Author: DW

A female police officer has been honoured for protecting a woman from a mob accusing her of blasphemy in Pakistan.The woman was in a Lahore restaurant when people outside took offence to the Arabic script on her dress.The word printed on the dress was “halwa”, which means “beautiful” in Arabic, but the crowd mistook it for verses from the Koran, the Muslim holy book.Video footage shows them shouting for her to take the garment off, with some chanting that those guilty of blasphemy should be beheaded. Image: The woman was wearing a dress with Arabic writing on it. Pic: Punjab…

Pakistan’s newly formed government on Sunday elected its new prime minister following general elections on February 8. Shehbaz Sharif, head of Pakistan’s Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and younger brother of former premier Nawaz Sharif, was voted in for a second time. Pakistan lawmakers elect Shehbaz Sharif as prime ministerTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video”Shehbaz Sharif is declared prime minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” National Assembly Speaker, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said in the chamber after the vote. Sharif secured 201 votes in the 336-member National Assembly and returns to…

German opposition politicians on Sunday called for a parliamentary inquest following Russia’s interception and release of a sensitive discussion among high-ranking Bundeswehr military officers concerning Ukraine. Parliament’s special commissioner to the military, Eva Högl from Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats, meanwhile called for improved training on secure communication for senior military officers. “Firstly, all those responsible at every level of the Bundeswehr must immediately receive comprehensive training on secure communications,” Högl told the Funke group of newspapers on Sunday. “Secondly, the stable possibility for secure and secret information and communication transfer must be ensured.”  If this were not already possible,…

A 15-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of stabbing a Jewish man in the Swiss city of Zurich.Police suspect antisemitism as a motive for the attack on Saturday night, which comes amid a rise in similar incidents across Europe.The Swiss Organisation Of Jewish Communities said the 50-year-old victim is in hospital with serious injuries.”Physical attacks on Jewish people in Switzerland are very rare,” the group said.”The Jewish community has been spared from such life-threatening attacks for the past two decades.”However, there has been a significant increase in such physical attacks since 7 October.”The war between Israel and Hamas began…

The planned launch of a new crew to the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday has been postponed by a day due to poor weather, US space agency NASA said. Originally scheduled for February 22, the launch has now been postponed for a second time. SpaceX said on social media that “elevated winds” forced Saturday’s delay. NASA said it was now targeting Sunday at 10:53 p.m. (0353 Monday GMT/UTC) for liftoff. Crew-8 — which includes three American astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut — was set to launch towards the ISS from Florida’s Cape Canaveral space center. Billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX began operating astronaut…

All around the world, more and more people are taking dietary supplements that promise better skin and hair, a strengthened immune system, or improved performance. Magnesium, vitamin C, and others are part of a market worth billions of euros. Angela Clausen from the consumer advice center in North Rhine-Westphalia has been dealing with this topic for years. “The problem is that a great many people see dietary supplements as a kind of natural medication, so they use them accordingly: for therapy, and to relieve or heal diseases,” she says. “But dietary supplements are only really intended to supplement essential components…

Police in Haiti issued a call for help on Saturday night as they struggled to hold back armed groups closing in on the country’s largest prison amid what one gang leader called a bid to oust the country’s government. Two of Haiti’s main police unions have appealed for assistance to stop prisoners — many of them high-profile criminals — from escaping the National Penitentiary in the capital Port-Au-Prince. “They need help,” one of the union’s representing Haitian police said in a message published on social media with an “SOS” emoji repeated eight times. “Let’s mobilize the army and the police…

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…