Author: DW

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for an attack that killed one person during Sunday Mass at a Roman Catholic church in Istanbul.The extremist group said in a statement on Sunday night that it “attacked a gathering of Christian unbelievers during their polytheistic ceremony” inside the Santa Maria Church in the Buyukdere neighbourhood of Turkey’s largest city. Image: The Italian Santa Maria Catholic Church in Istanbul. Pic: Reuters Two men, one from Russia and one from Tajikistan who are believed to be members of Islamic State, have been arrested, Turkey’s interior minister Ali Yerlikaya said last night.The statement claiming…

Amazon has called off its proposed acquisition of iRobot, the manufacturer of the automatic Roomba vacuum cleaner, blaming “undue and disproportionate regulatory hurdles” imposed by the European Union (EU). “We’re disappointed that Amazon’s acquisition of iRobot could not proceed,” said Amazon General Counsel David Zapolsky. “We’re believers in the future of consumer robotics in the home and have always been fans of iRobot’s products.” Why did the deal fall through? The deal has faced antitrust scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic ever since the ecommerce giant announced that in 2022 that it was about to buy Massachusetts-based iRobot for…

Troubled property developer China Evergrande said Monday it would continue to operate despite a court in Hong Kong  ordering the firm to be liquidated as part of legal action by some of its foreign creditors. The legal proceedings were brought by Samoa-registered Top Shine, an investor in one of Evergrande’s subsidiaries, among others. High Court judge Linda Chan cited the “obvious lack of progress” in the company presenting a “viable restructuring proposal,” adding that the winding up order was “appropriate.” A crackdown three years ago by China on two decades of real estate speculation caused a deepening property crisis and left Evergrande owing $300…

Ukraine would win the war faster if it had permission to fire British and other Western weapons against targets deep inside Russia, the head of the Ukrainian navy has signalled.Vice Admiral Oleksiy Neizhpapa told Sky News the course of the entire conflict would have been very different had Ukrainian forces been allowed to use western munitions without restrictions from the very beginning. The UK, US and other allies only agreed to start giving Ukraine longer-range missiles last year. Ukrainian forces have used them to hit targets in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine but not deep inside Russia amid concerns about escalation.Follow…

Talat Xhaferi has become the first ethnic Albanian elected to lead the government of North Macedonia, in what local analysts and politicians have described as an “historic moment” for the Balkan country. A tiny majority of 65 lawmakers in the country’s 120-seat parliament in Skopje elected Xhaferi, a member of the Democratic Union for Integration — the largest ethnic Albanian party in the country — as leader of the caretaker government until the parliamentary election, which is scheduled to take place on May 8. The “top priority of the government,” Xhaferi told lawmakers after the vote on Sunday, will be “the preparation…

The deaths of three American troops in a drone strike marks a major escalation in what the US says is an ongoing campaign against it by militia groups who are backed by Iran.Joe Biden vowed that Washington “shall respond” to the attack on US forces in northeast Jordan near the Syrian border on Saturday, which also left dozens of troops injured. The president blamed Iranian-backed militias for the first US fatalities after months of strikes by such groups against American forces across the Middle East.Iran said “resistance groups” do not take orders from the Islamic Republic.Nevertheless, it is known that…

Pope Francis told an Italian daily that he understands where African bishops are coming from in their opposition to a new Vatican policy that authorizes same-sex blessings. “Those who protest vehemently belong to small ideological groups,” Francis told Italian newspaper La Stampa in an interview published Monday, adding: “A special case are Africans: for them, homosexuality is something ‘bad’ from a cultural point of view, they don’t tolerate it.” “But in general, I trust that gradually everyone will be reassured by the spirit of the ‘Fiducia Supplicans’ declaration by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith: it aims to include, not divide,” he said referring to the new…

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been registered as a candidate for the March 15-17 presidential election, the country’s Central Election Commission announced on Monday. According to commission secretary Natalia Budarina, 315,000 signatures were submitted in support of Putin, and 60,000 of them were randomly selected for verification. “As a result of the verification, 91 out of 60,000 signatures were recognized as invalid. Thus, 91 invalid signatures make up 0.15% of the number of verified signatures,” she said. Who else is running for president? Putin has become the fourth registered candidate in the upcoming presidential elections in Russia. Earlier, the Central Election Commission…

Just days before Christmas, 78-year-old Eliza Supuni was bludgeoned to death near the town of Mulanje in the Southern Region of Malawi. Her motionless, bloodied body was rushed to a local health center just as she took her final breath. Supuni was pronounced dead on arrival. The perpetrators of the brutal killing were her three grandsons, who reportedly attacked the elderly woman with metal bars and stones, according to local eyewitnesses. “A post-mortem established the cause of death as internal bleeding as a result of fractured ribs on her right side of the body, secondary to assault,” Innocent Moses, the…

A wildlife charity which has Prince Harry as a board member is investigating allegations of human rights abuses by its guards in the Republic of the Congo.African Parks said it was “encouraging anyone with knowledge” of any abuse to come forward and said the investigation was its “highest priority”.In addition to sitting on the board, the Duke of Sussex is also a former president of the non-profit organisation, which manages 22 national parks and protected areas across 12 countries.Guards managed and paid by the charity had been engaged in the beating, rape and torture of indigenous people in the rainforests…