Author: DW

Some 800 years ago, mystery gripped a Chinese village when a body was discovered with multiple stab wounds. Upon inspection, local detective Song Ci determined the wounds had been wrought by a sickle. To locate the culprit, he gathered the villagers together on a hot afternoon and told them to lay down their sickles for inspection. Blowflies started swarming around. They eventually settled on a single sickle. Attracted by trace amounts of the victim’s blood, the flies had identified the offender, who was led away pleading for mercy. Case closed. This is the first known case of a detective identifying…

Despite all the talk of the English Premier League’s seemingly bottomless riches and the Bundesliga struggling to compete financially, two German sides are in the men’s Champions League semifinals and England’s finest are instead licking their wounds. “I don’t think anyone thought we’d progress against Arsenal,” admitted Bayern Munich president Herbert Hainer after their quarter-final triumph. Bayern will face Real Madrid on April 30 and May 8 while Borussia Dortmund take on Paris Saint-Germain on May 1 and May 7 for a place in the Wembley final on June 1, where UEFA bosses probably expected an English side to help supplement the…

The European Union’s reputation appears to have taken a hit in Southeast Asia, according to a region-wide survey of “elites” conducted by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. The researchers gathered the data by questioning some 2,000 representatives of academia, business, government and civil society in January and February this year. The respondents come from Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Brunei. The results show that there is now less trust in the EU to uphold free trade or the rules-based order compared with last year. Less than 14% of the respondents see the EU as the leading…

Sports beyond the disability Have you ever heard of wheelchair basketball, amputee football or heard of a differently abled breakdancer? These sports have their own rules and competitions, and for the people who play them, they’re given a chance to prove what they’re really made of.  A person in a wheelchair playing basket ballImage: DW   Martial arts and boxing in Africa Boxing and martial arts have a rich history in Africa – from traditional boxing and wrestling to Muhammad Ali’s famous ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ match against George Foreman in Kinshasa – even Mandela was a boxer. Here’s a…

A bishop who was stabbed during a church service in Australia has said he forgives his alleged attacker.Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel said in a video message on Facebook he is “recovering quickly” and urged the community to remain calm and not retaliate. He was attacked on Monday at the Assyrian Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Sydney.A 16-year-old boy has been arrested over the incident in which at least four people, including another cleric, the Reverend Isaac Royel, were injured, and police are treating as a terror incident. Image: The bishop was attacked at the Assyrian Christ The Good Shepherd…

It’s been an historic week for German football on the pitch as Bayer Leverkusen won the Bundesliga for the first time and both Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich progressed to the semifinals of the Champions League. But it’s also a big week off the pitch as the German Football League (DFL), which operates the Bundesliga, opens the bidding for the sale of its domestic broadcast rights for the seasons 2025/26 to 2028/29. The billion-euro negotiations take place every four years and are a vital process since they concern German football clubs’ most important revenue stream. However, the DFL confirmed on…

Judges in Strasbourg on Thursday ruled in favor of Lithuanian authorities’ ban on singer Philipp Kirkorov entering the country because he was considered a threat to national security. The court agreed with the Lithuanian assessment of Kirkorov, who has previously referred to himself as Vladimir Putin’s “representative on stage.” Why was Kirkorov barred from entry? In January 2021, Lithuanian migration authorities, at the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, banned Mr Kirkorov from entering Lithuania for five years The authorities noted that Kirkorov was a tool of “soft power” for Russia’s propaganda in states of the former Soviet Union. They…

Former US President Donald Trump met with Polish President Andrzej Duda on Wednesday in New York, discussing NATO defense spending and other global issues, according to Trump’s campaign. Trump: ‘We’re behind Poland all the way’   In town for his court appearances in a criminal trial, Trump hosted Duda at his Trump Tower property in Manhattan. Trump praised the Polish president, saying, “He’s done a fantastic job and he’s my friend.” “We’re behind Poland all the way,” Trump added. Duda called the two-and-a-half hour meeting friendly and “in very nice atmosphere,” emphasizing the strength of US-Poland relations. The European conservative, an…

Paris Olympic organizers have ambitious plans to hold the swimming sections of the triathlons and the marathon swimming events in the iconic River Seine, despite fears over the water quality. The plan follows on from a string of controversies over water pollution that have hit sports which need open water rather than a chlorinated swimming pool, such as rowing, triathlon, sailing, surfing and marathon swimming. The French capital region is spending €1.4 billion to try to clean up the river after complaints from swimmers in warm-up events over potential sewage levels. Some test events were even canceled. Persistent heavy rainfall causes locals canals to…

The Sydney shopping mall where six people were stabbed to death by a lone attacker five days ago was again made accessible the public on Thursday in a “slow reopening” meant to give people the chance to come to terms with the incident, which shocked Australia. Shops in the Westfield mall in Bondi Junction remained closed for a “community reflection day” and will reopen properly only on Friday, with heightened security. A candlelight vigil will also be held at nearby Bondi Beach on Sunday to mourn the victims, authorities said. The shock caused by the mall attack in Sydney has been compounded by another stabbing attack on Monday…