Europe

A growing number of women in West Africa inject themselves with skin-whitening substances sold illegally online, at markets or in beauty salons. Apart from potential health risks, the practice also provides a gateway to a huge web of scams. AFP has investigated the risky jabs. In her quest for “fair skin”, an Ivorian YouTuber recently […]

It doesn’t take much LSD, short for lysergic acid diethylamide, to substantially alter a person’s state of consciousness. Compared with many other substances, the amounts are very small, says Dr Volker Auwärter, director of the forensic toxicology laboratory at the University of Freiburg Medical Centre in Germany: “Upwards of 50, 100 micrograms are said to […]

Moscow sees Pope Francis’ controversial comments on the war in Ukraine not as a call for Ukraine to capitulate, rather as a plea for negotiation, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, according to Russian media. President Vladimir Putin had repeatedly expressed willingness to negotiate, Peskov said. “That is the preferred path.” In an interview […]

Germany’s chemical industry is warning of the economic consequences of the repeated strikes by the train drivers’ union GDL in an ongoing dispute with state-owned railway operator Deutsche Bahn. “Such actions will put a further heavy burden on Germany’s already ailing economy. We simply can no longer afford a standstill on the railways,” Wolfgang Große […]

Renewed strikes by Lufthansa flight attendants are expected to lead to the cancellation of a total of 1,000 flights on Tuesday and Wednesday at Germany’s Frankfurt and Munich airports, the national carrier said on Monday. Amid the industrial action over wage negotiations set to begin on Tuesday morning, 600 flights are expected to be cancelled […]

“We do fasting during Ramadan, now they’re not fasting, they’re starving, they’re dying.” A Belfast-born man whose wife and other family members were killed in Gaza has said he cannot celebrate one of the holiest months in the Islamic calendar. Khalid El-Estal was reunited with his two children after they fled Gaza in November. He […]

NEW DELHI (AP) — India has successfully conducted its first test flight of a domestically developed missile that can carry multiple warheads, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Monday. The missile is equipped with multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles, Modi said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. India has been developing its medium- […]

The popularity of the famous French delicacy of cuisses de grenouille, or frogs’ legs, is threatening the existence of certain frog species, a group of more than 500 environmental campaigners has warned French President Emmanuel Macron. In an open letter written to Macron earlier this month, organized by French nonprofits Robin des Bois and Vétérinaires […]

Ramadan in the Gaza Strip this year will be anything but “normal.” Malnutrition and disease are claiming dozens of lives. The Gaza Health Ministry said on March 6, 2024, that at least 20 people had died of malnutrition. Many others, it said, were “dying silently,” unable to reach medical facilities. According to humanitarian organizations, the […]

Draft legislation paving the way for assisted suicide for terminally patients will be placed before the French National Assembly in May, President Emmanuel Macron has said in an interview published on Monday. Adults capable of taking decisions with a life-threatening illness over the medium term and whose pain cannot be alleviated will be allowed to […]

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An explosion that took place near a ship in the Red Sea on Monday is suspected to have been an attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, though the blast caused no damage, authorities said. The master of the vessel reported the explosion and said no one was hurt, the British […]