Author: DW

In the early hours of March 26, the Singapore-flagged ship Dali, loaded with 5,000 containers, slammed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing the 1.6-mile (2.5-kilometer) bridge to collapse in a matter of seconds. The Dali was departing for Colombo when the disaster struck. Initial fears were confirmed  that half a dozen people lost their lives in the accident. Baltimore’s port had to be shut down, leaving millions of tons of coal, hundreds of cars, and deliveries of lumber and gypsum stranded. About 40 ships were ready to depart on Tuesday, and a big number of ships coming from the Atlantic cannot dock…

France said Wednesday it has evacuated 170 of its citizens and 70 other Europeans out of Haiti as the security situation worsens there. “More than 170 French nationals and around 70 people of European and other nationalities in a vulnerable situation” were airlifted out, the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement.Haiti’s recent history of turmoil explainedTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Around 1,100 French citizens live in Haiti, many of them holding dual nationality, according to the foreign ministry. Haiti has been engulfed in chaos since February, canceling commercial flights to the country. The…

A British man who flew to Russia to fight alongside Vladimir Putin’s forces in Ukraine has insisted he is “not a terrorist”.Ben Stimson filmed himself dressed in Russian combat gear and flaunted a grenade apparently looted from Ukrainian forces. He has posted footage appearing to show foreign fighters walking past dead bodies in the war zone – as well as a road trip out of occupied Mariupol.Follow latest: Death toll in concert attack rises to 140 “Yes, I’m back in Russia and I’m back in uniform,” he says in one video, insisting that he believes what he is doing is…

An Iraqi who burned the Quran in Sweden said on Wednesday he was leaving the country for Norway after the Swedish government revoked his residency permit. ‘Sweden doesn’t respect me’ Salwan Momika, a 37-year-old Christian Iraqi, told AFP news agency that he had left Sweden and arrived in Norway, where he planned to seek asylum. “I left Sweden because of the persecution I was subjected to by government institutions,” Momika said in a text message. In an interview published Wednesday by Swedish tabloid Expressen, Momika said, “I am on my way to Norway. Sweden only accepts terrorists who are granted asylum and given protection, while philosophers and…

Russia’s Health Ministry said the death toll from last week’s Moscow concert hall attack rose to 140 on Wednesday after another victim died in the hospital. The massacre at Crocus City Hall on Friday night was the deadliest terrorist attack on Russian soil in almost two decades. What we know about the victims “Unfortunately, one of the injured, who was in an extremely serious condition, died,” Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency, referring to the latest fatality. “The doctors did everything possible.” Murashko added that in hospitals in Moscow and the Moscow region “there…

A British man has died in a skiing accident in France.The man, who is yet to be identified, was on a trip to the resort of Avoriaz, in France. According to local media, the man was in his 60s and hit a tree at high speed after swerving to avoid a group of people.The incident took place around 3pm local time on 26 March.Despite the efforts of the mountain rescue team to resuscitate him, he was pronounced dead at the scene. A fellow skier, who was said to have witnessed the tragedy, told the MailOnline: “The man lost control on…

A young basketball player is being put through his paces in a sports medicine lab. On command, he jumps and lands with one leg onto a force plate embedded in the floor. “I need one more,” Dr. Hauke Dewitz calls out to him. So the same procedure again: taped with reflective beads, so-called markers, and electrodes that measure muscle activity, the 16-year-old jumps again. Pain in his right knee, which has been bothering him for months, has brought him to the lab. With the controlled movements completed, now comes the analysis by the sports orthopedist treating the athlete. Based on the…

Prosecutors in Spain on Wednesday demanded a two-and-a-half year prison sentence for the former Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) President Luis Rubiales over his infamous World Cup kiss. Rubiales faces charges of sexual assault and coercion in the case of the non-consensual kiss he gave to the player Jenni Hermoso after the tournament final in Sydney last August. What the prosecutor’s office said In a document sent to Spain’s National Court in Madrid, the prosecution noted that Rubiales had held the player’s head. Then, it said, “with both hands, and in a surprising manner and without the player’s consent or acceptance,…

“Are you Tajik? If you are, cancel the ride.” This was what many taxi drivers in Russia have heard from potential customers following last Friday’s attack on the Crocus City Hall near Moscow. The attack claimed the lives of at least 139 people, either shot at point-blank range or suffocated by the smoke when the attackers set the concert hall on fire. This week, the Basmanny District Court in Moscow arrested 11 people, including seven of Tajik origin, who are suspected of committing or of being complicit in the biggest such attack Russia has witnessed in past decades. While Russia is pointing fingers at Ukraine, a…

US President Joe Biden has said that pro-Palestinian protesters who interrupted him mid-speech on Tuesday “have a point”.Two demonstrators were removed from an event in Raleigh, North Carolina on Tuesday after they cut off the president during a speech on healthcare, shouting: “What about the healthcare in Gaza?” “Everybody deserves healthcare,” Mr Biden said, as the protesters yelled that hospitals in Gaza were being bombed and alleged that Mr Biden was “complicit in genocide”.The president asked the audience to “be patient with them”.”They have a point,” he said after the protesters were escorted out. “We need to get a lot…