Author: DW

At least seven people were killed when a race car veered off a track and ploughed into a crowd of spectators in Sri Lanka on Sunday. The incident occurred at the Fox Hill circuit in Diyatalawa, some 180 kilometers (110 miles) east of the capital Colombo. “A total of 27 people were taken to hospital and seven of them succumbed to their injuries,” police spokesperson Nihal Thalduwa said. Among the dead were four race officials and an eight-year-old girl. Investigation underway Thalduwa said police have opened an investigation into the accident, which occurred at a motor sport event organized by the…

Palestinians in Rafah are reeling from a series of devastating Israeli airstrikes that have killed 22 people – including 18 children.The last 48 hours, horrific even by Gaza’s standards, are an indicator of what may follow in any Israeli Rafah offensive.Doctors told the Sky News team in Gaza how they saved the life of an unborn baby even as her mother was dying from head injuries.Follow latest: Netanyahu vows to ‘increase pressure on Hamas in coming days'”We tried to rescue the patient,” Dr Ahmad Fawzi said.”We realised that she was pregnant.”We had to do an emergency caesarean to save the…

Police in the French capital Paris have given rail company SNCF and transport operator RATP authorization to conduct surveillance tests at four different train stations near two large events this weekend as a way to fine-tune their abilities ahead of this summer’s Olympics. The companies will have access to images from more than 100 cameras. Those images will then be analyzed using artificial intelligence to run “intelligent and algorithm-based technology” that will surveil crowds attending a pop concert by the Black-Eyed Peas as well as a soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Olympique Lyon. Scanning crowds, looking for abandoned bags Authorities say surveillance software…

A race car has veered off track during a competition in Sri Lanka, killing seven people and injuring 20 others, officials said.The car crashed into a crowd of spectators and race officials during a race in the town of Diyatalawa, around 110 miles (180km) east of the capital Colombo.Around 45,000 spectators were in attendance.It was not immediately clear what caused the accident and the condition of the driver is unknown.Police spokesman Nihal Thalduwa said the car veered off track and crashed into spectators and officials.Seven people, including four officials, were killed and another 20 were being treated at a hospital,…

World Athletics seems to have poked a hornet’s nest, with the federation’s recent decision to pay athletes bonuses for Olympic medals sparking global debate.  Last week, the governing body of athletics announced that it would pay $50,000 (€46,800) for victories in each of the 48 athletics disciplines at the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris (July 26 to August 11). The organization said there will also be bonuses for silver and bronze at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. This is the first time in the 128-year history of the modern Olympic Games that a world federation of a single sport has…

The party of Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu claimed a landslide victory at Sunday’s parliamentary election. Muizzu’s party, the People’s National Congress, won 66 of the first 86 seats declared by the Elections Commission of the Maldives — enough for a super-majority in the 93-seat parliament. Muizzu himself was not up for election but his party previously lacked enough seats in parliament to move ahead his agenda of abandoning the country’s “India First” policy and reorienting toward China. Shortly before polls closed, election chief Fuad Thaufeeq said turnout had reached 73% of the country’s 284,663 eligible voters. India and China watching closely The…

The UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon has told Sky News the dangers in the region have not gone away and called for calm, wisdom and de-escalation as a matter of urgency.Joanna Wronecka spoke from her office in Beirut about her worries and appealed for restraint from all those involved. “I’m very concerned,” she said. “Because we need just a small miscalculation and the situation can escalate even more.”She was referring to the spike in cross-border firing between the Israeli military and the Lebanese Hezbollah fighters who’ve been trading attacks with growing intensity since 7 October. Image: UN Special Coordinator for…

The late German football legend Franz Beckenbauer will be honored with a statue in front of Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena, a club supporters foundation announced Sunday. The great player and coach, also known as “der Kaiser” (the Emperor), is to be cast in bronze in an elegant pose as the game’s conductor. The Kurt Landauer Foundation said he will stand on a pedestal in the shape of the Bavarian flag’s rhombus. Beckenbauer, widely considered one of the best players of all time, passed away in January in Salzburg, and was buried in a cemetery south of Munich, near where he…

Heavy rainfall over several days has sparked fears that heavy flooding could hit parts of southern China. State media reported that floods “seen around once a century” were being expected with authorities moving to initiate disaster precautions. Heavy rain since Thursday Large parts of Guangdong province have been soaked by torrential rain since Thursday, swelling major rivers and waterways in the Pearl River Delta. The region is one the most densely populated parts of China with more than 127 million inhabitants and is also home to China’s manufacturing hub.Heavy rainfall since Thursday has caused rivers and waterways to swell in southern…

“Before this conflict started, we had many crises, but I didn’t even think for once to leave the country, I don’t know why, I just loved it there,” says Aya El Sammani, who is originally from Sudan but now lives in the German capital, Berlin. She was born in the Sudanese capital Khartoum and was at university studying English literature and art when the clashes between two rival armed factions broke out in Khartoum on April 15, 2023. Within a couple of weeks, people began to realize that they needed to flee the capital. “If I went out from home…