Paris readies for floods as Seine surges higher
Riverside homes and businesses in Paris are on high alert as the swollen River Seine threatens to overflow its banks.
Some basements in the city have already sprung leaks after the river surged following heavy rainfall, reports said.
The Seine is forecast to swell even further this weekend, adding several metres of water above its normal level.
Many roads in the region are already waterlogged. Boat traffic - including the capital's famous tourist cruises - has also been interrupted.
The water level in the river is expected to peak at around 6m (19ft 6in), which is at least 4m above its normal level.
Hong Kong authorities block pro-democracy candidate from byelection
Demosisto member Agnes Chow had reportedly renounced her British citizenship and deferred her studies to stand for legislative council
Agnes Chow, a 21-year-old activist, had hoped to help her Demosisto party regain a foothold in the city’s 70-member legislative council, or Legco, after a number of pro-democracy legislators, including her party mate Nathan Law, were forced from office in 2017.
However, on Saturday authorities announced that Chow – who, like her party, supports Hong Kong’s right to “self-determination” – would not be able to run in byelections set to be held in March.
How did food from the West Midlands end up in Isis-controlled territory in Syria?
Exclusive: I’m the first western reporter to reach this second battlefront in Syria – and it’s clear that the battle against Isis on the ground is far from over
It’s below zero degrees on the vast dirt hillside above Totah but through the mist and freezing rain, I can see the Syrian general’s target, a small Isis-held village across a valley of mud. There’s a crash of artillery fire from his Shilka guns, and you wait several seconds before the shells fall behind a clump of hillside trees. The smoke billows into the cold air and it takes another few seconds before the sound of the explosions reaches back to us. Then another few seconds before Isis shoots back at the Syrians. Heavy machine gun fire that echoes and thumps up the wadis. Isis is not beaten yet. It still has food. From the UK, no less. Of which, more later.
The general, I should add, is nicknamed “Caesar”. Military headquarters in Damascus have now forbidden officers to give their real names – because, they say, several have been assassinated after appearing by name in the Syrian media.
Educating against anti-Semitism: German students visit concentration camp
Anti-Semitism has been the subject of intense debate recently in Germany. Do mandatory visits to concentration camp memorial sites help curb the problem? DW's Daniel Bellut joined students on a school trip to find out.
Ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Saturday, class 10C of Rostock's Don Bosco School is on an obligatory visit to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, just a few kilometers north of Berlin. When the students step off the bus, they seem relaxed and in good spirits. Some of them are happy to not spend the day in a classroom. The history teacher, however, seems a little tense. He obviously wants his students to acknowledge the seriousness of this place.
Tour guide Karl Kröhnke comes to greet the class. He first takes the students on a tour of the concentration camp's exterior grounds and tells them its story. Then, the students approach the gate at the entrance. The closer they get, the more somber the mood becomes — no more laughter, no more teasing. The students stand in front of the gate in silence, concentrating on what Kröhnke is saying.
Philippine strongman told Myanmar leader to ignore 'noisy' rights activists
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Friday that he told Myanmar's embattled leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, to ignore the complaints of human rights activists during a recent meeting in India.
Speaking to a business forum in New Delhi, the strongman said he pitied Suu Kyi, who has been criticized in recent months over accusations her government is deliberately killing minority Rohingya Muslims.
"She's been complaining that 'We are talking about our country, the interest of our country, our own country,' and I said, 'Don't mind the human rights (activists), they are a noisy bunch actually,' " Duterte told the forum.
THE 156 DEATH row inmates in Pennsylvania state prisons go to sleep every night the same way they wake up: in an 8-by-12 foot cell illuminated by artificial light around the clock. On weekdays, they are allowed out of their cells for a maximum of two hours to exercise in a small, enclosed space. They leave their cells thrice a week to take showers and are occasionally allowed to go to the law library. Every once in a while, a death-sentenced prisoner gets a visit with clergy or a family member – without being able to touch them. On weekends, they cannot leave their cells at all. For most of their lives, they sit alone in a suffocating cage the size of a parking space.
The American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday filed a lawsuit challenging these conditions, alleging that the Pennsylvania prison system’s mandatory solitary confinement for death-row inmates is unconstitutional, as it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
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