Author: DW

A property tycoon has been sentenced to death in Vietnam after the biggest fraud trial in the country’s history.Truong My Lan was sentenced on Thursday by a court in Ho Chi Minh City after being found guilty of embezzlement, bribery and violations of banking rules following a month-long trial, state media reported. The 67-year-old chair of the company Van Thinh Phat (VTP) was accused of fraud amounting to $12.5bn – nearly 3% of the country’s GDP in 2022.Lan and her accomplices were charged with illegally controlling the Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB) between 2012 and 2022 to siphon off…

The discovery of a small room in an ancient Roman villa near Pompeii has shed light on what life was like for those living under slavery. The bedroom was found at the Villa Civita Giuliana which lies a few hundred meters north of the walls of Pompeii which was destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago. What was discovered? Archaeologists on Sunday said that two beds — only one of which has a mattress —along with two small cupboards and a number of ceramic containers and pots were discovered in the room which is thought…

A bill to liberalize Poland’s abortion law, one of the strictest in the European Union, passed its first hurdle in parliament on Friday. The three coalition partners that make up the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk  had submitted four separate bills for discussion amid wide divisions on the issue.  Lawmakers voted to send all four on to be analyzed by a special commission that will work on lifting a near-total abortion ban.  Under a 2020 ruling by Poland’s Constitutional Court, abortion is permissible after rape or incest or in cases when the pregnant woman’s life is in danger. However, it remains illegal if a fetus is…

Few observers would describe the last week as being a positive one for South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. South Africa’s Electoral Court ruled on Tuesday that Ramaphosa’s rival, former president Jacob Zuma, can run for office in the country’s upcoming general election — overturning an earlier decision that had barred him from the vote.  But the electoral commission said Friday that it had appealed the ruling to the country’s highest judicial authority, the Constitutional Court.  Zuma, who used to lead the ruling African National Congress (ANC), now fronts the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK)  — named after the ANC’s former military wing. The…

A tourist has died after falling into the sea in Tenerife.It’s believed the 53-year-old man was trying to take photographs of huge waves during a storm in Puerto de la Cruz on Wednesday afternoon. Footage posted by the emergency services showed an air ambulance attempting to rescue him as water crashed on the coastline. X This content is provided by X, which may be using cookies and other technologies. To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies. You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable X cookies or to allow those cookies…

Every time contact lens wearers put in a new pair they create waste: the old pair of contact lenses, the packaging from the new pair and the bottle of saline solution.  It all adds up to about a kilogram (2.2 pounds) per year, with reusable contacts generating slightly less. And with 140 million contact-wearers across the world, that means a lot of rubbish. But eyeglasses come with their own set of problems. With about half of the world’s population projected to need spectacles by 2050, working out which is better for the environment could have a profound effect. Contact lenses create…

The campaign was bruising, the ruling bloc’s defeat was crushing, and now South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is contrite — after his People Power Party (PPP) lost its parliamentary majority on Wednesday, Yoon promised to reform the nation to better reflect the public’s will. “I will humbly accept the will of the people expressed in the general election and will strive to reform the administration and do my best to stabilize the economy and enhance people’s livelihoods,” Yoon said in a statement delivered by his chief of staff. This is a tall order for a leader without a parliamentary…

Chopping cacao beans with machetes. Carrying heavy sacks during harvest — all tasks that school-age boys and girls in Ghana and elsewhere should not to be doing. Yet an in-depth investigation by US TV network CBS and Swiss public broadcaster SRF recently revealed that the chocolate manufacturer Mars and the Swiss company Lindt & Sprüngli may be using child labor in Ghana. Studies suggest that around 700,000 children continue to work in the cocoa industry in Ghana.  The problem clearly affects the entire global retail industry: Major German companies have also been accused of benefiting from child labor. The non-profit Oxfam alleges that…

Harry Kane’s three eldest children were taken to hospital as a precaution following a three-car crash in Germany.The collision happened on Monday at around 5.15pm local time near Munich, just as the 30-year-old landed with Bayern Munich for their Champions League quarter-final match against Arsenal. Munich Police said a Renault with four people had been turning left to gain access to the A95 motorway when it collided with an oncoming Mercedes carrying three of Kane’s children, aged between three and seven, travelling on state road 2071. Image: The accident is being investigated. Pic: Hohenschaftlarn Fire Department The Renault then skidded…

Humans first crossed into the American continent from Asia via the Bering Strait in several waves of migration between 25,000-15,000 years ago. The migrating hunter-gatherers found landscapes untouched by humans and full of unknown plants and animals. Paleo-Indian cultures migrating through (what is now) Latin America left traces of their lives, painting rock art in caves and on cliff faces. These paintings trace how early cultures learned to live in their new environments. They also give researchers clues about the ways the ancient humans left their legacies on the region’s biodiversity and culture today. Key evidence about early Paleo-Indian culture has come from…