Author: DW

A drone hit a five-storey apartment building in Russia on Saturday morning, with some of the country’s media outlets pointing the finger at Ukraine.Residents of the building in St Petersburg reported a strange sound, a blast and then a fire just after 7am local time. One resident, Elena, told Reuters news agency: “I first heard a whistle, because I had just opened the window, then a pop, a blaze and a full apartment of smoke, the window flew out.”Russia’s Rosgvardiya national guard said 100 people were evacuated, while Russian news agency RIA Novosti said six people needed medical help after…

03/03/2024March 3, 2024Zelenskyy urges swifter arms deliveries after Odesa attackUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Western countries to deliver missile defense systems and weapons to Kyiv in his nightly video address. His address came after Russian drone debris hit an apartment block in Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa, killing several people. An apartment building in the southwestern Ukrainian city of Odesa was damaged in a Russian drone strikeImage: Ukrainian Emergency Service Office/AP Photo/picture alliance “Such attacks by Shahed drones have no military sense and cannot have any,” he said. “This is terrorism aimed solely at destroying lives, solely at intimidating people.”…

Chad’s junta leader and interim President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno announced he intends to run for president on Saturday, merely three days after his election rival was killed in a reported exchange of fire with security. “I, Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, am a candidate for the 2024 presidential election under the banner of the For a United Chad coalition,” the military leader said in a speech. Deby Itno has been in power since 2021, after his father Idriss Deby Itno died while fighting rebels. The elder Deby Itno had ruled the country for over three decades. The younger Deby Itno initially promised…

Alexei Navalny’s mother and mother-in-law have laid flowers at his grave in Moscow the day after thousands of people attended his funeral in a public show of defiance.Both women, dressed in black, stood quietly at the opposition leader’s burial place before leaving. Mr Navalny, who was President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest domestic critic, died at the age of 47 in an Arctic penal colony on 16 February. Image: Both women, dressed in black, stood quietly before leaving. Pic: AP Image: Flowers left by mourners cover Mr Navalny’s grave Supporters said he had been murdered, while the Kremlin has denied any involvement…

A letter sent to FEI, the international governing body of equestrian sports, left no room for interpretation: “Our sport is in serious danger. The current scandals and the bad reputation threatens its existence and could mean the end of dressage and para-dressage as Olympic disciplines.” The letter was sent by leading athletes, trainers and officials from the world of dressage, including seven-time Olympic champion Isabell Werth from Germany. She is the president of the International Dressage Riders Club (IDRC). The correspondence, addressed to FEI president Ingmar de Vos and FEI secretary general Sabrina Ibanez, came as a reaction to the most recent…

Serbian authorities announced on Saturday a rerun of Belgrade’s election, part of local and parliamentary polls from last December, amid fraud allegations. Following a meeting with the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), Belgrade’s acting mayor and former waterpolo star, Aleksandar Sapic, announced the new vote in the capital. Sapic denied it had to do with the fraud allegations or with the SNS’s failure to secure majority seats in the Belgrade city council. He described the decision as raising “the bar [of legitimacy].” “We made a decision that does not work in our favor but we are not afraid,” Sapic said. Earlier on…

Police in Spain, Italy and Greece have dismantled a criminal organization of Pakistani origin that has produced and distributed over €1 million ($1.1 million) in counterfeit €100 notes. The authorities arrested 14 people, including the ringleaders of the operation. Spanish police said on Saturday that the arrests were made in the cities of Barcelona, Rome and Naples. The police launched their investigation last November after a large number of counterfeit notes were discovered in Barcelona. A gang distributed the notes in Italy, France, Greece and Spain, police said.  Authorities also said the fake money was passing through ATMs and other devices undetected. “The banknotes…

The US military has carried out its first airdrop of aid into Gaza, where a quarter of the population is facing starvation.The joint effort with the Royal Jordanian Air Force, using C-130 Hercules transport planes, saw the US dropping 66 bundles containing more than 38,000 meals along Gaza’s Mediterranean coastline. A US military official said planning was also under way for “potential follow-on airborne aid delivery missions”.The war between Israel and Hamas began on 7 October last year when the militant group killed 1,200 people and seized around 250 hostages.Since then, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says the Palestinian death…

Skip next section Scholz reiterates ‘no’ to sending soldiers to Ukraine03/02/2024March 2, 2024Scholz reiterates ‘no’ to sending soldiers to UkraineGerman Chancellor Olaf Scholz has again defended his decision not to deploy soldiers to the Ukraine war. “We are not going to send European soldiers to Ukraine. We do not want a war between Russia and NATO and we will do everything to prevent it,” he told the Party of European Socialists (PES) congress in Rome.  According to Scholz, there is a clear understanding among Western partners that NATO and none of its countries should become a party to the war.…

King Harald of Norway had a temporary pacemaker implanted on Saturday at a hospital on the Malaysian resort island of Langkawi. Europe’s oldest monarch was being treated there for an infection while on vacation this week, the Norwegian royal house said. “The pacemaker was implanted due to a low heart rate,” the palace in Oslo said in a brief statement. It added that the procedure was successful. Following the operation, 87-year-old Harald is expected to be transported back to Norway “within the next couple of days,” the statement said. “His Majesty is doing well under the circumstances, but still needs…