Author: DW

Thirty-five suspected Somali pirates arrived in Mumbai aboard the Indian Navy destroyer INS Kolkata on Saturday.  They were apprehended in a daring high-seas Indian naval operation last week that recaptured a hijacked ship and freed its hostages. “INS Kolkata, with the 35 apprehended pirates returned to Mumbai on 23 March,” a navy statement said. In a video released by news agency ANI, the men can be seen standing at the dock by the ship surrounded by navy commandos. Navy spokesperson Vivek Madhwal said this is the first time in more than a decade pirates would be brought to Indian shores to…

The United States Senate approved a $1.2 trillion (€1.1 trillion) budget bill to fund the government for the fiscal year, narrowly avoiding a shutdown. The bill was passed in a 74-24 vote early on Saturday after a midnight deadline. It will now go to President Joe Biden to sign into law. The package funds key departments including Defense, Homeland Security, Treasury, and State through September 30. ‘Our persistence has been worth it’ The bill was passed in the nick of time as three-quarters of the government were at the verge of running out of cash at midnight. This comes aftertemporary funding…

When it comes, the gang violence is lethal and nobody in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince knows when or where it will flare up next.Thousands have been forced to leave their homes and those capable of leaving the city do so on buses and in cars, heading north away from the fighting. But tens of thousands simply can’t get away.They’re now living rough or in buildings that they have taken over.A huge argument erupts outside the locked gates of Haiti’s communications ministry building. Hundreds of families have moved in, and a group of their male family members strictly control who can and…

Skip next section EU leaders respond to Kremlin’s ‘state of war’ comment03/22/2024March 22, 2024EU leaders respond to Kremlin’s ‘state of war’ commentEU leaders have hit back after Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated Friday that Russia is in “a state of war.”  European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Russia’s comments show that it betrayed its own population after denying that it was at war for the past two years. Meanwhile, European Council President Charles Michel said Russia’s statement shows the need for the EU to strengthen its own defense industries. “We must be lucid and we must tell to our…

Russia and China vetoed a United States-backed draft resolution at the UN Security Council calling for a cease-fire in Gaza as part of a hostage deal. The proposed resolution called for “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza to protect civilians and enable humanitarian aid to be delivered to the Palestinian enclave. Moscow accused Washington of a “hypocritical spectacle” that does not pressure Israel. Algeria also voted against the resolution, with Guyana abstaining and the remaining 11 countries of the 15-member Security Council voting in favor. Russia not interested in assisting diplomatically, US says The United States…

Concerns have emerged over how some members of Nigeria’s “Community Watch Corps” groups operate. The vigilante groups were introduced to complement the efforts of conventional security agencies to fight criminals, known locally as bandits, who raid and loot villages, kill residents and burn houses to the ground. But many Nigerians now accuse the the vigilante security groups of extrajudicial killings and torture while interrogating the suspected bandits. Tit-for-tat killings According to some residents in the states where the groups operate — including Nigeria’s northern states of Katsina, Zamfara and Sokoto — the groups are getting out of hand. Nigeria’s impoverished Zamfara state first introduced a…

Israel said on Friday it had seized 800 hectares (1,977 acres) of land in the occupied West Bank. Israel’s extreme-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared “state lands” in the northern Jordan Valley, near the Israeli settlement of Yafit. Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories are illegal under international law. “While there are those in Israel and the world who seek to undermine our right over the Judea and Samaria area and the country in general, we are promoting settlement through hard work and in a strategic manner all over the country,” Smotrich said on Friday, using a contentious name for the occupied…

Russian hackers have targeted several German political parties to steal data, German news magazine Der Spiegel reported on Friday. The magazine cited an analysis from the US security firm Mandiant, which is subsidiary of Google owner Alphabet, as well as an alert by German security authorities. What did the cyber attack consist of? Mandiant said that the APT29 hacking group, which is also known as “Cozy Bear,” tried to trick “key German political figures” into opening an email that contained a fake invitation to a dinner event hosted by the opposition conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party. Mandiant analysts said that the…

As Russia reels from a devastating attack at a concert hall, Kyiv is worried Vladimir Putin will exploit the bloodshed to escalate his war in Ukraine regardless of who is to blame.On Friday night, the extremist Islamist militant group Islamic State claimed responsibility for the mass shooting that left at least 40 people dead and dozens more wounded in a Moscow suburb. But the Kremlin has yet formally to accuse any organisation, nation or individual. IS has on occasion in the past falsely claimed credit for attacks, though the brutality unleashed at the concert hall matched Islamic State tactics.Follow latest…

Shareholders of Digital World Acquisition Corp, a publicly traded shell company, voted Friday to approve a merger with former US President Donald Trump’s media company. This means that the Trump Media & Technology Group, whose main product is the social networking site Truth Social, will soon begin trading on the US tech-heavy Nasdaq stock exchange. Trump would own the largest chunk of the combined company: nearly 79 million shares. That, multiplied by Digital World’s Thursday closing price of $42.81, would put Trump’s total stake at more than $3 billion (€2.8 billion).  But Trump won’t be able to cash in Friday’s…