WORLD - The African Mirror

Jul

15

2021

Once-reticent Cuban music stars raise voices for protesters

WORLD

SARAH MARSH HIGH-PROFILE Cuban musicians from salsa band Los Van Van and jazz pianist Chucho Valdes to pop star Leoni Torres have offered rare public support to protesters and criticized Communist authorities' handling of the worst unrest in decades. Thousands of Cubans joined rare protests nationwide on Sunday over shortages, COVID-19 and political rights. The government blamed U.S.-financed "counter-revolutionaries" exploiting the economic hardship caused by U.S. sanctions. Musicians in Cuba have historically steered clear of addressing political topics that risk bringing them reprisals at home if deemed critical of the government or making them hate figures abroad among Cuban exiles…

Apr

04

2021

By The African Mirror

Rapper DMX reported in grave condition in New York hospital

WORLD

RICH McKAY POPULAR rapper and actor Earl Simmons, known to his fans by the stage name DMX or Dark Man X, was reported in grave condition Saturday in a New York hospital after suffering a heart attack triggered by an apparent drug overdose, according to the celebrity publications TMZ and Billboard. The publications reported that Simmons, 50, who has had a public history of substance abuse, was rushed to a White Plains, New York, hospital after suffering a heart attack at his home about 11 p.m. Friday. His publicist did not immediately respond to Reuters for comment on the singer,…

Apr

04

2021

By The African Mirror

Taiwan releases train crash suspect on bond, prosecutors lodge appeal

WORLD

ANN WANG A Taiwan court yesterday released on bond the manager of a construction site whose truck authorities believe caused a train accident that killed at least 51 people, as family members mourned the dead at the crash site. The crash on Friday was Taiwan's worst rail accident in seven decades, when an express train hit the truck that had slid down a bank beside the track from the building site. The site's manager is suspected of having failed to properly engage the truck's brake. The train, with almost 500 people aboard, was travelling from Taipei, the capital, to Taitung…

Apr

04

2021

By The African Mirror

Myanmar’s junta cracks down on online critics, death toll edges up to 550

WORLD

ATTTEMPTS by Myanmar's military to end dissent are turning to the virtual world with internet blocks and arrest warrants for online critics as big rallies become rare in the face of relentless repression by the security forces. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) activist group said on Saturday the security forces have killed 550 people, 46 of them children, since the military overthrew an elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1. There were two deaths on Friday. Despite the repression, opponents of the coup march every day in cities and towns across the country, often…

Apr

04

2021

By The African Mirror

Baseball moves its All-Star Game out of Georgia to protest voting law

WORLD

AMY TENNERY MAJOR League Baseball Commissioner Robert Manfred has ordered the sport to relocate its 2021 All-Star Game and amateur player draft out of Atlanta in protest over Georgia's new voting restrictions. The removal of the lucrative All-Star Game marks one of the most significant and high-profile gestures after Georgia last week strengthened identification requirements for absentee ballots, shortened early voting periods for runoffs and made it a crime to offer food and water to voters waiting in line. "I have decided that the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating this year's All-Star Game…

Jul

14

2021

By The African Mirror

Anger mounts after 92 die in fire on Iraq COVID ward

WORLD

AHMED RASHEED and MAHER AL-SAIH THE death toll from a fire that tore through a coronavirus hospital in southern Iraq rose to 92, health officials said, as authorities faced accusations of negligence from grieving relatives and a doctor who works there. More than 100 people were injured in the blaze on Monday night in Nassiriya, officials said. An investigation showed the fire began when sparks from faulty wiring spread to an oxygen tank that then exploded, police and civil defence authorities said. It was Iraq's second such tragedy in three months, and the country's president on Tuesday blamed corruption for…

Jul

14

2021

By The African Mirror

Former DEA informant arrested in Haiti assassination identified -sources

WORLD

MARK HOSENBALL TWO U.S. government sources have identified the former Drug Enforcement Administration informant accused of taking part in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise as Joseph Vincent, 55, of Florida. Vincent and a second Haitian-American Florida resident, James Solages, 35, have been arrested by Haitian officials and charged with taking part in last week's attack. The men told investigators they had been hired to serve as interpreters on a team dominated by 26 Colombians, another source said. A third Haitian-American, Christian Emmanuel Sanon, was arrested on Sunday by Haitian authorities, who accused him of being a mastermind of…

Apr

03

2021

By The African Mirror

‘A knee on a neck can kill’

WORLD

JONATHAN ALLEN A Minneapolis homicide investigator said police officer Derek Chauvin used "totally unnecessary" deadly force when kneeling on George Floyd's neck during an arrest last May in testimony at Chauvin's murder trial yesterday. Chauvin, who is white, was fired by the city's police department the day after he was captured on video on top of a dying Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man in handcuffs, in a scene that sparked protests against police brutality around the world. "Totally unnecessary," Lieutenant Richard Zimmerman told the jury when prosecutors asked him what he thought of Chauvin pressing his knee on Floyd's neck…

Jul

14

2021

By The African Mirror

Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor’s ashes buried in her birthplace Budapest

WORLD

KRISZTINA THAN and KRISZTINA FENYO THE ashes of Hungarian-born actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, renowned for her diamond-studded glamour, witty quips and nine marriages, were buried in Budapest on Tuesday almost five years after her death. Gabor's ashes were laid to rest in a prominent cemetery in the capital city alongside other famous Hungarian actors, writers and poets, in a ceremony where a gypsy band played and her favourite yellow and pink roses were on display. Born Sari Gabor into a wealthy Hungarian family, she was named Miss Hungary in the 1930s. As World War Two approached, she and her sisters…

Apr

03

2021

By The African Mirror

Beauty queen takes Myanmar’s democratic fight to international stage

WORLD

MYANMAR model Han Lay did not win last week's Miss Grand International beauty pageant, but she'll be remembered as one of its most impassioned contestants. The 22-year-old made heads turn in Thailand during an emotive speech where she pleaded for "urgent international help" for her country, the same day 141 demonstrators were killed in a crackdown by military rulers she said were selfish and abusing their power. Yesterday, she said her compatriots in an anti-coup movement would not back away from a struggle that has so far claimed close to 550 lives in the two months since the generals overthrew…