Author: DW

Ramses II is documented as having been quite vain. But you can afford to be vain when you’re a pharaoh, the ruler and protector of Egypt, the intermediary between humans and the gods. After he died, Ramses II was embalmed and preserved for eternity — but that’s not the only reason his legacy was seared into the memory of future generations. “Ramses was a great king who was a warrior. He made many battles and was the first one to have a peace treaty,” explains Zahi Hawass, a renowned archaeologist and former antiquities minister of Egypt. “And he’s a builder —…

At least 40 people had been killed and hundreds injured in eastern Afghanistan as of Tuesday, local officials said as heavy rains continued to pelt the region.  Saifullah Khalid, head of Nangarhar province’s disaster management authority, said that 350 people were wounded and some 400 homes had also been demolished by the torrent. Many of the injured were brought to the regional hospital in Nangarhar from Jalalabad, the capital of the province which was suffering from electricity blackouts and impassable roads due to the storms. The latest tragedy comes after flash floods in May killed hundreds of people and destroyed huge areas of…

Ukraine has thousands of kilometers of underground pipelines that bring Russian natural gas into Europe. Before Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, nearly 150 billion cubic meters (b/cm) of natural gas per year flowed through the Soviet-built pipelines annually. Since the war began, European Union states have cut their reliance on Russian fossil fuels, while Russia has slowed gas deliveries through Ukraine from 40 b/cm, which the two sides agreed to in 2019, to nearly 15 billion last year. At the end of this year, the 5-year agreement with Russian state energy firm Gazprom to continue Ukraine’s role as a transit route for gas…

More than 50 people have been injured in violent clashes in Bangladesh over a quota that allows relatives of ex-soldiers to take up to 30% of government jobs.Police fired tear gas and charged with batons in violent scenes between a pro-government student body and student protesters at a public university outside the capital Dhaka. Protesters were demanding an end to a quota reserved for family members of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971. The quota allows them to take up to 30% of government jobs. Image: Pic Reuters Image: Pic: Reuters The violence broke out early…

Your gut is teeming with tiny single-celled parasites called Blastocystis. Gross, right? But a new study shows these gut parasites can be linked to a healthy diet. A study in the journal Cell has found that the presence of Blastocystis in the human gut could be linked with better health outcomes in a sample population from 32 different countries.  “We found that the presence of Blastocystis in the human gut is linked with a better cardiometabolic profile and lower obesity rates,” said the study’s co-lead, Francesco Asnicar of the University of Trento, Italy. The study also put 1,124 participants on a…

Taking home the gold: 105 teenagers from 61 countries are trying to make this dream come true. It’s not Olympic gold they are vying for though, but Olympiade gold. And to win, they have to prove their prowess of the German language. The 2024 Internationale Deutscholypmiade (International German Olympics), or IDO, is taking place in Göttingen, a small, historic university city in the heart of Germany, from July 15-22. Considered the world’s largest German-language competition, the biennial event gives 14-to-17-year-olds from around the world the chance to come to Germany and spend roughly one week polishing and then demonstrating their German language skills in…

At least four Indian soldiers, including an officer, were killed in a gunfight with suspected rebels in an Indian-administered district in the disputed Kashmir region, the army said on Tuesday. The shooting took place in the forests of the Doda district in the Jammu Division. Another police officer also died later due to his wounds, the French AFP news agency cited an anonymous security source as saying. The attack comes a day after the Indian army said it killed three suspected militants as they tried to cross from the Pakistan-controlled side of the highly-militarized dividing line. What do we know about the attack? Security…

The Republican party confirmed on Monday former US President Donald Trump as its candidate for the upcoming US election and Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate. Vance was greeted at the first day of the Republican National Convention (RNC) with a standing ovation, while Trump made his first public appearance since he survived an assassination attempt days earlier.  Republican vice presidential candidate, Senator JD Vance, was introduced during the Republican National ConventionImage: Charles Rex Arbogast/AP/picture alliance “Just overwhelmed with gratitude. What an honor it is to run alongside President Donald J. Trump. He delivered peace and prosperity once, and with your help, he’ll…

Former All Blacks hooker and reality TV star Norm Hewitt has died aged 55 after a battle with motor neurone disease, his family has said.The rugby union star played 23 times for New Zealand’s famed side, including nine test matches, after making his debut in 1993. Hewitt was famous for a fiery haka stand-off with England’s Richard Cockerill in Manchester in 1997, which entered rugby folklore. Image: Hewitt and Cockerill in 1997. Pic: Rex/Shutterstock They came face-to-face in a tense pre-match confrontation which ended with the pair shoving each other.Recalling the moment afterwards, Hewitt said: “It was like there were…

A top North Korean diplomat based in Cuba defected to South Korea along with his family in November, South Korean media reported on Tuesday. 52-year-old Ri Il Kyu escaped to South Korea because he was disillusioned with North Korea’s political system, he told South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo.  South Korea’s spy agency, National Intelligence Service, also confirmed the media reports but did not provide further information. The defection of the senior diplomat makes him the highest-ranking official known to flee to South Korea since 2016, when Tae Yong Ho, then a minister at the North Korean embassy in London, defected to the South.…