Author: DW

Partial results have Turkey’s opposition candidate and incumbent mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, leading in local elections according to local media. Broadcaster NTV on Sunday said that the country’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) had nearly 51% with around 92% of ballots counted in the country’s largest city. Opposition upbeat after early partial results “We are in first position with a lead of more than a million votes … We have won the election,” Imamoglu told reporters at the CHP’s Istanbul headquarters. Murat Kurum, the candidate of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s  Justice and Development Party (AKP), which rules nationally, had around 40%.…

The remains of a two-year-old boy, who went missing in the French Alps in July, have been found near where he disappeared, according to local media reports.Bones, including a skull, were discovered by a walker near Le Vernet in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence on Saturday.Forensic tests showed they belonged to the boy, known only as Emile, French broadcaster BFMTV said, quoting prosecutors. Image: Pic: Gendarmerie Nationale Some reports named him as Émile Soleil.Prosecutor Jean-Luc Blachon said: “On Saturday, the police were told of the discovery of bones near the hamlet of Le Vernet.”After testing them, police concluded on Sunday that “they were…

Some 70 marches or events calling for peace took place around Germany on Saturday, an annual tradition at Easter in a country that developed a strong pacifist movement in the decades following its defeat in World War II.  The motto chosen this year is “Now more than ever, together for peace.”  Leaders of the coalition government in Berlin, themselves from parties with close traditional connections to this movement, issued Easter messages trying to reconcile their desire for peace in principle with their policies of providing weapons to Ukraine in its defensive war against Russia and increasing German defense spending and weapons…

A Spanish third-division game on Saturday was abandoned when a team walked off the pitch in protest at their goalkeeper having faced alleged racial abuse during the game. Rayo Majadahonda goalkeeper Cheikh Kane Sarr was shown a red card in the 84th minute of the team’s match against Sestao River. He was sent off after he approached fans of the opposing team behind his goalpost. On social media, videos of the altercation show Sarr, who is Senegalese and 23 years old, jumping into the stands but soon being pulled away by other players on the field. He then told his team about the incident. His Rayo Majadahonda teammates refused to…

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to enroll 150,000 conscripts into the military, a document posted on the Kremlin’s website showed on Sunday. All men in Russia are required to serve one year of compulsory military service. According to Statista, Russia has approximately 1.32 million active military personnel and two million reserve military personnel. Conscripts not destined for Ukraine Compulsory military service has long been a sensitive issue in Russia. Many men try to avoid conscription during the twice-yearly call-up periods. The Defense Ministry had previously assured conscripts they would not be sent to the front in Ukraine as…

Thousands of supporters of India’s leading opposition parties rallied in New Delhi on Sunday to protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government ahead of general elections next month. Leaders of an alliance of opposition parties spoke out against “autocracy” and the arrest of a senior colleague ahead of general elections at the “Save Democracy” rally. “This battle is to safeguard the nation, democracy, constitution, future of the nation, youth, farmers and women. This battle is for justice and truth,” Deepender Singh Hooda, a lawmaker of the Congress party, said. Modi and his Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), are…

Donald Trump’s campaign has criticised Joe Biden for declaring Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV) would be recognised on Easter Sunday.The US president made the announcement on Friday, saying the day was to “honour the extraordinary courage and contributions of transgender Americans and reaffirm our nation’s commitment to forming a more perfect union”. He urged Americans “to join us in lifting up the lives and voices of transgender people throughout our nation and to work toward eliminating violence and discrimination based on gender identity”.TDOV, which celebrates the transgender community, has fallen on 31 March annually since 2009.But critics of Democrat Mr…

France’s Interior Ministry said Friday that 45 countries have been asked to provide police officers and civilian personnel to help safeguard the Paris Olympics this summer. Separately, the French Defense Ministry has asked for “small numbers” of foreign military personnel for “very specific” tasks during the Games. France made the requests in January before last week’s terror attack claimed by ISIS-K on a Moscow concert hall in which at least 143 people were killed. “The security context, particularly in recent weeks, means that there is extreme vigilance regarding the security of these Olympic Games,” a French military official said.Who are…

Polish President Andrzej Duda vetoed a law on Friday that would have allowed over-the-counter access to the contraceptive pill for women and girls aged 15 and up Duda “could not accept” the bill because it enabled access to the contraceptive pill “without medical supervision and bypassing the role and responsibility of parents,” his office said. He claimed there were no convincing arguments to provide the contraceptive pill to girls under the age of 18. Catholic-majority Poland saw a rollback of women’s reproductive rights under the previous Law and Justice (PiS) government, which Duda was allied with. The current government led by former…

US-funded news outlet Radio Free Asia said Friday it had closed its Hong Kong bureau following the passing of new national security legislation. The city, which is part of China, last week enacted a law known locally as Article 23, which has widened the Hong Kong government’s power to stamp out challenges to its rule. Hong Kong was once seen as a bastion of media freedom in Asia but independent media have been targeted for closure following pro-democracy protests in 2019. Hong Kong is technically a special administrative region of China with legislative, executive, and judicial organs separate from the mainland. The new law, however,…