Author: DW

The former president of Sierra Leone, Ernest Bai Koroma, appeared in court on Wednesday on charges of high treason over his alleged involvement in what the government called an attempted coup in late November last year. Koroma, who served as president between 2007 and 2018, was questioned by police three times before he was charged. He was already being held under house arrest. What are the charges against the former president? The charges connect Koroma with armed attacks against Sierra Leone’s main military barracks and a high-security prison in its capital Freetown on November 26. The incident resulted in the…

The pilot of a helicopter that crashed and killed a British couple in Australia had cocaine in his system, a report has found.Ron Hughes, 65, and his wife Diane, 57, were on a sightseeing trip near Sea World in Queensland when their helicopter crashed midair with another on 2 January 2023. The couple from Cheshire died at the scene, as did fellow passenger Vanessa Tadros, 36, from New South Wales, and pilot Ashley Jenkinson, 40. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 0:38 Emergency crews were at the scene where one of the helicopters was upside down…

Jimmy Lai, one of Hong Kong’s most high-profile pro-democracy figures, has pleaded not guilty to charges of “sedition and collusion with foreign forces” in a landmark trial that symbolizes Beijing’s growing reach into the political and legal system of the semi-autonomous Chinese territory. The 76-year-old founder of Apple Daily, a now-shuttered tabloid critical of the Chinese Communist Party, was arrested more than three years ago as part of a widespread crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. Lai is being charged with one count of sedition and two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces under a Beijing-imposed national security…

It will take some time until the official figures are available, but last year the German economy likely shrank. Looking back, economists and industry associations have rarely been so unanimous in their views: 2023 was a year of stagnation. The signs for 2024 don’t look encouraging either. Or as Moritz Kraemer, the chief economist at Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, put it more pointedly in a recent TV interview about quarterly figures: “I don’t want to argue about whether it’s plus 0.2% or minus 0.2%. The fact is, we are stagnating.” Kraemer compared the ongoing sluggish growth of the German economy to the waves of a…

Sweden recorded some of their coldest temperatures of the winter for a second day in a row Wednesday when thermometers plummeted as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus 40 Fahrenheit). The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute reported temperatures below minus 40 C and 30 C (minus 22 F) at several locations Wednesday.  In Kvikkjokk-Årrenjarka in the northernmost Lapland mountain, the mercury dropped to minus 43.6 C (minus 46.5 F), the coldest temperature in the country in January since 1999, Sweden’s TT news agency reported.Residents of northern Sweden were particularly impacted by the cold temperatures Image: Emma-Sofia Olsson/AP/picture alliance Nikkaluokta, a small village inhabited by indigenous Sami…

The leader of Hezbollah has condemned the “dangerous” killing of Hamas’s deputy leader, and warned Israel there will be “no ceiling and no rules” if it wages war on Lebanon.Hassan Nasrallah vowed Hezbollah “will not be silent” following the killing of Saleh al Arouri in a drone strike in southern Beirut yesterday.Hezbollah has claimed Israel was behind the attack – but Tel Aviv has not yet commented on the strike.This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.Please refresh the page for the fullest version.You can receive Breaking News alerts on a smartphone or tablet…

The primary cause of death in an earthquake is not the shaking ground but crumbling roofs, crashing walls and collapsing buildings.   This has been the case historically, even in Japan, where earthquakes are common. At least 48 people have been killed in the most recent tremors in western Japan, and the death toll is expected to rise as the country scrambles to rescue many more injured and trapped under the debris of destroyed homes.  According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, the strongest of the 21 earthquakes had a magnitude of 7.6.   After the strong quake in central Japan earlier this week, smoke was seen rising from…

Bad Ischl, a town in the Austrian region of Salzkammergut near the border with Germany’s Bavaria, is a popular tourist spot. Hundreds of thousands of people come here every year to enjoy the region’s scenic mountainous views, with crystal-clear lakes and lush green meadows in the summer or snow-covered peaks in the winter. This had also attracted the Austrian nobility to the town. Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Sisi spent many summers in Bad Ischl. They also got engaged there in 1853. In 2024, Bad Ischl and 22 surrounding communities will become one of the three European Capitals of Culture of the…

Skip next section Ukraine, Russia swap prisoners 01/03/2024January 3, 2024Ukraine, Russia swap prisoners Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 200 people, including soldiers who fought at the Azovstal steelworks in the southern city of Mariupol, have been released from Russian captivity. “Today, we returned over 200 warriors and civilians from Russian captivity,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter. “Soldiers, sergeants, and officers. Armed Forces, National Guard, Navy, and Border Guards. Some of the defenders fought in Mariupol and Azovstal,” are among those released according to Zelenskyy.  Separately, Russia announced 248 of its soldiers had been released by Ukraine following “complex” negotiations that the…

Many of the world’s economic crises of recent years have been about supply chains. Pandemic lockdowns, the war in Ukraine and the overall surge in global inflation all impacted, or were impacted by, the flow of global trade and the myriad moving parts that keep it all going. As 2023 turns to 2024, a new threat to global supply chains has emerged in the Red Sea. The world’s largest container-shipping companies have been pausing or suspending their services in the area because of the increasing number of attacks on ships there by Iran-backed Houthi rebels operating from Yemen. Any hope of some…