WORLD - The African Mirror

May

14

2021

Muslims mark Eid with masks and prayers amid COVID and conflict

WORLD

MUSLIMS across the world celebrated Eid al-Fitr with masks and prayers, as conflicts and coronavirus restrictions cast shadows over the festival's mass gatherings and family reunions. Many COVID-hit countries, including Pakistan, India, Malaysia and Indonesia imposed curbs, shut shops and even some mosques - though the numbers out praying were higher than in 2020 when lockdowns all but cancelled events. "(We are) very lucky that we can pray together this year, when we couldn't do it last year," said Tri Haryati Ningsih, 53, at the Dian Al-Mahri mosque in the Indonesian city of Depok, south of the capital Jakarta. "Hopefully,…

May

14

2021

By The African Mirror

Madame Tussauds moves Prince Harry and Meghan waxworks from royals

WORLD

A year after leaving their royal duties to move to Los Angeles, Madame Tussauds has now decided waxwork models of Prince Harry and his wife Meghan now belong in the attraction's Hollywood zone and not with the other members of the House of Windsor. The couple, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, quit royal duties to forge new independent careers on the other side of the Atlantic, and have since signed deals to deliver and produce content for Netflix, Spotify and Apple . Now their waxwork models have been shifted from their place in the royal section of Madame Tussauds…

Apr

30

2021

By The African Mirror

Crush at Israeli religious festival kills 44

WORLD

RAMI AMICHAY AT least 44 people were crushed to death at an over-crowded religious bonfire festival in Israel on Friday, medics said, in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as a "heavy disaster". The crush occurred as tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews thronged to the Galilee tomb of 2nd-century sage Rabbi Shim Bar Yochai for annual Lag B'Omer commemorations that include all-night prayer, mystical songs and dance. Witnesses said people were asphyxiated or trampled in a tightly packed passageway, some going unnoticed until the PA system sounded an appeal to disperse, as crowds packed the Mount Meron slope in…

Apr

30

2021

By The African Mirror

India infections top 18 million as gravediggers work round the clock

WORLD

ALASDAIR PAL and FRANCIS MASCARENHAS INDIA’S total COVID-19 cases passed 18 million on Thursday after another world record number of daily injections, as gravediggers worked around the clock to bury victims and hundreds more were cremated in makeshift pyres in parks and parking lots. India reported 379,257 new infections and 3,645 new deaths on Thursday, health ministry data showed, the highest number of fatalities in a single day since the start of the pandemic. The world's second most populous nation is in deep crisis, with hospitals and morgues overwhelmed. Mumbai gravedigger Sayyed Munir Kamruddin, 52, said he and his colleagues…

Apr

30

2021

By The African Mirror

Trump says probe of his ex-attorney Giuliani ‘very unfair’

WORLD

FORMER U.S. President Donald Trump yesterday criticized the federal investigation into Rudy Giuliani and said he had no idea what U.S. agents were looking for when they searched his former personal lawyer's Manhattan apartment and office. Federal prosecutors have been investigating Giuliani for nearly 1-1/2 years, including a 2019 grand jury subpoena seen by Reuters for his financial records as part of an inquiry into possible money laundering, wire fraud, campaign finance violations, making false statements and obstruction of justice, in addition to foreign agent allegations. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, once led the Southern District of…

Apr

30

2021

By The African Mirror

Eyes and ears: UK tradespeople trained to spot domestic abuse

WORLD

EMMA BATHA HUNDREDS of British tradespeople are being trained to spot signs of domestic abuse - from punch holes in doors to broken bathroom locks - during callouts for home repairs under a new initiative. Other telltale signs could include kick marks on walls, wobbly handles or broken hinges to rooms where victims seek shelter, along with a tense atmosphere or fearful children. "This is a first for the industry," said a spokeswoman for Morgan Sindall Property Services, which has contracts across the country covering about 200,000 properties owned by local authorities and other social housing providers. Domestic abuse has…

Apr

29

2021

By The African Mirror

China ‘closing in fast,’ Biden warns Congress, as he asks for trillions in spending

WORLD

TREVOR HUNNICUT and SUSAN CORNWELL PRESIDENT Joe Biden proposed a sweeping new $1.8 trillion plan in a speech to a joint session to Congress, pleading with Republican lawmakers to work with him on divisive issues and to meet the stiff competition posed by China. The Democratic president urged Republicans who have so far resolutely opposed him to help pass a wide array of legislation from taxes to police reform to gun control and immigration. Republicans largely sat silently during the speech while Democrats applauded. Biden, who took office in January, also made an impassioned plea to raise taxes on corporations…

Apr

29

2021

By The African Mirror

Fear of COVID-19 stalks Delhi slum dwellers with no safety net

WORLD

MUKESH SHARMA KNEELING on the ground to knead dough in the tiny shanty he shares with six other people in a New Delhi slum, Udayshankar Kumar knows that he and everyone around him are in grave danger from the COVID-19 outbreak ripping through the city. In Kirti Nagar, a ramshackle settlement by a railway track where Kumar lives, social distancing is not an option for residents who share single rooms with large families, navigate narrow alleyways and use the same toilets as their neighbours. "God forbid, if any one of us gets infected then they say he or she can…

Apr

29

2021

By The African Mirror

Syrian refugee who lost leg targets Paralympics

WORLD

KAROLINA TAGARIS AS a teenager in Syria, Ibrahim al-Hussein dreamt of becoming an Olympic swimmer before he lost a leg in the war. Now a refugee in Greece, he is training for a place at the Tokyo Paralympics. The son of a swimming coach, Hussein, 33, began swimming aged five in the Euphrates river, which passes by his hometown of Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria. He used a bridge as a diving board until it was destroyed in his country's civil war. In 2012, Hussein ran outside to help a friend hurt in a bomb blast, only to be injured…

Apr

28

2021

By The African Mirror

Medical supplies flow into India as COVID-19 deaths near 200,000

WORLD

SHILPA JAMKHANDIKAR, RUPAM JAIN and SANJEEV MIGLANI VITAL medical supplies poured into India yesterday as hospitals starved of oxygen supplies and beds turned away coronavirus patients, while a surge in infections pushed the death toll towards 200,000. Supplies from Britain, including 100 ventilators and 95 oxygen concentrators, arrived in Delhi, said Reuters partner ANI, while France is sending oxygen generators able to provide 250 patients with a year's supply of the gas, its embassy said. Even China, locked in a year-long military standoff with India on their disputed Himalayan border, said it was trying to get medical supplies to its…