Author: DW

North Korea has ushered in the new year with threats of violence and three days of live-fire artillery exercises near two South Korean islands. The South Korean military reported that more than 200 artillery rounds were fired into the sea and that civilians from Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong islands were ordered to evacuate and seek shelter. It was among the fiercest North Korean barrages in the region since November 2010. The South Korean military responded with artillery rounds into the sea over the weekend. While there have been no reports of additional firing on Monday, analysts have said that 2024 is likely…

Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina secured a fourth consecutive term in power on Monday with her Awami League party taking three-quarters of seats in parliament following a controversial election.  The vote was boycotted by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), who described it as “illegitimate.” The BNP had demanded a neutral caretaker government to oversee the polls, saying that Hasina’s government could not hold free and fair polls. But the ruling party rejected the calls. The election commission on Monday said the Awami League won 222 out of 298 parliamentary seats in Sunday’s polls. Authorities suspended voting in two constituencies,…

A senior Hezbollah commander has been killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon, according to a Lebanese security official.Sky News has been unable to independently verify the claims, and Israel is yet to respond to them. Security sources told the Reuters news agency the victim was the deputy head of a unit within Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force.They identified him as Wissam al Tawil and said he was killed along with another fighter.Sources told the agency the fatalities came when a car was hit in a strike on the Lebanese village of Majdal Selm. Middle East correspondent for Sky News,…

Nature is noisy. If you sit on a rock in a forest, on a mountain or in a field, you will commonly hear something chirrup or snuffle about. Even in the concrete city of Berlin, I’m often yelled at by flocks of thuggish sparrows living in bushes or lulled to sleep by nightingales that visit the German capital annually in May. We know that cows moo with regional accents, monkeys make sounds that are specific to the threats they face, mice sing and crickets scream for sex. And now new researchsuggests that “clicks” heard in sperm whale vocalizations are like vowels in human speech. It appears that sperm whales communicate…

Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” dominated the Golden Globes on Sunday, taking five prizes, including best drama, best director for Nolan, best score, as well as acting wins for Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. Emma Thomas, the film’s producer and Nolan’s wife, noted that the three-hour epic about “one of the darkest developments in our history” is “unlike anything anyone else is doing.”  The story of the ‘father of the atomic bomb’ Julius Robert Oppenheimer was born in New York City on April 22, 1904. He was a US physicist and a key figure in the Manhattan Project, the top-secret program that was responsible for…

Ukrainian authorities have reported initial casualties sustained during a large-scale Russian missile attack on Monday morning. A woman was killed just outside the southern city of Kryvyi Rih, hometown of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and at least 24 people, including five children, were injured in the town of Novomoskovsk, just north of the city of Dnipro, according to Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne. “The enemy is viciously attacking peaceful cities,” said Oleksandr Vilkul, mayor of Kryvyi Rih, where more than 20 houses and a shopping center were damaged. At least four people were injured in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv , when industrial facilities were hit by…

Germans will start 2024 with a few extra billion stuffed between sofa cushions. No, not euros, but old deutsche marks. People in Germany are famous for their attachment to cash, but more than two decades after the introduction of the euro, millions of deutsche mark (DM) coins and colorful bills are in sock drawers or have been lost down sewer drains. While some of this old money lies with nostalgic Germans or collectors, another chunk can be chalked up as souvenirs taken home by tourists over the years. Experts say countries that once used it as a reserve currency may still hold some. No…

Proceedings against Gambia’s former Interior Minister Ousman Sonko for crimes against humanity began Monday in a Swiss federal court. Sonko is accused of “having supported, participated in and failed to prevent systematic and generalized attacks as part of the repression carried out by the Gambian security forces against all opponents of the regime.” The crimes are alleged to have taken place over the course of 16 years, and include nine counts of crimes against humanity under Yahya Jammeh’s dictatorship. Who is Ousman Sonko? Sonko was the West African nation’s interior minister between 2006 and 2016, and has been held in…

Russia has launched a large-scale missile attack across Ukraine, injuring several people and hitting residential and industrial buildings, Ukrainian officials have said.All of Ukraine was under air raid alerts from around 6am local time (4am UK time) with Ukraine’s Air Force saying the country was under threat from several waves of cruise missiles and in some regions ballistic missiles. “The enemy is viciously attacking peaceful cities,” Oleksandr Vilkul, mayor of the southern Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, said on the Telegram messaging app.Mr Vilkul said full information about the extent of potential damages will be disclosed after the Russian attack…

While some people have already taken down their Christmas trees and are busy implementing their New Year’s resolutions, Christmas is just getting underway for others across Europe.In a few European countries, January also rings in a collection of chilly, adventurous and religious traditions. Click through the gallery to learn more. Source link