Category: Still Relevant

Another disaster at the huge Ukrainian dam…

7 June 2023 By Paul Martin

The Soviets blasted the hydroelectric dam wall in the southern city to slow the Nazi advance. The explosion flooded villages along the banks of the Dnieper River, killing thousands of civilians. A handful of Zaporizhzhya residents are battling for the recognition of the little-known wartime tragedy. Ukraine suffered heavy losses both during World War II […]

A top UN official urges ‘immediate and urgent’ appointment of inspectors to regulate the Bangladeshi garment industry.

5 May 2023 By Paul Martin

Correspondent.World intends to follow up this 2013 story to see what progress has been made. By Paul Martin (also published in The Independent). The United Nations’ top official in charge of labour has urged Western nations to “immediately and urgently” appoint hundreds of inspectors to control the disaster-prone low-cost garment industry, half of whose exports […]

In his final interview, Arafat cultivated the image of a survivor. An historic, tense encounter revisited.

4 May 2023 By Paul Martin

By Maria Cedrell and Paul Martin in Ramallah, 2004. When Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat gave his final interview to us, we had to supply a list of proposed questions. The first question was supposed to be: “Mr. Arafat, where were you born and where did you grow up?” “No,” his aide told us. “Not allowed.” In the life of a […]

The photographer and the Prince. A special photo-fit friendship that’s lasted through the decades.

3 May 2023 By Paul Martin

Exclusive: By Paul Martin. Holding a cup of tea, or raising a glass of wine, Carole Cutner is ready for the Coronation. From her living-room, she will say ‘Three Cheers!” and swear allegiance to the man she helped catapult to international stardom. Carole was a photographer who in the mid-1970s got Charles onto the cover of […]

It’s thirty years since South African anti-apartheid firebrand Chris Hani was assassinated, nearly plunging the country into civil war. Still, has the full truth emerged?

10 April 2023 By Paul Martin

The Communist Party of South Africa, which retains an alliance with the ruling African National Congress (ANC), is demanding that an investigation is reopened to question Chris Hani’s killer Janusz Walus. The murderer is still alive and living in South Africa. He escaped death late last year after being stabbed by a fellow inmate days […]

Going fast in the bazaars of post-invasion Iraq: rocket grenade launchers that can bring down a helicopter.

29 March 2023 By Paul Martin

The war in Iraq got rid of Saddam Hussein’s regime — but soon insurgents were able to cause instability and chaos. Our correspondent Paul Martin was shocked to discover he could buy rocket launchers and other weaponry at bazaars in Baghdad… and how easy it was to smuggle the weapons past checkpoints. Here is his […]

Fired by NBC, hired by The Mirror. As Baghdad was falling 20 years ago, the legendary Peter Arnett thanks Correspondent.World’s editor Paul Martin and the ex-Mirror editor Piers Morgan.

21 March 2023 By Paul Martin

By Peter Arnett Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in the Vietnam War, legendary journalist Peter Arnett recalls witnessing theinvasion of Iraq from inside Baghdad, reveals the inside story of how he was fired then hired, and describes some of the US blunders, including the killing of three journalists. Article and Photos Copyright Peter Arnett / Paul […]

Hitler’s comrade-in-arms still has a Nazi helmet on his grave. Will it be removed?

6 December 2022 By Paul Martin

The helmet on Hermann Kriebel’s grave (Dirk Walter) By Paul Martin. A small German town is refusing to remove a steel helmet that remains on top of a Nazi general’s grave. Hermann Kriebel headed the paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party , whose ‘Storm Detachment’ launched vicious attacks on Jews in Nazi Germany and Austria in 1938.   Kriebel […]

The speech Princess Elizabeth made in Cape Town on her 21st birthday. In full. Plus: an unexpected birthday present. And historic unseen pictures.

10 September 2022 By Paul Martin

Princess Elizabeth celebrated her 21st Birthday during the Royal Visit of her parents and her younger sister, and delivered the famous speech broadcast around the Empire: On my twenty-first birthday I welcome the opportunity to speak to all the peoples of the British Commonwealth and Empire, wherever they live, whatever race they come from, and […]

In mid-2022, Ukrainians show a dogged determination to survive the Russian onslaught.

28 June 2022 By Paul Martin

Exclusive.By Paul Cainer in Kyiv It was a strange but almost comical scene. A dog was running towards me across Kyiv’s central landmark, Independence Square.  And trying with some difficulty to restrain the animal, on a long lead, was the dog’s new master, 26-year-old Sviatoslav Yurash, Ukraine’s youngest member of parliament. He had been taken […]

Nelson Mandela knew that to succeed you sometimes need to climb down. The South African leader’s first press conference reminded us of the need to compromise in politics.

4 November 2021 By Paul Martin

The 30th anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s release reminds us of the need to compromise in politics | The Independent | It was a balmy afternoon on Nelson Mandela’s day of liberation, February 11, 1990. I rolled down the back window and stretched out an arm to have my hand slapped again and again by exuberant […]

EXCLUSIVE: Al Qaeda ‘regrets’ its mass terror attacks on 9-11 and is unlikely to repeat this sort of mass attack, says Al Qaeda confidante.

18 August 2021 By Paul Martin

Al Qaeda, now potentially resurgent after the stark collapse of Western support to the defence of Afghanistan, is unlikely to resort to new mass terror attacks on the West, according to a senior source who has worked closely with Al Qaeda for decades. A former senior jihad fighter claimed yesterday that Al Qaeda loyalists made […]

How I bought a missile in Baghdad.

8 June 2021 By Paul Martin

Here’s a story about how I found and ‘bought’ a Weapon of Minor Destruction — a missile — in the heart of Baghdad. Going fast in Iraq: the £300 rocket grenade launchers that can bring down a helicopter Paul Martin, Baghdad… which Alameen bought the RPG underlines the problems American forces face in restoring order […]

Forty years after Israel’s bombing of Iraq’s nuclear facility, there is still no Arab state with an atomic bomb. Does this prove the raid was justified?

7 June 2021 By Paul Martin

A sign on the desert road south of Baghdad, curiously in English not Arabic, pointed to what it described as an “Engineering Factory”. It was the only hint that there was something unusual to be found just off the beaten track. Until days before, this “Engineering factory” had been nothing less than Saddam Hussein’s project […]

A reminder: Battle of the kite bombers: Simple toys turn deadly in Gaza-Israel border protests.

12 May 2021 By Paul Martin

Violence continues to erupt along Gaza’s volatile border with Israel. here’s how we reported, for and with the Mirror newspaper, three years ago precisely. The Mirror’s Chief reporter is on the Gaza-Israel border where the kites are terrifying residents COMMENTS By Andy Lines [with Paul Martin] 22:21, 11 MAY 2018 Floating in the clear blue […]

Give us a break – from holidays. There’s increasing evidence that holidays can cause harmful stress.

30 December 2020 By Paul Martin

Originally published in the Sunday Times, Sunday August 31, 1986  WARNING: Holidays can damage your health. Psychologists believe that many of the millions of Britons returning to work this week wouldhave been better off staying at the office instead of taking theirannual break. Increasing evidence that holidays can cause harmful stress ratherthan provide welcome rest and […]

Tennis: Game, set but no match for the Wimbledon losers.

30 December 2020 By Paul Martin

Originally published inThe Times, Tuesday July 08, 1986.  As at Rome’s Colosseum, Wimbledon’s centre court salutes only those of its gladiators who survive and conquer in their final encounters.A few All-England finalists return, hardened by past battles, andemerge triumphant. Most, though, receive an imperial thumbs-down andare doomed to oblivion in the history of tennis. Ivan Lendl […]