Author: DW

A referendum on unifying the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland will happen within the next six years, according to the president of Sinn Fein.Mary Lou McDonald was speaking to Sky News following the restoration of the Northern Ireland executive, where her party – a nationalist group – are now the largest caucus in Belfast for the first time since the Good Friday Agreement came into effect.Politics latest:Labour expected to scale back £28bn green plan todayShe said: “What I firmly believe is – in this decade – we will have those referendums, and it’s my job and the job of…

A group of the Middle East’s football associations has asked world football chiefs to ban Israel over the war on Hamas in Gaza, according to a letter seen by Sky News.But the Israeli Football Association has urged FIFA to keep politics out of sport and allow them to continue trying to qualify for the men’s European Championship this summer. The bid to banish Israel’s footballers is led by Prince Ali bin Al Hussein, half-brother of Jordan’s King Abdullah II, in his role as president of the West Asian Football Federation.That 12-nation grouping also includes the FAs of Palestine, Saudi Arabia,…

A plot to kidnap a child was being hatched in a Portuguese holiday resort a week before Madeleine McCann vanished there, Sky News has been told.Expat Ken Ralphs said that Christian B, the German drifter suspected of abducting Madeleine, tried to recruit a mutual friend to help find a youngster to sell to a childless couple. Mr Ralphs, a former UK political campaigner, said Christian B made the offer to the man who was penniless and living in a tent in a remote part of the Algarve coast.Mr Ralphs, 59, said: “We were sitting around the fire one night after…

Last month was the warmest January ever recorded globally, scientists say.It follows the trend of 2023 – the warmest year since records began. It also means the global mean temperature for the past twelve months is 1.52C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average.More than 190 countries committed under the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global warming to “well below” a 2C rise compared to pre-industrial levels by the end of the century.The countries also agreed to “pursue efforts” to keep warming within the safer limit of 1.5C, after which point climate impacts become even harder to adapt to. Samantha Burgess, deputy…

Ecuador’s high court on Wednesday decriminalized euthanasia following a landmark case brought by a terminally ill patient. In its ruling the court said it “considers that the issue raised relates to the rights to alife with dignity and the free development of personality. Therefore, after carrying out an examination, it concludes that life admits exceptions to its inviolability when itseeks to protect other rights.” The penalty for homicide “cannot be applied to a doctor who performs an active euthanasia procedure in order to preserve the rights to a dignified life,” the court added. The ruling directed lawmakers and health authorities to…

The ballots have opened in Pakistan in a general election which has already been marred by violence and allegations of fraud.On the eve of Thursday’s election, bombs struck two political offices in southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 30 people. Pakistan’s government also decided to suspend mobile phone service across the country in what it described as a “security measure”, media in the country reported.Tensions have been high in the country ahead of the vote.Former cricketer Imran Khan, leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, is still the most popular politician in the country, according to polls. However, last week he…

A German Cup quarterfinal between third division side Saarbrücken and Bundesliga team Borussia Mönchengladbach was abandoned shortly before kick-off on Wednesday because of a waterlogged pitch. Stadium staff attempted to dry the heavily drenched pitch with leaf blowers but with no end to the persistent downpour in sight, the match was eventually canceled. The huge puddles formed across the pitch were deemed to make playing the match too dangerous for the players, despite 16,000 spectators having braved the weather at the sold-out match. “It was a brutally difficult decision but the injury risk was too high,” referee Florian Badstübner told reporters. “We tried everything…

Five people were killed and 27 miners are missing after a landslide struck a mining village in southern Philippines, authorities said on Wednesday. Disaster officials also added that 31 people were injured, 11 severely, as the mudslide engulfed houses and two buses in Masara village. The disaster struck the gold mining village in Davao de Oro province following heavy rains that have swamped the region in recent weeks. “There was no sign that a landslide would occur because the rains stopped on Thursday and by Friday it was already sunny and hot,” provincial disaster official Edward Macapili said. What are rescue…

Two people have been killed in Kyiv after Russia launched a ferocious salvo of missiles and drones in attacks across Ukraine.Ukraine’s army chief, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, said Russian forces fired 64 missiles and drones in several waves of attack on Wednesday morning.A total of 29 missiles and 15 drones were shot down by Ukraine’s air defences, Mr Zaluzhnyi added.Follow war latest:’Russian paying Iran billions’, documents suggestIn Kyiv, smoke and flames were seen coming from a tower block, as fire crews worked to tackle the fire.”I was scared when air alerts were announced and we rushed here,” Tetyana, 49, said as she…

Two blasts near electoral candidates’ offices in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan killed 26 people and wounded dozens more, local officials said on Wednesday. The explosions come a day ahead of the country’s general election. What we know about the blasts in Balochistan In the first incident, at least 14 people were killed at the office of an independent candidate in Pishin district. A second explosion left 12 people dead in Qilla Saifullah, a town near the Afghan border. Later on Wednesday, an offshoot of the so-called “Islamic State” group claimed responsibility for the Qilla Saifullah blast online. The group said…