Author: DW

The Defense Ministry in Taiwan on Wednesday said that it had detected 53 Chinese aircraft and 19 ships near the island over a 24-hour period. The latest movement of Chinese aircraft and vessels around the island comes as Beijing conducts its largest military drills in years. Chinese planes and vessels ‘operating around Taiwan’ “53 PLA aircraft, 11 PLAN vessels and 8 official ships operating around Taiwan were detected up until 6 a.m. (UTC+8) today,” Taiwan’s defense ministry said in a post on social media platform X.  “23 of the aircraft crossed the median line and entered Taiwan’s northern, southwestern and eastern…

A renewed international appeal has been launched to identify the body of a man found in woodland 45 years ago.Skeletal remains, referred to as Glamorgan Man, were found in the remote Rheola Forest near Resolven in Neath Port Talbot, south Wales, on 9 December 1979. Locate International, a charity which investigates cold cases of missing or unidentified people, says the man was a possible visitor from South Africa and is believed to have died between nine and 18 months before he was found.Investigators found in his possession a Salvation Testament bible that bore the name D MALAN and a partial…

How was Syria’s economy ravaged by the civil war? Syria’s economy was worth $67.5 billion (€63.9 billion) in 2011 — the same year that large-scale protests broke out against President Bashar Assad’s regime, which sparked a rebel insurgency that escalated into a full-blown civil war. The country was placed 68th among 196 countries in global GDP rankings, comparable to Paraguay and Slovenia. By last year, the economy had fallen to 129 in the league table, having shrunk by 85% to just $9 billion, according to World Bank estimates. That put the country on par with the likes of Chad and the Palestinian Territories. Almost 14 years…

Alongside the laureates for the Nobel Prize in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine and Economic Sciences, South Korean author Han Kang is receiving her award at a ceremony held at the Stockholm Concert Hall in Sweden, on December 10 — the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death. She delivered her Nobel Prize lecture ahead of the ceremony, on December 7. In her lecture titled “Light and Thread,” the author revisits the impulses that have guided her literary journey. Going back to a poem book she wrote at the age of 8, she sees a strong continuity between her early passion for words and her present work: “Where is love? It is inside my thump-thumping beating chest. What is love? It is the gold…

It is almost impossible to treat an illness like the Disease X that’s spreading in DR Congo — medics don’t even know whether it is a viral or bacterial infection.  So far, the DRC has recorded 406 cases of the undiagnosed disease. Severe cases have been reported among severely malnourished people, including 31 deaths, mostly children.  The spread of the disease is currently concentrated in the Panzi district in Kwango province, located about 700 kilometers (435 miles) from the capital, Kinshasa. Panzi district is remote, with difficult-to-access roads and nearly non-existent health infrastructure. Health officials say the disease is most likely to be…

Gukesh D beat defending world chess champion Ding Liren in a frantic time scramble in Singapore, taking the lead 11 games into their 14-game match to crown a new champion.  The 18-year-old rising star from India and China’s top player had been deadlocked during a series of seven consecutive draws heading into Sunday’s game.  Taking the lead, particularly so late in the contest, could prove decisive for Gukesh. Ding will be forced to take considerable risks in the remaining three games, as he must win one of them to stay alive.  Time pressure the theme throughout Both players looked uncomfortable…

Germany and the United Kingdom have taken measures aimed at closer cooperation when it comes to dealing with human trafficking — specifically making it easier to prosecute syndicates involved in small-boat crossings to Britain. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and the UK’s Yvette Cooper on Monday signed a joint action agreement aimed at combating the smuggling of migrants across the English Channel in rubber dinghies. Earlier this year, a lengthy undercover investigation by the BBC shone the light on the west German coastal city of Essen and its alleged links to human trafficking across the English Channel.What can be done…

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday it had detected 47 Chinese military aircraft around the island. The French AFP news agency cited a senior Taiwanese security source as saying that “nearly 90” Chinese naval and coast guard vessels had been detected in waters along the so-called first island chain, which links Okinawa, Taiwan and the Philippines. The Defense Ministry said that 47 aircraft and 12 warships were detected in the last 24 hours. It added that this was the largest number of aircraft spotted near the island in a single day in the last two months, which saw an escalation in Chinese…

A rare Ferrari F50, a Lamborghini Diablo and a Rolls-Royce are among dozens of luxury cars found at Bashar al Assad’s palace.Just 349 F50s were made between 1995 and 1997 and the V12-engined car has a top speed of 233mph. It originally sold for about £350,000, but one went for $5.5m (£4.3m) in a Sotheby’s auction earlier this year.Car website classic.com puts the average sale price at $4.2m (£3.3m).Also parked up in the vast garage in the Syrian capital of Damascus was another classic 90s supercar that adorned many teenage walls – a Lamborghini Diablo. While not as rare as…

China’s economy is still struggling to recover from the pandemic, nearly two years after Beijing dropped its draconian zero-COVID lockdowns. In the first three quarters of 2024, economic growth came at 4.8% — just shy of Beijing’s 5% target. Deflation, weak consumer demand and a huge real estate crash have hurt the country’s incredible growth trajectory, while ongoing trade tensions with the United States — likely to worsen under Donald Trump’s second term — have hurt exports, which were credited with helping China’s ascent to become the world’s second-largest economy. “China suffers from overproduction and under-consumption,” George Magnus, a research associate at the University of…