World

  • BusinessReuters

    China's home prices extend declines despite support measures

    BEIJING (Reuters) -China's new home prices dropped for an eighth straight month in February, official data showed on Friday, suggesting the fragile property market is struggling to find a bottom despite a slew of measures to shore up the sector. New home prices fell 0.3% month-on-month, in line with January's decline, according to Reuters calculations based on National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data. The property sector has lurched from one crisis to another since 2021 after a regulatory crac

    2 min read
  • WorldNextShark

    Activists slam plan to set bullfighting as cultural heritage in South Korea

    Animal rights activists in South Korea are reportedly calling for an end to a study that investigates the eligibility of bullfighting to be designated as a cultural heritage. Bullfighting, which has a long history in South Korea, is currently legal due to an exception in the country’s Animal Protection Act that identifies it as a folk game. Korean bullfighting is believed to have started in village festivals during the Three Kingdoms Period from 57 B.C. to A.D. 668 as a way to celebrate the an

    2 min read
  • HealthThe Hill

    Teen pregnancy may be connected to premature death: Study

    A new study found that women who were pregnant as teenagers are more likely to die in early adulthood than women who did not have teen pregnancies. The study, published Wednesday in JAMA Network Open, found that in a sample of 2.2 million female teenagers aged 12 to 19 from Ontario, Canada, the risk…

    2 min read
  • WorldAssociated Press Finance

    Kenyan doctors strike nationwide. Patients left unattended or turned away at public hospitals

    Doctors at Kenya’s public hospitals began a nationwide strike Thursday, accusing the government of failing to implement a raft of promises from a collective bargaining agreement signed in 2017 after a 100-day strike that saw people dying from lack of care. The Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union said they went on strike to demand comprehensive medical cover for the doctors and because the government has yet to post 1,200 medical interns. Dr. Davji Bhimji, secretary-gener

    2 min read
  • Worlddpa international

    Macron again refuses to rule out sending Western troops to Ukraine

    French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated that he is not ruling out sending Western ground troops to Ukraine to avert a Russian victory. "All of these options are possible," Macron told television channels TF1 and France 2 on Thursday evening. "To achieve peace in Ukraine, you cannot be weak," he said. "We must look at the situation soberly and we must say with determination, will and courage that we are ready to use the means necessary to achieve our goal of ensuring that Russia does not win

    2 min read
  • WorldNextShark

    Cat that escaped after fall into vat of chemicals in Japan prompts health warning

    A cat that made a daring escape after falling into a vat of hazardous chemicals at a factory in Japan over the weekend has prompted city officials to issue a public health warning. What happened: The incident occurred at the Nomura Mekki Fukuyama factory in Fukuyama, a city in Hiroshima Prefecture, on Monday. Following the footprints it left behind, employees discovered that the feline had fallen into a vat of hexavalent chromium, a carcinogenic substance that can cause rashes and inflammation

    2 min read
  • Worlddpa international

    Netanyahu says Israel will enter Rafah despite international concern

    The Israeli army will enter the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip despite international warnings, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said. "There is international pressure to prevent us from entering Rafah and completing the work," Netanyahu told soldiers on Thursday, according to his office. He said he has been rejecting this pressure and will continue to do so. "We will enter Rafah," Netanyahu was quoted as saying. "We will complete the elimination of Hamas' battalions. We will r

    3 min read
  • WorldAFP

    Israeli soldiers photo doctored with Islamic State group flag

    An image circulating online appears to show members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) posing with the black flag of the Islamic State group (IS). But the photo is altered; the original depicts soldiers holding a green-and-yellow flag associated with their unit, which joined a June 2023 military training exercise in Morocco.

    2 min read
  • WorldReuters

    Thousands in Israel protest for hostages release, conscription of ultra-Orthodox

    Thousands in Israel took to the streets on Thursday in two separate protests, one demanding an immediate release of hostages from Gaza and another calling for drafting ultra-Orthodox Jewish men into the military. The protests were public displays of growing divisions in Israeli society and politics five months into the Gaza war.

    2 min read
  • WorldCNN

    Stunning photos show surprising wildlife in the British Isles

    An Arctic walrus, a football covered in barnacles and three frogs in a compromising position are among the winners of this year’s award.

    3 min read
  • USJalopnik

    Toronto Cops: Don't Make It Hard For Thieves To Steal Your Car

    No property is worth risking your life to keep, but the common reasoning behind just handing over your wallet and phone during a mugging has been taken to the extreme in Toronto. The police service of Canada’s largest city is encouraging residents to prevent violent encounters with criminals by making it easy to access car keys during home break-ins. Car theft home invasions in Toronto have increased by 300 percent in a single year, and the police can’t keep up.

    2 min read
  • WorldAssociated Press

    Polish Catholics get a new leader as the church struggles to reckon with sexual abuse

    The leaders of Poland’s influential Catholic Church on Thursday chose moderate Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda to be their new principal, at a time when the church is still struggling to reckon with the abuse of minors by some Polish clergy, while the number of Poles going to church has fallen sharply. At a two-day conference, bishops and archbishops elected Gdansk Archpishop Wojda, 67, to replace the conservative Archbp. More than 90% of Poles, a nation of some 38 million, are still officially membe

    2 min read
  • WorldReuters

    Antarctic scientists warn of bird flu spread as penguin cases confirmed

    Scientists in Antarctica are warning of the spread of deadly H5N1 avian flu virus after the disease was first confirmed on the frozen continent's mainland last month and has since been detected in local penguin and cormorant populations. The spread of the virus, which has decimated bird populations worldwide and hit South American wild bird and marine mammal populations hard, has raised alarm about the potential impact on Antarctica's huge penguin colonies. "We are talking about a very worryin

    1 min read
  • WorldReuters

    G7 industry ministers agree to cooperate on AI, supply chains, presidency says

    VERONA, Italy (Reuters) -Industry ministers from the Group of Seven major democracies agreed on Thursday to align rules on the development of artificial intelligence and to secure supply chains in key sectors such as semiconductors, the Italian presidency said. Italy wants to use its presidency of the G7 this year to focus on the impact of AI on jobs and inequality, while also laying down safeguards for the development of the technology. "There was full convergence of countries in aligning the

    1 min read
  • WorldBBC

    Zimbabwe police charge self-proclaimed prophet Ishmael and rescue 251 children

    Officers said that Ishmael Chokurongerwa led an Apostolic sect with more than 1,000 members in Harare.

    2 min read
  • WorldUnited Press International

    World's southernmost post office seeks workers to sort mail, count penguins

    The world's southernmost post office is seeking three employees to spend four months sorting mail and counting penguins at Antarctica's "penguin post office."

    1 min read
  • WorldAssociated Press

    A plane carrying the UK defense minister had its GPS jammed as it flew near Russian territory

    A plane carrying British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps had its satellite signal jammed as it flew near Russian territory, the government said Thursday. The government said the Royal Air Force jet carrying Shapps, officials and journalists “temporarily experienced GPS jamming when they flew close to Kaliningrad” on a flight from Poland to the U.K. The Times of London, whose reporter was onboard, said that for about 30 minutes mobile phones couldn’t connect to the internet and the aircraft was

    1 min read
  • WorldBBC

    South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Ivory Coast hit by major internet outages

    Outages have been reported in South Africa, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Ghana and Burkina Faso.

    1 min read
  • USdpa international

    Ex-Stasi officer denies murder charge for 1974 Berlin Wall killing

    A former officer in communist East Germany's notorious Ministry of State Security, or Stasi, went on trial for murder on Thursday over the 1974 fatal shooting of a Polish man at Berlin's Friedrichstrasse train station. The man from the eastern city of Leipzig, a former Stasi lieutenant who is now 80 years old, stands accused by prosecutors of having killed 38-year-old Czesław Kukuczka "with a targeted shot to the back from a hiding place" as he crossed the border to West Berlin on March 29, 1974

    4 min read
  • WorldAssociated Press

    Internet outage hits several African countries as undersea cables fail

    A dozen countries across Africa suffered a major internet outage on Thursday as multiple undersea telecommunication cables reported failures, network operators and internet watch groups said. The MTN Group, one of Africa’s largest network providers, said the ongoing disruptions were a result of failures in multiple major undersea cables. “Our operations are actively working to reroute traffic through alternative network paths,” the South African company said in a statement.

    2 min read
  • WorldAssociated Press

    Russia should return Romania's gold sent to Moscow during World War I, European Parliament says

    Lawmakers in the European Parliament on Thursday adopted a non-binding resolution saying Russia should return gold and other valuable heritage items to Romania that were sent to Moscow during World War I for safekeeping, a Romanian lawmaker said. During World War I, the kingdom of Romania sent by railroad 91.5 metric tons of gold coins and ingots to Moscow, along with jewels and cultural treasures such as works of art. In the war, Romania had sided with Russia, Britain and France, against Germ

    1 min read
  • WorldAssociated Press

    Macron again declines to rule out Western troops in Ukraine, but says they're not needed now

    French President Emmanuel Macron warned Western powers against showing any signs of weakness to Russia as he reiterated his position Thursday that sending Western troops into Ukraine shouldn't be ruled out, though he said today’s situation doesn’t require it. In an interview on French national television TF1 and France 2, Macron was asked about the prospect of sending Western troops to Ukraine, which he publicly raised last month in comments that prompted pushback from other European leaders wh

    3 min read
  • WorldBBC

    Bola Tinubu: Nigeria won't pay a ransom to Kaduna kidnappers

    A local chief tells the BBC some of the 280 abducted schoolchildren are in a "critical condition".

    2 min read
  • WorldThe Guardian

    India blocks access to documentary about death of Sikh activist in Canada

    CBC aired an investigation into the death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, whose killing the Canadian government suspects India was behind

    3 min read
  • Worlddpa international

    Scholz assures Zelensky of continued military support

    German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has promised Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky continued support "in the military sphere." Scholz discussed the political, military and humanitarian situation in Ukraine in a telephone conversation with Zelensky on Thursday, according to government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit. He assured him that Germany would continue its support "in close coordination with European and international partners." On Thursday, the German lower house of parliament, the Bundestag

    1 min read
  • WorldAssociated Press

    Nigerian leader rules out ransoms for abducted students as observers urge dialogue

    Nigeria’s leader has ruled out the payment of ransoms for nearly 300 schoolchildren abducted from their school in the conflict-hit north a week ago, raising questions from analysts on Thursday about how best to rescue the children without hurting them. Meanwhile, at least two people with extensive knowledge of the security crisis in Nigeria's northwest told The Associated Press the abductors of the schoolchildren in the state of Kaduna are known and are hiding in the vast ungoverned and unoccup

    3 min read
  • USAssociated Press

    A young Belarusian woman who died after attack in Warsaw is laid to rest

    A young Belarusian woman who died after being attacked and raped in central Warsaw was laid to rest Thursday, with both loved ones and strangers turning out to mourn the loss of a young woman who had sought a better future in Poland. Lizaveta Hertsen, 25, was remembered as a woman who had never been on an airplane until she left Belarus a few years ago to begin a new life in Poland, from where she traveled across Europe and found a supportive partner. At the graveside service, Hertsen's brothe

    3 min read
  • WorldDefense News

    Ukrainian officials see ground robots as ‘game changer’ in war

    Defense-tech analysts expect unmanned ground platforms to become what aerial drones have come to be on the battlefields of Ukraine.

    2 min read
  • WorldAssociated Press

    Nearly 500 victims of church sex abuse in France have received financial compensation

    Hundreds of victims of child sexual abuse by priests or church representatives have received financial compensation so far from France’s Catholic Church under a sweeping reparations program, an independent body in charge of the process said Thursday. An annual report by the Independent National Authority for Recognition and Reparation said 1,351 victims came forward to claim compensation and seek psychological support in an effort to recover from childhood trauma.

    2 min read
  • WorldAssociated Press

    Republic of Congo reports its first mpox virus cases, in several regions

    The Republic of Congo has recorded its first cases of mpox in several regions, the health ministry said, an indication of how the disease may be spreading across Africa since sexual transmission was first confirmed on the continent last year. The World Health Organization said in November it had confirmed sexual transmission of mpox in neighboring Congo for the first time.

    2 min read
  • WorldAFP

    Italy fines TikTok 10 mn euros for failing to protect minors

    Italy's competition authority on Thursday fined TikTok 10 million euros (nearly $11 million), saying the hugely popular video app had failed to sufficiently protect minors.The short-video app has soared in popularity worldwide, but its ownership by Chinese tech giant ByteDance -- and alleged subservience to Beijing's ruling Communist Party -- has fuelled concern in Western capitals.

    2 min read
  • Worlddpa international

    German Chancellor Scholz to visit Israel and Jordan

    German government sources confirmed to dpa on Thursday that Chancellor Olaf Scholz will visit Israel and Jordan from this weekend. It will be his second visit to Israel since the start of the Gaza war on October 7. Israeli media reports said earlier that Scholz would visit Israel on Sunday. The war was triggered by the brutal terrorist attack on Israel by the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas on October 7, when the attackers murdered more than 1,200 people in the Israeli border area and ki

    1 min read
  • WorldReuters

    West, Central Africa see major internet outage with undersea cables down

    JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -A major internet outage affected West and Central Africa on Thursday, the internet observatory Netblocks said, as operators of multiple subsea cables reported failures. African subsea cable operator SEACOM confirmed that services on its West African Cable System were down and that customers who relied on that cable were redirected to the Google Equiano cable, which SEACOM uses. Ivory Coast was experiencing a severe outage, while Liberia, Benin, Ghana and Burkina Faso w

    1 min read
  • WorldSourcing Journal

    Artistic Milliners Backs Textile Recycling Project in Pakistan

    The mill is one of several partners joining Reverse Resources and the NTU in their quest to transform textile-to-textile recycling in Pakistan.

    2 min read
  • USdpa international

    Charges brought against Hamburg airport hostage-taker

    Some four months after the 18-hour hostage-taking at Germany's Hamburg Airport, the public prosecutor's office has brought charges against the alleged perpetrator. The 35-year-old Turkish man is to answer for hostage-taking, kidnapping of minors, intentional bodily harm and weapons offences, the prosecution announced on Thursday. The man is accused of abducting his 4-year-old daughter from her mother's flat in Stade in the state of Lower Saxony on the evening of November 4 and driving to Hamburg

    1 min read
  • CelebrityThe Hill

    Israeli hostage tells of capture, captivity, dramatic release with daughter

    An American-Israeli mother detailed her harrowing experience of how she and her daughter were captured by Hamas militants and held as hostages for two weeks before being released last year. Judith Raanan and her now 18-year-old daughter, Natalie, were the first hostages to be released by Hamas after the militant group stormed southern Israel on Oct. 7,…

    2 min read
  • WorldReuters

    Chemicals in plastics far more numerous than previous estimates, report says

    LONDON (Reuters) -At least 3,000 more chemicals are in plastics — from food packaging to toys to medical devices — than previously estimated by environmental agencies, a report published on Thursday found, raising questions over pollution and consumer safety. While the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) had previously identified around 13,000 plastic chemicals, the report by a team of European scientists found more than 16,000 chemicals in plastics — a quarter of which are thought to b

    2 min read
  • WorldNBC News

    Journaling the war: How one Gaza student coped with trauma

    Gaza student Salma Shurrab kept a diary amid the 60 days of Israel-Hamas war she witnessed, before fleeing to neighboring Egypt.

    6 min read
  • Worlddpa international

    Putin calls on Russians to vote in flawed presidential elections

    Russian President Vladimir Putin called on the public to vote in the elections that begin on Friday and are overshadowed by allegations of fraud and manipulation. "Only you, the citizens of Russia, determine the fate of the fatherland," Putin said in a speech broadcast on state television at night with excerpts quoted by Russian media on Thursday morning. Russians are due to head to the polls for a presidential election that concludes on Sunday, with Putin seeking a further six-year term. His re

    2 min read
  • OpinionUnited Press International

    6 more years of Vladimir Putin will bring increasingly weak, dysfunctional Russia

    There is very little drama in Russia's presidential election this weekend. We all know Vladimir Putin will win. The only real question is whether he will receive more than 75% of the vote.

    5 min read
  • WorldBBC

    Jacob Zuma's MK - the political wildcard in South Africa's election

    The disgraced ex-president has ditched the ANC, spelling danger for the party that ended apartheid.

    6 min read
  • USCNN

    How this beautiful Spanish tourist city became the green capital of Europe

    It’s one of Spain’s sunniest cities, thanks to its Med location. Now, Valencia can also claim to be the most sustainable after winning the Green Capital of Europe title.

    9 min read
  • Worlddpa international

    German parliament rejects motion for Taurus missiles for Ukraine

    The German conservative opposition has once again failed with a parliamentary motion calling on Berlin to supply German Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine after a majority of lawmaker voted against it on Thursday. A total of 687 lawmakers took part in the vote, with 494 voting against, 188 in favour and five abstentions. The conservative CDU/CSU parliamentary group has 197 lawmakers. The Taurus system is characterized by its long range of 500 kilometres and high precision. The weapon makes it pos

    1 min read
  • WorldAssociated Press

    Former officer with East Germany's secret police goes on trial for a border killing in 1974

    An 80-year-old former officer with communist East Germany's secret police, the Stasi, went on trial Thursday over the killing of a Polish man at a border crossing in divided Berlin 50 years ago. The defendant, whose name has not been released in keeping with German privacy rules, is charged with murder before the state court in Berlin. There are no formal pleas in the German legal system.

    2 min read
  • WorldThe Recount

    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D): "The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after October 7."

    However, I also believe Prime Minister Netanyahu has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take the precedence over the best interests of Israel. He has put himself in coalition with far-right extremists like Ministers Smotrik and Ben Gavir, and as a result, he has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows. Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah. Prime Minister Netanyahu has also weakened Israel's pol

    1 min read
  • BusinessTechCrunch

    AliExpress is first online marketplace to face DSA investigation by EU

    The European Union has opened its third formal investigation of a very large platform under the Digital Services Act (DSA), with China's AliExpress earning itself the dubious honor of being the first online marketplace to face formal probe by the Commission. The DSA is the bloc's rebooted e-commerce rules which demand risk assessments and mitigations by larger platforms which face tough penalties (of up to 6% of global annual turnover) for violations.

    3 min read
  • WorldAssociated Press

    A decade later, Liberians remember those who died in Ebola outbreak

    Liberians gathered this week to mark a decade since the country was hit by a devastating Ebola outbreak that killed more than 10,000 people in West Africa, adding to the region’s economic and political troubles. The second Wednesday of March in Liberia, National Decoration Day, is always one of remembrance and people gathered this year at a memorial site where many victims of the virus were buried outside the capital, Monrovia, to pay their respects to family and friends. The Ebola outbreak ki

    2 min read
  • BusinessCoinMarketCap

    South Africa To License 60 Crypto Firms

    In a groundbreaking decision, South Africa gears up to license approximately 60 cryptocurrency companies, paving the way for a regulated digital asset market.

    1 min read
  • USdpa international

    Ukrainian refugees help boost pupil numbers at German schools by 1%

    The number of pupils at general and vocational schools in Germany has risen for the second year in a row, according to statistics released on Thursday, partly due to the influx of Ukrainians fleeing Russia's war. Around 11.2 million pupils will attend these schools in the 2023/2024 school year, according to preliminary data, Germany's Federal Statistical Office Destatis said. That is 107,000 pupils more than in the 2022/2023 school year, a rise of 1%. The increase in the current school year is m

    2 min read
  • Worlddpa international

    Dozens of fighters killed in Gaza in past day, says Israel

    The Israeli army says it killed dozens of fighters in Gaza in the past day, amid shelling from the Gaza Strip on Israeli border towns reported in a statement on Thursday. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said a mortar shell was fired from the central section of the strip towards the Nahal Oz kibbutz near the border the previous day, though it fell inside the Gaza Strip. Rocket alarms sounded in several border towns on Wednesday, according to the IDF. "IDF aircraft struck and eliminated the terror

    2 min read