Author: DW

Volodymyr Zelenskyy witnessed a deadly Russian missile strike just a few hundred metres away as he visited Odesa in Ukraine.A hangar housing naval drones in the Black Sea port was hit, according to the Russian defence ministry. Five people were killed in the attack, said a Ukrainian navy spokesperson.President Zelenskyy was touring the war-ravaged southern city with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Image: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visit Odesa. Pic: Reuters The attack happened about 500 to 800 metres from where the leaders were, Reuters reported. In a joint news conference after the strike,…

Senegal’s government announced on Wednesday that the delayed presidential election will take place on March 24. On February 3, President Macky Sall announced the postponement of elections scheduled for February 25, triggering widespread uproar in a country that many observers view as a stable democracy. The Senegalese Constitutional Council declared Sall’s postponement of the election null and void and on Wednesday said arranging the vote for a date after his mandate expires on April 2 would be unconstitutional. Government dissolved The electoral crisis emerged after a thwarted bid by authorities to postpone the vote to December. “The President of the Republic…

At least 47 women are missing after suspected Islamist insurgents carried out a mass kidnapping in a remote area of northeastern Nigeria’s Borno state. The incident happened days ago, but details only started emerging Wednesday due to the area’s remote nature. Some 50 woman were initially taken, but some managed to escape. Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) are both known to have operated in Borno state. What do we know about the kidnapping? Women from displacement camps in Ngala, near the borders with Cameroon and Chad, were gathering firewood when they were “rounded up by ISWAP…

A notorious killer has told British detectives where he buried his victim’s remains 55 years ago, after they flew to his Caribbean home to interview him.Nizamodeen Hosein was convicted of kidnapping and killing Muriel McKay, who he mistook for the then wife of newspaper magnate Rupert Murdoch, in one of the first British murder trials without a body. But this week, he agreed to meet a team of Scotland Yard detectives in his native Trinidad where he was deported after serving 20 years in a UK jail. Image: Nizamodeen Hosein In a message to the McKay family, Detective Superintendent Katherine…

On Tuesday morning, around 4:50 a.m., an electricity pylon in the German state of Brandenburg went up in flames. Old tires piled around the mast suggested it was a deliberate case of arson. Seconds later, electricity to surrounding villages was cut off, affecting thousands of households. The cuts also affected Tesla’s so-called Gigafactory in the nearby area of Grünheide. The car factory is meant to manufacture 750 e-cars a day, but following the outage, some 12,000 workers were evacuated as production came to a stillstand. Tesla stated it did not expect production to resume this week and estimated the damages to…

The head of China’s state planning body, Zheng Shanjie, told the press on Wednesday that the country’s economic  growth target of 5% is achievable. This comes a day after Premier Li Qiang announced the country’s growth goal at the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s highest legislative body. Over 3,000 lawmakers are meeting in Beijing this week for their biggest political event of the year.China’s annual parliament session starts this weekTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video State acknowledges challenges China’s top state planner Zheng was speaking at a briefing on…

Yulia Navalnaya has suggested Russians should write Alexei Navalny’s name on their voting ballots and urged them to protest at the upcoming elections.Ms Navalnaya said she had drawn hope from the huge crowds that turned out last week for the funeral of the prominent opposition leader, who died in prison last month. Her call for Russians to turn out to vote at the same time at noon on 17 March – a form of protest in tightly controlled Russia – echoes a call made by her late husband before his death.His idea was that people could register a protest, without…

Dozens of endangered animals were discovered by Thailand’s customs agents on Wednesday at the Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport, prompting authorities to arrest six Indian nationals on suspicion of animal smuggling. The red panda, which is classified as an endangered species because of the loss of habitat and hunting, was seen peering out of a storage basket in photos released by the customs department. The officials found other animals placed in checked-in luggage, including snakes, parrots and wild lizards. The photos showed plastic tubs with lizards and snakes coiled together in cloth bags. The Sulawesi bear cuscus, seen here, is on the vulnerable species list in the…

US Republican Party presidential contender Nikki Haley has announced ending her presidential campaign on Wednesday. “The time has now come to suspend my campaign,” Haley said in a press conference on Wednesday. “I said I wanted Americans to have their voices heard. I have done that. I have no regrets. And although I will no longer be a candidate, I will not stop using my voice for the things I believe in.” Haley addresses American ‘retreat,’ decries Congress ‘dysfunction’ In her speech, Haley addressed several aspects of US politics, both on the domestic and international fronts. She warned of the national…

China’s National People’s Congress began its most prominent annual parliamentary meeting on Tuesday, kicking off a week of sessions that provide an opportunity for the outside world to gain insight on Beijing’s policy direction for the upcoming year. On Taiwan, Chinese Premier Li Qiang told the rubber-stamp legislature that Beijing would be “firm in advancing the cause of China reunification” as part of the “overall strategy” of the Chinese Communist Party (CPP) to “resolve the Taiwan issue in the new era.” Beijing considers self-ruled Taiwan to be Chinese territory, and President Xi Jinping has made “reuniting” the democratic island with…