin, now imprisoned for 22-1/2 years for Floyd's murder,…

Sep

17

2021

By The African Mirror

Delhi orders ban on pollutive firecrackers ahead of Diwali to ‘save lives’

WORLD

NEHA ARORA and SAURABH SHARMA DELHI authorities ordered a ban on the storage, use and sale of firecrackers in the Indian capital late on Wednesday ahead of the Diwali festival to curb air pollution levels which cause thousands of deaths each year. India is among the most polluted countries in the world, and air quality in Delhi and neighbouring northern states normally begins to deteriorate at the end of September as farmers set off crop fires to prepare for a new sowing season. Delhi recorded some of the worst pollution levels globally in its latest peak pollution period between October…

Jan

30

2021

By The African Mirror

A White House partnership: Biden, Harris share center stage

WORLD

US President Joe Biden promised after November's election that he and Vice President Kamala Harris would govern as a "simpatico" team. In their first days at the White House, the two are crafting a partnership that recalls Biden's own service as former President Barack Obama's No. 2. It starts most days with a White House briefing by the national security adviser. At nearly everyone of Biden's public events, Harris stands prominently nearby. Behind closed doors, they are briefed on the coronavirus pandemic and other issues together. "Nobody knows better than President Biden how important it is and valuable it is…

Jan

30

2021

By The African Mirror

Davos 2021: Billionaires, big tech and vaccines top the WEF agenda

WORLD

LIN TAYLOR THE World Economic Forum's gathering of global political and business elites in Davos, Switzerland took place online this year because of COVID-19 and was covered less avidly than usual by the media. But, through its digital platform, the forum's organisers laid out an agenda more ambitious than usual, invoking the need for a “great reset” around the world in the wake of the pandemic. What does the reset look like? Here are key talking points you may have missed: Billionaires benefit The economic toll of the coronavirus pandemic lent a new urgency to this year's WEF conference. At…

Jan

30

2021

By The African Mirror

Indonesia’s Aceh province publicly canes two gay men

WORLD

AUTHORITIES in Indonesia’s Aceh province publicly caned six people accused of breaching Islamic law, including two men who received 77 lashes for having a same-sex relationship, in a punishment Human Rights Watch called “public torture”. Aceh is the only province in majority-Muslim Indonesia to follow Islamic law, and this was the third such caning since Aceh outlawed homosexuality in 2014. The province, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, also imposes caning for crimes such as theft, gambling and adultery. A hooded religious police officer carried out Thursday’s floggings, watched by a crowd wearing face masks. One of the men…

Sep

16

2021

By The African Mirror

Gymnasts Biles, Maroney demand justice in botched FBI sex abuse probe

WORLD

SARAH N LYNCH OLYMPIC gymnast McKayla Maroney on Wednesday told U.S. lawmakers she feels betrayed by FBI agents, after they failed to investigate former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, despite her telling them he had sexually abused her. FBI Director Chris Wray told the Senate panel that the actions of the agents who botched the investigation are inexcusable, and he announced that one of the agents "no longer works for the bureau in any capacity." "I'm deeply and profoundly sorry," Wray said. Maroney is one of four athletes, along with Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and Maggie Nichols, who testified to…

Sep

16

2021

By The African Mirror

‘This is how we dress’: Afghan women overseas pose in colourful attire

WORLD

ZEBA SIDDIQUI AFGHAN youth rights activist Wazhma Sayle says she was shocked to see a photograph online, apparently of women dressed in black all-enveloping niqabs and gowns, staging a demonstration in support of the country's new Taliban rulers at Kabul University. The 36-year-old, who is based in Sweden, later posted a photograph of herself on Twitter dressed in a bright green and silver dress captioned: "This is Afghan culture & how we dress! Anything less then this does not represent Afghan women!" "It's a fight for our identity," Sayle said in a telephone interview. "I don't want to be identified…

Sep

16

2021

By The African Mirror

North and South Korea conduct duelling missile tests as arms race heats up

WORLD

HYONHEE SHIN and JOSH SMITH NORTH Korea and South Korea test-fired ballistic missiles on Wednesday, the latest volley in an arms race that has seen both countries develop increasingly sophisticated weapons while efforts to get talks going on defusing tension prove fruitless. South Korea tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile, becoming the first country without nuclear weapons to develop such a system. South Korean President Moon was attending that test firing when word came of the North Korean launches, its first ballistic missile tests since March. North Korea fired a pair of ballistic missiles that landed in the sea off its…

Sep

15

2021

By The African Mirror

U.S. Ex-Presidents Bush, Clinton, Obama band together to aid Afghan refugees

WORLD

THREE former U.S. presidents - Republican George W. Bush and Democrats Bill Clinton and Barack Obama - have banded together behind a new group aimed at supporting refugees from Afghanistan settling in the United States following the recent American withdrawal. The former U.S. leaders and their wives will serve as part of Welcome.US, a coalition of advocacy groups, U.S. businesses and other leaders, Welcome.US said in a statement. The coalition said it will help the tens of thousands of Afghans fleeing their country as part of the Biden administration's evacuation to resettle in the United States by mobilizing support and…