Author: DW

A man has been sentenced to life in prison over a violent attack on two American tourists near a castle in Germany said to have inspired Disney. The 31-year-old US citizen was accused of throttling, raping and killing a 21-year-old woman and throwing her 22-year-old friend down a 100-metre ravine near Neuschwanstein Castle, in Bavaria. He was convicted of murder, attempted murder and rape with fatal consequences.The man, from Michigan, had admitted to the charges at the start of his trial last month.In line with German privacy laws, authorities did not identify the victims and only allowed the perpetrator to…

Power has been restored to the the Tesla Gigafactory near Berlin on Monday night, grid operator E.DIS said. Repair work to a damaged pylon was completed at 8:45 p.m. local time (1945 UTC) — much faster than the power company initially expected. “Since then, the power supply has been restored,” it said in a statement. The news comes a week after the power supply was cut when far-left activists known as the Volcano Group sabotaged the car factory. Environmental activists have been protesting against the expansion of the factory, which they say will impact a water protection zone in the forest of Grünheide. At the…

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Jamaica on Monday for emergency talks also involving Canada, France, the UN and Caribbean countries seeking to solve the flare-up of violence in Haiti.  It was not clear whether Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, locked out of his own country by the violence and last said to be in Puerto Rico, would attend the session. He’s facing increasing pressure to either resign or agree to a transitional council. Blinken, who’s spent much of recent months in the Middle East, was flown into the Caribbean on Monday Image: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Pool AFP/dpa/picture alliance The meeting…

Donald Trump said Adolf Hitler “did some good things” and praised Vladimir Putin on more than one occasion during his time in the White House, his former chief of staff has claimed. Mr Trump, who is currently on the campaign trail and hoping to land a second stint as president, also repeatedly admired North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, according to a new book. General John Kelly, a retired marine who became the Trump administration’s longest-serving chief of staff, makes allegations about Mr Trump’s views in a forthcoming book by a CNN journalist.Mr Kelly tells Jim Sciutto that the then-president “thought…

Skip next section Baerbock open to missile swap with Britain to arm Ukraine03/11/2024March 11, 2024Baerbock open to missile swap with Britain to arm UkraineGerman Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is open to British Foreign Secretary David Cameron’s suggestion that the countries swap cruise missiles to provide Ukraine with more sophisticated long-range weapons. Cameron’s proposal is “an option” worth considering, Baerbock said in an interview with German broadcaster ARD. Under Cameron’s proposal, Berlin could supply Taurus missiles to Britain, and in return the British government would provide Ukraine with additional long-range Storm Shadow missiles from British stocks. Berlin is reluctant to provide…

There are minerals and metals like lithium and copper and then there are rare earths, including scandium, cerium, promethium, terbium and thulium. Rare earths are not that rare. The rarest — thulium — is more common than gold, but it is rarely found in quantities that make mining economically worthwhile. A study published last week by IW Consult at the German Economic Institute and Fraunhofer Systems and Innovation Research (ISI) shed light on Germany’s imports of these rare earths, along with copper and lithium, to assess their importance to the economy.Rare earths discovered in SwedenTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser…

Tensions were again evident in Germany’s ruling coalition on Monday as the long-running dispute on sending Taurus missiles to Ukraine was extended and amplified by Russia intercepting and releasing a conversation on the matter between senior German military officials.  Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a Social Democrat (SPD) member, has ruled out the delivery at least for now, saying that the missiles’ range is too long and that Germany could be directly or indirectly drawn into the war if it tries to provide them. However, the opposition Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) support the idea, and are staging a series of votes in the Bundestag parliament…

Three Palestinians have been arrested on terrorism charges in Italy.Italian police have accused the men of planning attacks in an unspecified country.They said the men were living in L’Aquila, a city about 75 miles northeast of Rome, and had allegedly set up a cell linked to the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.The group, a coalition of armed militants once linked to the Palestinian Fatah movement, is considered a terrorist organisation by Israel, the EU and the US.Police said the three men had been charged with criminal conspiracy for terrorism purposes or subversion of the democratic order, which carries jail terms of…

The leader of Portugal’s center-right Democratic Alliance (AD), Luis Montenegro, claimed victory in Sunday’s closely contested parliamentary election. “It seems inescapable that the AD won the elections and that the Socialists lost,” he said in an address in Lisbon shortly after midnight. Montenegro said he expected President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to formally invite AD to form a government. Portugal election: Center-right wins narrow victoryTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video However, the official results, which were nearly complete early Monday, showed that the DA was still short of…

The UK government has warned against all travel to Haiti as intense fighting and gang violence continues to spiral in the Caribbean nation.It follows US secretary of state Antony Blinken heading to Jamaica in an attempt to solve the crisis, which threatens to bring down Haiti’s government. Attacks by powerful gangs on key government targets began on 29 February across Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, with gunmen having burned police stations, closed the main international airports and raided the country’s two biggest prisons, releasing 4,000 inmates. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 0:38 Protests continue in Haiti There…