Author: DW

Israel has been urged by Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron to open one of its ports to allow aid arriving by sea to get through to Gaza.He also called for more visas to be issued to UN workers to ensure humanitarian assistance could be distributed in the Palestinian territory. Politics latest: Minister breaks ranks over Tory donor rowSpeaking in the House of Lords, Lord Cameron said: “We are doing all we can to increase aid into Gaza.”We have been collaborating with Jordan on humanitarian aid drops and are now working with partners to operationalise a maritime aid corridor from Cyprus.…

“In Sierra Leone, the practice of sharing food among Muslims during Ramadan is not limited to Muslims,” said Murtala Mohamed Kamara, a Muslim who lives in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown. “Christians provide food for their Muslim friends and family members during Ramadan, too.” Ramadan, observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting, prayer and introspection, started in Sierra Leone on Monday. Some 77% of people in Sierra Leone identify as Muslim and 22% as Christian. The two religions have a history of coexisting peacefully despite the 1991-2002 civil war that claimed an estimated 50,000 lives in the West African nation.…

On Monday, 68 children as well as 11 staff members and their families were “temporarily evacuated” from the SOS Children’s Village in Rafah to Bethlehem in the West Bank, the German Foreign Office told DW.  SOS Children’s Villages, an NGO, reached out in mid-November to Germany’s Foreign Minister to request help for its village in Rafah, according to a spokesperson for the Foreign Office. “We are relieved that our intensive efforts were finally successful yesterday and would like to thank everyone involved,” the spokesperson told DW.  More than 1 million refugees are sheltering in the southern Gazan city of Rafah. Many are living in crowded…

A group of skiers who went missing in the Swiss Alps tried to dig “snow caves” to save themselves from the freezing temperatures, a lead rescuer has told Sky News.Anjan Truffer, the head of mountain rescue at Air Zermatt AG, was on site when the bodies of five cross-country skiers were found on Sunday in the area of the Tete Blanche mountain after they were reported missing the day before. The search for a sixth person is still ongoing. Image: The mounds of snow where attempted holes are believed to have been dug. Pic: Cantonal Police Valais Mr Truffer said…

What was the Woermann Company?  C. Woermann, a shipping and trading firm from Hamburg, first set up shop in Douala, Cameroon, in 1868. It traded along the West African coast. Adolph Woermann took over the family business of his father, Carl Woermann, in 1874. The ambitious younger Woermann believed Africa was a market in which to sell cheaply made German products like alcohol and a source for cheap labor to produce valuable raw materials for German factories. How colonialism boosted Germany’s merchant fleetsTo play this audio please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 audio Why did Woermann push…

Kabul witnessed a flurry of diplomatic activity at the end of January, with 11 countries accepting the Taliban’s invitation to attend an international conference dubbed “Afghanistan Regional Cooperation Initiative.” The multilateral meeting was aimed at developing regional cooperation and was attended by representatives of countries like India, China, Russia, Pakistan and Iran, among others, according to Taliban authorities. It wasn’t clear whether the gathering produced any concrete results. But the conference seems to underline the will of the Taliban regime to build good relations with neighboring countries. The Islamic fundamentalist group can claim some initial success in its efforts to gain…

A British baby has died after a car crashed into a group of holidaymakers in Lanzarote, according to local media. The driver, a 23-year-old British woman, who lives on the Spanish island, tested positive for drugs and alcohol, according to reports.Two vehicles are said to have collided before a car mounted the pavement near the Aqualava water park in the southern holiday resort of Playa Blanca on Monday evening.Officials said a five-month-old baby died, while two women were seriously injured and four other people were moderately hurt in the crash.The baby’s mother, father and maternal grandparents were among those hurt,…

Germany once euphemistically called its colonies, which it held from 1884 until World War I, “protectorates.” Unlike countries such as France, Britain or the Netherlands, Germany was not one of the great colonial powers. But its colonial rule in Africa, Oceania and Asia was no less brutal. That’s evident in the numerous human remains dating from the colonial era that are still held in the collections of German museums and universities. Colonialists committed horrific crimes Those remains are largely skulls and bones, many from the bodies of people who were executed. They were dismembered, cleaned, and sent back to Germany…

The National Assembly in Vietnam will debate and most likely ratify the UN International Labor Organization’s Convention 87, which mandates the free establishment of labor organizations, in October, according to sources who spoke with DW.  Although Hanoi had vowed to ratify the convention by the end of 2023, European officials are confident it will do so by the end of this year in order to avoid potential sanctions from Western partners who are growing frustrated by Vietnam’s foot-dragging over labor reform. There has been concerted pressure from the European Union and Canada on Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party to realize the promises it…

Felipe Massa has taken legal action against Formula One, racing supremo Bernie Ecclestone and governing body the FIA.The ex-Ferrari driver is chasing recognition as the 2008 world champion, alongside a payout of £64m. The Brazilian has claimed since last year that he is the “rightful” 2008 world champion due to one of the sport’s biggest scandals, dubbed “Crashgate” by some.At the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, fellow Brazilian Nelson Piquet Jr says he purposefully crashed into a wall in an effort to help Renault teammate Fernando Alonso – who went onto win the race.Piquet Jr said he had been ordered to…