Author: DW

President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday that France is “ready to contribute more to the defense of Europe.” In an interview published in several French newspapers Macron said France’s nuclear weapons could be part of a common European defense strategy.  It is the second time in recent days where Macron has expressed France’s readiness to get more involved. On Thursday, Macron called called for a “credible” European defense strategy. What did Macron say about nuclear weapons? France’s doctrine has been to only use nuclear weapons when the country’s vital interests are threatened. But Macron said he was open to give a more “European dimension” to these…

Burkina Faso’s military junta announced late on Saturday that an investigation was opened into the alleged killing of at least 223 villagers in February. Human Rights Watch (HRW) had accused the military of carrying out mass killings in the villages of Nondin and Soro in the Northern Yatenga province. The human rights watchdog said that 56 children were killed in the attacks in the report published Thursday, which cited eyewitnesses, civil society and others. “The government of Burkina Faso strongly rejects and condemns such baseless accusations,” Communications Minister Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo said in a statement. “The killings at Nodin and Soro led to the…

Demonstrators protested in London on Sunday against the death sentence imposed on a rapper by a court in Iran.They wore masks of Toomaj Salehi’s face and erected a mock gallows outside Downing Street. The 33-year-old rapper was sentenced to death by a court in the Iranian city of Isfahan earlier this week for his support of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement.Through his music, Salehi supported months of demonstrations in Iran sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022. Image: A picture of Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi during a protest in Paris. Pic: AP She died in police custody after…

At least three people were killed in Holdenville, 80 miles (129 kilometers) from Oklahoma City, as the US Midwest faced destructive storms, health authorities said on Sunday.  A four-month-old child was among the killed victims, and four other people were injured in Holdenville, a town of a population of 5,000 people.  “My prayers are with those who lost loved ones as tornadoes ripped through Oklahoma last night,” Governor Kevin Stitt said in a statement. One hospital was damaged and a major highway at the border with Texas was closed “due to overturned vehicles and power lines across the highway,” said the Oklahoma Office of Emergency…

A large-scale effort to find  a missing 6-year-old with autism continued on Sunday near the northern German town of Bremervörde, west of Hamburg. Around 1,200 people including police, soldiers, firefighters, members of the THW civil protection agency and volunteers have been searching for the child. The boy, called Arian, was last seen on Monday evening. A surveillance camera filmed the boy leaving his parents home in Elm and running towards a nearby forest, alone. He had last been seen wearing an orange, long-sleeved sweater, black-dragon-print sweatpants and socks.The search has involved around 1,200, including soldiers and volunteers, who are scouring the area where Arian was…

A Russian man has been arrested after two Ukrainian men were stabbed to death in southern Germany.The two Ukrainians were killed at a shopping centre in the village of Murnau in Upper Bavaria. They were 23 and 36 years old and lived in the southern German county of Garmisch-Partenkirchen.Shortly after the killings on Saturday evening, the police arrested a 57-year-old Russian on suspicion of murder, German news agency DPA reported.The names of the victims and the suspect were not released in line with German privacy rules. It is not clear if the three men knew each other. More than one…

At least two people were killed in Holdenville, 80 miles (129 kilometers) from Oklahoma City, as the US Midwest faced destructive storms, health authorities said on Sunday.  A four-month-old child was among the killed victims, and four other people were injured in Holdenville, a town of a population of 5,000 people.  “My prayers are with those who lost loved ones as tornadoes ripped through Oklahoma last night,” Governor Kevin Stitt said in a statement. One hospital was damaged and a major highway at the border with Texas was closed “due to overturned vehicles and power lines across the highway,” said the Oklahoma Office of Emergency…

Twenty soldiers have been killed in a huge explosion at a military base in southwestern Cambodia.Others were wounded and the blast tore holes in the roofs of nearby houses. Guards tried to keep reporters away from the site in Kampong Speu province on Sunday.Images showed several badly damaged buildings on the base, at least one with its roof blown off.It appears to be in a large field, with no civilian structures close by. Four buildings – three for storage and one for work – were destroyed and several military vehicles damaged, said Colonel Youeng Sokhon, an army officer at the…

Condemnation poured in after Iraq’s Parliament altered pre-existing laws to criminalize homosexuality, with the US warning  that the move “threatens those most at risk.” The legislation explicitly criminalizes homosexuality, already taboo in the largely conservative Arab country. The amendment to a 1988 anti-prostitution law was passed quietly on Saturday. It punishes same-sex relations by a jail term of 10 to 15 years. Gender-transition is meanwhile punishable by one to three years in jail, alongside the “intentional practice of effeminacy.” The law also bans organizations which promote “sexual deviancy,” punishing them by at least seven years in jail and a fine of a minimum of 10 million dinars (approximately…

The commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces on Sunday said that the situation on the frontline had worsened and reported that Russian forces had made battlefield gains. “The situation on the front has escalated,” Oleksandr Syrsky said in a Facebook post on Sunday. “Seeking to seize strategic initiative and break through the frontline, the opponent focused major efforts in multiple directions, creating a significant advantage in forces and resources,” Syrsky said.Kyiv’s rules for military-age men abroad causes anger, doubtTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Russian forces ‘achieved some tactical…