Author: DW

A French appeals court on Wednesday reduced the jail term for former President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was convicted of illegal campaign funding while running for reelection in 2012. In 2021, a lower court had sentenced Sarkozy to one year in prison in the case, but but the sentence was suspended while he appealed. Now, the Paris appeals court said the ex-president should serve only six months in jail, with another six months suspended. The sentence can be served through alternative means, such as wearing an electronic bracelet, without going to jail. Sarkozy’s lawyer Vincent Desry immediately said the ex-president would challenge the appeal verdict at…

Myanmar’s military government has introduced mandatory military service for all young men and women as it struggles to contain an anti-junta insurgency in various parts of the country.  All men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 will have to serve for up to two years, while specialists such as doctors aged up to 45 can be called on for up to three years, state media reported over the weekend. On Tuesday, the military said the compulsory service would begin in April. The army’s information office said in a statement that 5,000 people each month would be…

A top UN official has warned the deteriorating situation in Gaza is the worst humanitarian crisis he has ever seen in his 50-year career.Speaking to Sky News’ Yalda Hakim, Martin Griffiths said it was because “people can’t escape. They’re blocked in, they’re not able to run out of Gaza”. “I think this is the worst [crisis] in my 50 years of experience.”The UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs said it was worse than “awful scenes” he witnessed during the civil war in Syria a few years ago and worse than the “horrors” that were the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in the…

German auto supplier Continental announced plans on Wednesday to cut 7,150 jobs worldwide by 2025. The automotive sector has been forced to retool as consumer demand shifts to electric vehicles. Continental, which produces tires and other car parts, said 1,750 jobs would be slashed from research and development, while the other 5,400 job cuts were previously announced as part of a cost-cutting program. The company’s automotive chief, Philipp von Hirschheydt, said the move would allow the company to “focus our resources even more on future technologies for software-defined vehicles.” “We are aware of the impact on our employees and will…

What is known about the wanted list? It is an official database that can be found on the Russian Interior Ministry website. It contains the names of individuals suspected of having evaded Russian justice. The Interior Ministry does not say according to which criteria the database is organized. There are currently 96,752 names on the list. Which non-Russian nationals are named? The database lists the names of hundreds of foreigners, including Ukrainian soldiers and fighters serving in Ukraine’s International Legion. It also lists 160 politicians, lawmakers and civil servants from Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Ukraine. Among the most high-ranking figures…

The exchange of fire over Israel’s northern border with Lebanon is some of the most serious yet – but the situation remains fundamentally the same. Hezbollah’s Iranian patrons do not want the militia to escalate the conflict to an all-out war. And its commanders want to avoid one too. Israel may be weighing a bigger war but has not decided to do so yet.Ever since the Hamas atrocities of 7 October, Hezbollah and Israel have been duelling over the border.Follow live: Israel launches wave of attacks on Lebanon Hezbollah feels it must show solidarity with the Palestinians of Gaza but not…

Even at this relatively early stage, the Women’s Bundesliga once again looks a two-horse race, with Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg reaffirming themselves as a notch above the rest. But the reportedly imminent record-breaking transfer of one of Germany’s most sought-after players suggests a significant power shift towards champions Bayern. Lena Oberdorf, the smart, tough-tackling, driving heart of Wolfsburg and Germany’s midfield for the last few years is reportedly set to move to Munich for a German record fee of €400,000 (€429,000) at the end of this season. With her contract running out at the end of next season, this was Wolfsburg’s…

For many Egyptians, the timing is just too suspicious. Last week, the Israeli military said it would launch an assault on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, near the Egyptian border, where more than 1 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering. There are concerns that, as more and more people are pushed up against the border, plans formulated by Israeli think tanks and leaked to media earlier in the current conflict are closer to becoming a reality. The Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy, released a paper saying the conflict  was  a “unique and rare opportunity to evacuate the whole Gaza…

Senegal had planned presidential elections to take place on February 25. However, the parliament has since voted to push back the vote until December 15. Senegalese President Macky Sall announced the delay on February 3, just one day before the election campaign was scheduled to get underway across the West African nation. Sall said he postponed the vote because of a dispute between parliament and the Constitutional Court over the rejection of some candidates.The UN called for prompt and independent investigations into the killings of protestersImage: GUY PETERSON/AFP Deaths: ‘It’s sickening’ Protesters took to the streets in response to Sall’s decision to delay the…

Chaos broke out on a flight after maggots began raining on to plane passengers from an overhead compartment.The “absolutely gross” situation saw the Delta flight forced to make a U-turn about an hour into the nine-hour trip from Amsterdam to Detroit. Passengers reported the back of the plane was left teeming with the larvae that it later emerged were emanating from a rotten fish.”My family and I were in the row directly in front of the maggots,” said one passenger, who goes by Nisha_16 on the forum Reddit. Image: The flight returned to Amsterdam after only around an hour into…