Author: DW

Special counsel Robert Hur testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, defending assessments he made in a report on President Joe Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified documents.  In the 345-page report released in February, Hur recommended no criminal charges against Biden but questioned Biden’s age and mental capacity.  The report described Biden as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” but did not recommend criminal charges.  “What I wrote is what I believe the evidence shows, and what I expect jurors would perceive and believe,” Hur said.  “I did not sanitize my explanation. Nor did I disparage the president unfairly,” he added.  “My task…

According to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) grouping of 20 nations, Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry is ready to resign. Now a presidential council consisting of seven members is to be established to appoint an interim prime minister for a transitional period leading up to elections in Haiti, Guyana’s President Mohamed Irfaan Ali said late Monday following a meeting of Caribbean leaders in Jamaica. “The government that I’m running cannot remain insensitive to this situation. There is no sacrifice that is too big for our country,” Henry said in a videotaped statement. Powerful criminal gangs controlling large swaths of Haiti and almost all…

Two dogs have died during Alaska’s annual 1,000-mile dog sled competition – prompting fresh calls for the race to be banned.The Iditarod is held every March and features dog sled drivers – known as mushers – and their canine teams travel across mountain ranges, a frozen river and sea ice, often in treacherous weather conditions. The race starts on the first Saturday of the month and takes around 10 days to travel the route from Anchorage to Nome.This year a two-year-old male called Bog collapsed just 200 feet (61 metres) from one of the race’s checkpoints and later died despite…

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Tuesday announced that the US would be providing a small package of emergency military aid for Ukraine, bypassing Congress after its more permanent plans to assist Kyiv have been stalled in Congress for several months.  “Today, on behalf of President Biden, I’m announcing an emergency package of security assistance and $300 million worth of weapons and equipment to address some of Ukraine’s pressing needs,” Sullivan told reporters. “The world is watching. The clock is ticking and we need to see action as rapidly as possible.”  The $300 million (roughly €275 million) package would include…

Israel has been urged by Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron to open one of its ports to allow aid arriving by sea to get through to Gaza.He also called for more visas to be issued to UN workers to ensure humanitarian assistance could be distributed in the Palestinian territory. Politics latest: Minister breaks ranks over Tory donor rowSpeaking in the House of Lords, Lord Cameron said: “We are doing all we can to increase aid into Gaza.”We have been collaborating with Jordan on humanitarian aid drops and are now working with partners to operationalise a maritime aid corridor from Cyprus.…

“In Sierra Leone, the practice of sharing food among Muslims during Ramadan is not limited to Muslims,” said Murtala Mohamed Kamara, a Muslim who lives in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown. “Christians provide food for their Muslim friends and family members during Ramadan, too.” Ramadan, observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting, prayer and introspection, started in Sierra Leone on Monday. Some 77% of people in Sierra Leone identify as Muslim and 22% as Christian. The two religions have a history of coexisting peacefully despite the 1991-2002 civil war that claimed an estimated 50,000 lives in the West African nation.…

On Monday, 68 children as well as 11 staff members and their families were “temporarily evacuated” from the SOS Children’s Village in Rafah to Bethlehem in the West Bank, the German Foreign Office told DW.  SOS Children’s Villages, an NGO, reached out in mid-November to Germany’s Foreign Minister to request help for its village in Rafah, according to a spokesperson for the Foreign Office. “We are relieved that our intensive efforts were finally successful yesterday and would like to thank everyone involved,” the spokesperson told DW.  More than 1 million refugees are sheltering in the southern Gazan city of Rafah. Many are living in crowded…

A group of skiers who went missing in the Swiss Alps tried to dig “snow caves” to save themselves from the freezing temperatures, a lead rescuer has told Sky News.Anjan Truffer, the head of mountain rescue at Air Zermatt AG, was on site when the bodies of five cross-country skiers were found on Sunday in the area of the Tete Blanche mountain after they were reported missing the day before. The search for a sixth person is still ongoing. Image: The mounds of snow where attempted holes are believed to have been dug. Pic: Cantonal Police Valais Mr Truffer said…

What was the Woermann Company?  C. Woermann, a shipping and trading firm from Hamburg, first set up shop in Douala, Cameroon, in 1868. It traded along the West African coast. Adolph Woermann took over the family business of his father, Carl Woermann, in 1874. The ambitious younger Woermann believed Africa was a market in which to sell cheaply made German products like alcohol and a source for cheap labor to produce valuable raw materials for German factories. How colonialism boosted Germany’s merchant fleetsTo play this audio please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 audio Why did Woermann push…

Kabul witnessed a flurry of diplomatic activity at the end of January, with 11 countries accepting the Taliban’s invitation to attend an international conference dubbed “Afghanistan Regional Cooperation Initiative.” The multilateral meeting was aimed at developing regional cooperation and was attended by representatives of countries like India, China, Russia, Pakistan and Iran, among others, according to Taliban authorities. It wasn’t clear whether the gathering produced any concrete results. But the conference seems to underline the will of the Taliban regime to build good relations with neighboring countries. The Islamic fundamentalist group can claim some initial success in its efforts to gain…