Author: DW

A bus fell off a bridge in southeastern Mali on Tuesday, killing 31 people, the Transport Ministry said. The bus crashed near the western town of Kenieba around 5 p.m. local time (1700 GMT), en route to neighboring Burkina Faso. Some 10 more were injured. What do we know about the accident? The accident occurred at a bridge crossing the Bagoe River, the Transport Ministry said. The victims included Malians and citizens from other West African countries, it added. “The probable cause was the driver’s failure to control the vehicle,” the ministry said. Road accidents are common in Mali and…

New Zealand is today repealing what would have been a world-first ban on young people ever being able to buy cigarettes.The law, due to come into effect in July, would have prevented anyone born after 1 January 2009 from buying tobacco products. It would have also cut nicotine content in tobacco products and reduced the number of retailers by more than 90%.But New Zealand’s new coalition government has now confirmed the toughest anti-tobacco measures in the world are being revoked.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also has similar plans and previously said that the New Zealand U-turn would not change his mind.…

A Swedish international and former Arsenal footballer is being treated in hospital for an acute brain illness after collapsing at his home, his Danish club have said.Kristoffer Olsson, who spent three years at Arsenal, is on a ventilator in Aarhus University Hospital, FC Midtjylland said on Tuesday.The 28-year-old midfielder lost consciousness last Tuesday, the club said, and was transferred to the hospital, where he is being supported by his immediate family and members of the club’s staff. Image: Sweden’s Kristoffer Olsson in a match against Poland in 2021. Pic: AP FC Midtjylland said some of Denmark’s “leading medical experts” are…

Ursula von der Leyen has been at the helm of the European Commission since 2019. The 65-year-old is the first woman to hold the presidency of the EU executive branch. But despite being of retirement age, the German center-right politician isn’t hanging up hat her just yet. On February 19, she announced her bid to secure another five-year term, which would keep her in office until 2029. Von der Leyen has unfinished business: the transition to EU “climate neutrality,” for example, and shepherding Ukraine’s hoped-for accession to the 27-member bloc. “I think Ursula von der Leyen has done a good job,” her predecessor, the Luxembourger Jean-Claude Juncker, said…

In a case that has remained unsolved for two decades, a US federal court on Tuesday found two men guilty of the 2002 murder of famed Run-DMC member Jason Mizell, better known by his stage name Jam Master Jay. Ronald Washington and Karl Jordan Jr, the alleged shooter, were found guilty on all counts. They were convicted of murder in the course of drug trafficking and murder with a firearm. Jordan was the godson of the famous DJ. Washington was an old friend who was staying with the DJ’s sister. All of them grew up in the same neighborhood in the New York…

The UK-registered Rubymar cargo vessel appears to be drifting north as new video shows it barely afloat after a Houthi attack.Satellite images and locations shared by authorities reveal its movements in the Red Sea over the past nine days. The Belize-flagged ship Rubymar was hit by a Houthi missile in the Bab al Mandeb Strait on Sunday 18 February.Its last transmitted position was on the day of the attack. Since then, it has moved around 70 kilometres north. Image: Map shows the Rubymar’s locations over the past nine days A navigational warning to other ships in the area says the…

Germany plans to allow carbon capture and sub-seabed storage technology in certain industries, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Monday. Such systems capture carbon dioxide at the point of emission, remove it from the atmosphere, and store it underground. What are the plans? “The technology is safe,” Habeck said at a news conference on the German government’s carbon management strategy. Germany aims to become carbon neutral by 2045. It is currently Europe’s largest emitter of CO2. Habeck, who is also responsible for climate change policy, said that certain industrial sectors, such as cement production, will need to use carbon…

After an impromptu summit attended by representatives of 25 European governments as well as the US and Canada, Emmanuel Macron made statements seldom been heard from any Western politician since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine. “We are resolved to do everything necessary, for as long as necessary,” said the French president at a late-night news conference in Paris. Until now, there has been much talk at numerous summits about assisting Ukraine and supporting the country with its defense. But “everything necessary”? Journalists were quick to ask Macron to clarify what this meant. The president, who has increasingly staked his claim to a leadership role for France…

Oleg Orlov has spent his life documenting repression.He is co-chair of Russia’s oldest human rights group, Memorial, which was shut down and forced out of Russia shortly before the Ukraine war and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. Mr Orlov vowed to continue his human rights work inside the country, holding single pickets against the war and continuing to speak out against the Russian state which he likened to the regimes of Franco, Salazar or Mussolini.Now, at 70 years old, he has been jailed for two and a half years for supposedly “repeatedly” criticising the armed forces.In his…

“When we learned that the sanctions against our country, Niger, had been lifted, we were all happy, and all the people of Niger are delighted to hear this good news,” said Intinicar Alhassane, a former adviser to deposed President Mohamed Bazoum. The ousting of democratically elected Bazoum by a military junta in July 2023 led to West African regional bloc ECOWAS imposing stringent sanctions against Niger in an effort to have Bazoum reinstated. The dismantling of all major sanctions includes the reopening land and air borders between Niger and ECOWAS member states, as well as the lifting of the no-fly zone for commercial flights to and…