Author: DW

Nigerian authorities have beefed up efforts to thwart the theft of crude products in the West African country’s oil-rich Niger Delta region. Large-scale oil theft from pipelines and wells has been one of Nigerian President Bola Tinubu’s biggest challenges, damaging government finances and limiting Nigeria’s output and exports. Nigeria, Africa’s top economy and major oil producer, lost about 620 million barrels of crude oil — valued at $46 billion (€42 billion) — between 2009 and 2020 alone, according to the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, an organization that promotes accountability in the management of the nations’s oil, gas and mining revenue. Is Nigeria…

A man survived a shark attack by punching it in the face before being rescued by other swimmers at a popular California beach, a witness has said.The 46-year-old was in the water with a group at Del Mar City Beach near San Diego when he was bitten on the torso, left arm and hand about 90m from shore. One of the swimmers, Jenna Veal, was behind the victim during the attack and told Sky’s US partner network NBC News she heard him scream for help.”He punched it in the face. He punched it in the nose,” she told NBC’s TODAY…

I was 17-years-old the first (and only) time I used laughing gas — nitrous oxide — for fun. I was with some friends who showed me it was sold at the grocery store. As an anxious teenager, I was wary, but the fact it was available for legal purchase at the supermarket helped assuage my concerns. If it was really that harmful, I thought, surely it wouldn’t be available for anyone to buy. Health experts say this is a common introduction to the party drug. Kids are told, often by peers, that laughing gas won’t harm them. They may believe it because there…

From “Poppy Flowers” by Vincent Van Gogh to Rembrandt’s missing masterpiece, “Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee,” to Nazi-looted works by the likes of Gustav Klimt, absence has made the heart grow fonder for long-lost artistic treasures. In 1969, thieves stole the “Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence,” an early Baroque painting by Italian artist Caravaggio, which the artist completed in 1609 and which hung in a church in Palermo on the island of Sicily. Fifty-five years later, its whereabouts remains a mystery. Depicting the birth of Jesus, the vast work extending near 3 meters in height was removed…

China’s lunar spacecraft started its journey back to earth after collecting samples from the far side of the moon, the country’s space agency said on Tuesday.  The China National Space Administration (CNSA) said the ascender module of the Chang’e-6 probe unfurled the Chinese flag before lifting off.  The craft was the first to ever successfully take off from the moon’s far side.  The mission comes as China advances its space program, aiming to put a person on the moon before the end of this decade.  Why is the mission important? The so-called dark side of the moon, which is invisible from Earth,…

From Austria to Italy, France and the Netherlands, the ascending star of the far right in swaths of Europe has been the standout political story for much of the past 12 months. Tiny, often-overlooked Belgium is no exception, with the once-fringe Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) party set to storm national polls on June 9. Advocating, among other things, for the secession of the northern region Flanders and an “immigration stop,” VB is projected to take the most seats of any party: 26 out of 150, according to calculations by news outlet Politico, up from just three in 2014. Except that’s only half the story,…

Paedophiles found guilty of a sex crime against a child in Louisiana could soon be ordered to undergo surgical castration in addition to prison time.Politicians in the US state gave final approval to a bill on Monday that would allow judges to issue the order to those convicted of certain aggravated sex crimes against a child younger than 13. These crimes include rape, incest and molestation.If the bill becomes law, it can only be applied to men and women whose crime took place on or after 1 August this year.Louisiana judges have had the power to order those convicted of…

US President Joe Biden has said he has “boundless love” for his son Hunter as jury selection in his federal gun case started on Monday.Hunter Biden has been charged in Delaware with three felonies stemming from a 2018 firearm purchase when he was, allegedly, addicted to crack cocaine. He has been accused of lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false claim on the application used to screen firearms applicants when he said he was not a drug user, and illegally having the gun for 11 days. Image: Hunter and Melissa Cohen Biden arrive at court. Pic: Reuters…

It was a moment of horror from Gaza which went viral – a video of an amputation on a dining table. No anaesthetic. No bandages. Just a bucket, some soap and a kitchen knife. It was 19 December 2023, and the war in Gaza was in its third month. Israel’s bombardment of the northern part of the narrow strip of land was at its most intense.Inside the Bseiso family home, an apartment on the ground floor of a six-storey block not far from Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, 17-year-old Ahed Bseiso was laid across the kitchen table.The table, where Ahed’s mother…

It’s been confirmed that the Japanese state visit to the UK, hosted by the King, will go ahead despite the general election.The important diplomatic invitation to Emperor Naruhito and his wife Empress Masako has been given the green light in an “adapted” form, even though it’ll take place just days before the country goes to the polls. They will be guests of the King and Queen from 25 to 27 June, just a week before the vote on 4 July.There were doubts that it would take place after Buckingham Palace announced that some royal engagements would be postponed in this…