WORLD - The African Mirror

Jul

26

2021

For the first time, Saudi women stand guard in Mecca during haj

WORLD

MOHAMMED BENMANSOUR INSPIRED by her late father's career, Mona decided to join the military and the first group of Saudi women soldiers to work in Islam's holiest sites, where they are helping secure the haj annual pilgrimage. Since April, dozens of female soldiers have become part of the security services that monitor pilgrims in Mecca and Medina, the birthplaces of Islam. Dressed in a military khaki uniform, with a hip-length jacket, loose trousers and a black beret over a veil covering her hair, Mona spends her shifts roaming in the Grand Mosque in Mecca. "I am following the steps of…

Feb

14

2021

By The African Mirror

Anger over arrests in Myanmar at anti-coup protests

WORLD

OPPONENTS of Myanmar's military coup sustained mass protests for an eighth straight day yesterday as continuing arrests of junta critics added to anger over the detention of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Thousands marched in the business hub, Yangon, while protesters took to the streets of the capital Naypyitaw, the second city Mandalay and other towns a day after the biggest protests so far in the Southeast Asian country. "Stop kidnapping at night," was among the signs held up by protesters in Yangon in response to arrest raids in recent days. The United Nations human rights office said on…

Feb

14

2021

By The African Mirror

U.S. Senate honors police officer who protected lawmakers in riot

WORLD

MAKINI BRICE AFTER hours of heated arguments in former President Donald Trump's impeachment trial, lawmakers found a rare moment of consensus when the U.S. Senate voted to award the highest honor Congress can bestow to one of the police officers who responded to the January 6 Capitol siege. By unanimous consent, the Senate passed a measure to give the Congressional Gold Medal to officer Eugene Goodman of the U.S. Capitol Police force. Goodman steered rioters away from lawmakers as a pro-Trump mob rampaged through the Capitol while Congress gathered to formally certify President Joe Biden's election victory. In a video…

Feb

14

2021

By The African Mirror

Two white tiger cubs in Pakistan likely died of COVID

WORLD

MUBASHER BUKHARI TWO 11-week-old white tiger cubs that died in a Pakistani zoo last month appear to have died of COVID-19, officials said. The cubs died in the Lahore Zoo on January 30, four days after beginning treatment for what officials thought was feline panleukopenia virus, a disease that zoo officials said is common in Pakistan and targets cats' immune system. But an autopsy found the cubs' lungs were badly damaged and they were suffering from severe infection, with pathologists concluding they died from COVID-19. Although no PCR test for the new coronavirus was conducted, zoo deputy director Kiran Saleem…

Jul

25

2021

By The African Mirror

Heavy rain in India triggers floods, landslides; at least 125 dead

WORLD

RAJENDRA JADHAV and MANJO KUMAR RESCUE teams in India struggled through thick sludge and debris on Saturday to reach dozens of submerged homes as the death toll from landslides and accidents caused by torrential monsoon rain rose to 125. Maharashtra state is being hit by the heaviest rain in July in four decades, experts say. Downpours lasting several days have severely affected the lives of hundreds of thousands, while major rivers are in danger of bursting their banks. In Taliye, about 180 km (110 miles) southeast of the financial capital of Mumbai, the death toll rose to 42 with the…

Jul

25

2021

By The African Mirror

U.S. dials back probe of Chinese scientists on visa fraud charges

WORLD

JANE LANHEE LEE A U.S. Justice Department program aimed at protecting American technology from China dropped five prosecutions of Chinese scientists after a draft of an internal FBI analysis questioned a main premise for the investigations, according to court documents. The "China Initiative" had been criticized by civil liberties advocates as racially biased, and judges in several court proceedings had expressed scepticism about the FBI's tactics in interrogating the scientists. On Thursday and Friday, the U.S. government filed motions in federal courts to dismiss charges in five cases of Chinese researchers arrested on visa fraud charges last year. All pleaded…

Jul

25

2021

By The African Mirror

S.Korean TV apologises over opening ceremony broadcast

WORLD

JUN-MIN PARK and MITCH PHILLIPS A South Korean TV network has apologised after using inappropriate images and captions to describe countries during the Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony on Friday. The broadcaster, MBC, used images of pizza to describe Italy, an upheaval for Haiti, Chernobyl for Ukraine, salmon for Norway, when athletes from those countries entered the stadium for the opening ceremony. In its captions broadcasting the ceremony, the network referred to the Marshall Islands as "once a nuclear test site for the United States", and Syria as the country that has "a civil war going on for 10 years". In…

Feb

26

2021

By The African Mirror

Supporters of Myanmar military coup rampage in Yangon

WORLD

SUPPORTERS of Myanmar's military, some armed with knives and clubs, others firing catapults and throwing stones, attacked opponents of the February 1 coup yesterday, as protests against the new junta continued in the country's largest city. Myanmar has been in turmoil since the army seized power and detained civilian government leader Aung San Suu Kyi and much of her party leadership after the military complained of fraud in a November election. Protests and strikes have taken place daily for about three weeks, and students had planned to come out again in the commercial hub Yangon on Thursday. But before many…

Jul

24

2021

By The African Mirror

Olympics-Naomi Osaka lights flame as Tokyo’s ‘games of hope’ open

WORLD

ANTONI SLODKOWSKI, ELAINE LIES and KIYOSHI TAKENAKA JAPANESE tennis star Naomi Osaka on Friday lit the Olympic cauldron to mark the formal start of Tokyo 2020, in an opening ceremony shorn of glitz and overshadowed by a pandemic but celebrated as a moment of global hope. Organisers also paid tribute to medical workers as athletes from across the world paraded into an almost empty stadium, their smiles hidden behind masks for the first time. Normally a star-studded display teeming with celebrities, the ceremony was low-key, with fewer than 1,000 people in attendance, strict social distancing rules and signs calling on…

Feb

26

2021

By The African Mirror

Dubai’s Latifa urged UK police to reopen sister’s kidnap case

WORLD

SHEIKHA Latifa, one of the daughters of the ruler of Dubai, has written to British police asking them to reopen their investigation into the kidnap of her older sister from a street in Cambridge in 2000, the BBC has reported. In a handwritten letter seen by the British broadcaster and dated 2018, Latifa asked Cambridgeshire Police to refocus on the case of her sister Shamsa, now 39, who was captured aged 18 and has not been seen in public since. Reuters has not seen the letter. The Dubai government's media office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.…