WORLD - The African Mirror

Apr

25

2021

Indian hospitals turn away patients in COVID-19 ‘tsunami’

WORLD

SANJEEV MIGLANI and MANOJ KUMAR OVERWHELMED hospitals in India begged for oxygen supplies on Saturday as the country's coronavirus infections soared again overnight in a "tsunami" of disease, setting a new world record for cases for the third consecutive day. Max Healthcare, which runs a network of hospitals in north India, tweeted that it had less than two hours of oxygen left while Fortis Healthcare, another big chain, said it was suspending new admissions in Delhi. "We are running on backup, waiting for supplies since morning," Fortis said. India is in the grip of a rampaging second wave of the…

Apr

25

2021

By The African Mirror

Debris believed to be from missing submarine found

WORLD

INDONESIAN searchers have recovered debris believed to be from the missing submarine lost in the Bali Sea on Wednesday, the country's military chief said yesterday. Hopes for the 53 crew are dwindling, with officials saying that their supply of oxygen was expected to have run out early on Saturday. The Indonesian navy chief of staff said a scan had detected the submarine at 850 metres (2,788 feet), well beyond its survivable limits. The submarine, which disappeared as it prepared to conduct a torpedo drill, is designed to withstand a depth of up to 500 metres (1,640 ft).

Apr

25

2021

By The African Mirror

India’s COVID-19 meltdown exposes new front in digital divide

WORLD

SAURABH SHARMA and ROLI SRIVASTAVA AS India's daily coronavirus cases set global records, people desperately searching for hospital beds and oxygen cylinders are finding help on social media. But for others like Ruby Yadav, who has never heard of Twitter, time and hope is running out. Travelling by rickshaw, Yadav and her mother - who is seriously ill with COVID-19 - have been turned away by nearly a dozen public hospitals in the northern city of Lucknow this week as the country's health system crumbles. "I'm losing hope. We know what will happen next, but I can't bear to watch…

Jun

11

2021

By The African Mirror

Safe in Germany, Afghan translators fears for colleagues left behind

WORLD

ALEXANDER RATZ ALI, a former translator for the Bundeswehr in Afghanistan, still lives in fear of the Taliban, seven years after coming to Germany under a protection scheme for military's civilian employees. The 29-year-old, who would not give his full name for fear of militant reprisals, is even more concerned about the fate of his former colleagues still at home. "In Afghanistan, it doesn't matter what you do, if you are with NATO soldiers, then you are in danger," Ali told Reuters in Berlin. As NATO wraps up its mission in Afghanistan after two decades, it leaves behind tens of…

Jun

11

2021

By The African Mirror

Sexual abuse ‘normalised’ in UK schools as boys pester girls for ‘nudes’

WORLD

EMMA BATHA SEXUAL harassment and online sexual abuse has become "normalised" in English schools, inspectors have said, with some girls contacted by up to 11 boys a night asking for nude or semi-nude images. Nine in 10 schoolgirls interviewed by education inspectors said sexist name-calling and being sent explicit pictures or videos happened "a lot" or "sometimes". Pressure to send nude pictures was also far more prevalent than adults realised, education watchdog Ofsted said in a report as it called for urgent action to tackle the problem. The chief inspector of the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted), which inspects…

Apr

24

2021

By The African Mirror

Hospitals overrun as India’s COVID-19 infections top global record for second day

WORLD

ALASDAIR PAL and NEHA ARORA PEOPLE scrambled for life-saving oxygen supplies across India on Friday and patients lay dying outside hospitals as the capital recorded the equivalent of one death from COVID-19 every five minutes. For the second day running, the country's overnight infection total was higher than ever recorded anywhere in the world since the pandemic began last year, at 332,730. India's second wave has hit with such ferocity that hospitals are running out of oxygen, beds and anti-viral drugs. Many patients have been turned away because there was no space for them, doctors in Delhi said. Ambulance sirens…

Apr

24

2021

By The African Mirror

Jailed Kremlin critic Navalny starts ending his hunger strike

WORLD

ANDREW OSBORN and TOM BALMFORTH JAILED Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny said yesterday he would begin gradually ending a hunger strike he had called to demand proper medical care, suggesting that support inside Russia and the West had got him much of what he needed. Navalny announced an end to his hunger strike on its 24th day after a medical trade union that supports him and which has treated him in the past appealed to him to start eating again or risk death. The worsening health of Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's most prominent domestic opponent, and the authorities' initial failure…

Apr

24

2021

By The African Mirror

‘China could rule world’s technology’

WORLD

GUY FAULCONBRIDGE THE West must urgently act to ensure China does not dominate important emerging technologies and gain control of the "global operating system", Britain's top cyber spy said on Friday. In an unusually blunt speech, Jeremy Fleming, director of the GCHQ spy agency, said the West faced a battle for control of technologies such as artificial intelligence, synthetic biology and genetics. "Significant technology leadership is moving East," Fleming said at Imperial College London. "The concern is that China's size and technological weight means that it has the potential to control the global operating system." "We are now facing a…

Jun

10

2021

By The African Mirror

How an informant and a messaging app led to huge global crime sting

WORLD

TOM ALLARD IT took $120,000 plus expenses, and the opportunity for a reduced prison sentence, for the smartphone developer to collaborate with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2018 and kick-start Operation Trojan Shield, according to a court document. Three years later, the investigation involving 9,000 law enforcement officers from 17 countries saw authorities monitor 27 million messages from 12,000 devices in 100 countries and track the activities of more than 300 organised crime groups, the European Union's law enforcement agency, Europol, said in a statement. To date, there have been more than 800 arrests and the seizure of…

Jun

10

2021

By The African Mirror

Argentine golfer Cabrera extradited from Brazil over domestic violence allegations

WORLD

RAMIRO SCANDOLO ARGENTINE golfer Angel Cabrera, a two-time winner of major tournaments, was extradited from Brazil on Tuesday to stand trial in his home country on charges of violence against former domestic partners, a prosecutor in the case told Reuters. Cabrera was arrested at the beginning of the year in Rio de Janeiro after he left Argentina and was placed on the Interpol red list. He will spend the night in a cell in Iguazu in Argentina´s northeastern Misiones province on the border with Brazil before being transferred 800 miles (1,200km) south to a local jail in Cordoba pending a…