Author: DW

Rescue teams in Japan face a “race against time” to find survivors after at least 73 people were killed following a 7.6-magnitude earthquake in the region.Dozens of people are believed to still be trapped under collapsed buildings after Monday’s quake, which was followed by a 4.9 magnitude aftershock early on Wednesday. According to Japanese authorities, 39 deaths were reported in Wajima city, 23 in Suzu, the other deaths were reported in five neighbouring towns.More than 300 people have been injured, at least 25 of them seriously.The precise number of those trapped remains unknown, with military personnel, firefighters and canine units…

Berlin police said on Monday that they detained around 390 people overnight on New Year’s Eve in the German capital and have so far tallied just over 700 potential criminal investigations.  Police spokeswoman Anja Dierschke said that 54 officers were injured, 30 of them by fireworks, after 4,500 police from the capital and other states deployed in a major operation launched because of more widespread unrest than usual last year. Only eight of them were unable to finish their shifts though, she said. Despite the high number of arrests and injured officers, officials nevertheless described the operation as a success and the night as a…

Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump and Stephen Hawking are among those named in court documents relating to Ghislaine Maxwell, her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and alleged victims of sexual abuse. A US judge, Loretta Preska, ruled in December that documents that were part of a 2015 defamation case by Virginia Giuffre against Ghislaine Maxwell should be made public.Judge Preska ordered that some individuals should be named because they had already given interviews to the media.Live updates: Hundreds of Epstein and Maxwell documents released Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 6:11 Who is Ghislaine Maxwell? In…

The heart is actually a fairly simple organ. It’s a pump, composed of four chambers, with a few valves, tubes and clever wiring. But when the pump no longer works as it should, things start looking grim. In people with severe heart failure, the pump is so weak that it no longer moves blood through the body effectively. Those affected are extremely short of breath, even at rest. Their organs are no longer supplied with blood sufficiently, so have a lack of oxygen and nutrients. The only way out is a new heart. However, donor hearts are in short supply. In Germany,…

Asked what makes Belgium especially suited to take over the presidency of the EU Council in January, a smiling Foreign Minster Hadja Lahbib recently said “compromis a la belge [Belgian compromise], that is our secret.” At the December presentation of Belgium’s presidency agenda, she added that “we are better in finding solutions than creating problems.” Lahbib, who is from the French-speaking region of Wallonia, only entered politics a year-and-a-half ago after a career as a television journalist. She describes Belgium as a “multilingual, multiethnic country with many ideas” that is used to discussions and seeking out compromise. Lahbib herself was born…

A 10-year-old boy was shot dead by another boy of the same age after losing a bicycle race, the victim’s mother has claimed.Keith “KJ” Frierson was found bleeding from the head and neck at about 4.30pm in a Californian suburb on Saturday, with police arresting a boy, 10, and his father. The boy suspect was being a “sore loser” after the race in Foothill Farms – about 16 miles northeast of Sacramento – and took aim at KJ, according to his mother Brittani Frierson.She had given KJ permission to ride the bike – which she says he “begged” to get…

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that Moscow would step up its strikes on military targets in Ukraine, two days after Kyiv’s deadly attack on the Russian city of Belgorod. “We’re going to intensify the strikes. No crime against civilians will rest unpunished, that’s for certain,” he said during a visit to a military hospital, referring to the 24 dead and 100 wounded in Saturday’s assault. Putin accused Ukrainian forces of targeting “right in the city center, where people were walking around, before New Year’s Eve.” He said Moscow’s forces would continue to hit what he called Ukrainian “military installations,” upping the ante…

Iran has vowed revenge after more than 100 people were killed in two explosions near the tomb of a general.At the time of the explosions a ceremony was being held in the city of Kerman to mark the 2020 assassination of Iran’s top commander Qassem Soleimani. Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi said the attack was “heinous and inhumane”, while Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has vowed to get revenge.According to state media, he said: “Cruel criminals […] must know that they will be strongly dealt with from now on and […] undoubtedly there will be a harsh response.” Image: Pic: AP Kerman’s…

The number of migrants arriving by boats in the United Kingdom from mainland Europe across the Channel dropped 36% last year, UK government data showed. In 2023, the number of people arriving in small boats fell to 29,437 from 2022’s record of 45,775. Crossings over the Channel, a major shipping lane, have been a challenge for the Conservative government in Britain. What did the UK PM say? UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has prioritized halting these arrivals, promising last year to “stop the boats.” “I am determined to end the burden of illegal migration on the British people,” Sunak said. “That…

A New York judge on Wednesday began to unseal a tranche of documents containing the identities of people linked to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier who committed suicide in 2019 as he awaited trial for sex crimes. Speculation has been in rife in recent weeks that a judge was about to release a list of clients or alleged co-conspirators of Epstein. And on Wednesday, the judge began the process of unveiling the documents. The great majority of those whose names appear in the documents aren’t accused of wrongdoing or have been mentioned previously in legal proceedings. The reveal is part of a defamation proceeding between…