Author: DW

The trial of a US man accused of murder and rape near Germany’s famed Neuschwanstein Castle began on Monday. The 31-year-old is alleged to have pushed two fellow US tourists into a ravine close to the popular tourist attraction in the southern state of Bavaria last June. One of the women died as a result of her injuries. What we know about the attack The women, aged 21 and 22, had been hiking on June 14, 2023, during a visit to Germany following graduation from university.  Having approached and then persuaded the women to follow him down a trail to a lookout point near the Marienbrücke bridge, the…

The widow of former Russian Federal Security Service agent, Alexander Litvinenko, has said Vladimir Putin critics in Russia need support from the West. Marina Litvinenko’s husband, a prominent Putin critic, died in 2006 after being poisoned in London with Polonium 210, a rare and very potent radioactive isotope. The former FSB agent’s murder was suspected to have been personally signed off by Mr Putin, but Russia has always denied any involvement.Russia-Ukraine latest: Follow live updatesNow, following the death of another critic of the Russian leader, Alexei Navalny, Mrs Litvinenko has said she cannot be silent. Image: Alexei Navalny in 2022.…

The UN’s top court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), opens a week of hearings on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories on Monday. Judges have been asked to review “occupation, settlement and annexation…including measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and from its adoption of related discriminatory legislation and measures.” The advisory opinion will not be legally binding. The UN General Assembly requested the ICJ provide the advisory opinion before the Hamas terror attacks on Israel on October 7 and the subsequent Israeli offensive in Gaza.  What…

A two-day UN conference on Afghanistan kicked off in Qatar on Sunday. The event, chaired by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, will address approaches to increasing international engagement with the impoverished and war-torn Muslim country. The prospects of success appear limited from the start, as the country’s ruling Taliban has refused to attend after its demand of being “the sole official representative of Afghanistan” at the conference was turned down. Another demand that was not met was a guarantee that no one at the conference would criticize the militant Islamic theocrats and how they have run the country since returning to…

Ludmila misses her parents and longs to return home to Ukraine. War forced her to flee the country in 2022. Image: Ludmila Kolesnyk and her family Pregnant at the time, she waited until the birth of her youngest child to be reunited with her husband.Russia-Ukraine latest: Follow latest updates”I hope one day we can return back to Ukraine, especially me and my husband,” she told Sky News. “I miss our roots, and I miss my parents and my brother.”Ludmila is among 200,000 Ukrainians who arrived in the UK on various refugee schemes since the war broke out. They will all now…

Skip next section How Zelenskyy has been seeking help in Munich 02/18/2024February 18, 2024How Zelenskyy has been seeking help in Munich While standing ovations are commonplace for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the one he received at the Munich Security Conference was still an important boost. Ukraine’s fight against the Russian invasion tops the agenda at the annual gathering of politicians and policy experts. The topic has gained all the more urgency with recent setbacks on the battlefield and fears that allies like the United States could withdraw aid. DW takes a look at how the Ukrainian leader has been seeking to…

Thousands of people marched in Mexico on Sunday to support the country’s electoral authority. Demonstrators at the “March for Democracy” accuse President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, known as AMLO, of trying to weaken the authority ahead of an election in June. Also on Sunday, presidential front-runner Claudia Sheinbaum officially registered as a candidate for the ruling Morena party. She has promised to largely maintain Lopez Obrador’s policies. Sheinbaum leads polls by 64%. Her biggest competitor, Xochitl Galvez, has polled at around 31%. What else do we know about the protests? Organizers said 700,000 people took part in the event. The protests…

In the days since Alexei Navalny’s death, people have kept coming to lay flowers at two sites in the heart of Moscow which commemorate the victims of Soviet repression.One is the Solovetsky Stone, right beside the FSB’s headquarters on Lubyanka Square; the other is the so-called ‘Wall of Grief’, a more recent memorial site, which is as harshly emotive as the name suggests. Police tell them to move on, not to linger.Navalny’s wife shares goodbye photograph – latest updatesAfter close to 400 arrests in cities across the country, people are aware they risk being detained if they outstay their welcome…

The United States conducted five self-defense strikes in areas of Yemen controlled by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Sunday. CENTCOM said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the attacks targeted “three mobile anti-ship cruise missiles, one unmanned underwater vessel (UUV), and one unmanned surface vessel (USV).” It’s the first case of the US military reporting the Houthis using an underwater drone. The strikes occurred between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. local time (1200 and 1700 GMT) on Saturday. CENTCOM said its forces determined that the missiles and vessels “presented an imminent threat to US Navy ships and…

For months, the Israeli government has been telling Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip to flee south. According to aid organizations, there are now around 1.5 million people in Rafah, a city of usually only around 300,000 people close to the border with Egypt. Many of those now sheltering in Rafah have already been displaced several times. The living conditions in and around Rafah are catastrophic. Many of the refugees endure the cold in makeshift shelters and tents. There’s a shortage of food, drinking water and medicines. And the situation could soon get worse. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning a ground offensive…