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DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH

Brazilʼs former President Temer arrested on corruption charges Prosecutors say Brazilʼs exPresidentMichel Temer was arrested on corruption charges on Thursday as part of the countryʼs sprawling Operation Lava Jato (Car Wash) investigation. Temer is thethird consecutive former president of Brazil to face criminal charges, following Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ("Lula") and his protegee Dilma Rousseff. The details so far: Temer is being investigated in 10 different inquiries.His former minister for mining and energy, Moreira Franco, was also arrested. Temerʼs chief of staff, Eliseu Padilha, is also said to be a person of interest. Operation Car Wash has been sweeping in scope. The corruption investigation, which began in May 2014, has ensnared many Brazilian politicians as well as a number of big companies, like construction giant Odebrecht and in particular Brazilʼs partially stateowned oil company Petrobras.

Kazakhstan will continue to ʼtiptoeʼ around China Nazarbayev, 78, ruled Kazakhstan since before it gained independence with the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. He steered the country through a major transformation, developing huge energy reserves and boosting its international influence, but was accused of cracking down on dissent and tolerating little opposition. Despite stepping down as president, Nazarbayev will continue to enjoy significant powers thanks to his constitutional status as "Leader of the Nation," his lifetime position as chief of the security council and his position as head of the ruling Nur Otan party. He passed the presidency to the speaker of the Senate, loyalist Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, 65, a former prime minister and career diplomat, who was sworn in on Wednesday.

67/2019 • 22 MARCH, 2019

Trump: Time for US to ʼfully recognizeʼ Golan Heights as Israeli The call comes as Secretary of State Pompeo meets with Israeli PM Netanyahu in Jerusalem

US President Donald Trump has sent a foreign policy tweet calling for recognition of the contested area as belonging to Israel.

Levi Strauss returns to stock market The company makes a comeback on the public markets with a valuation of $6.5 billion. DW traces the history of the maker of the famous blue jeans and its German connection.

German roots The inventor of the quintessential American garment was German-born Levi Strauss, who moved to New York following the death of his father. Strauss later traveled to San Francisco on the US West Coast to capitalize on the gold rush.

Here he made a fortune not by panning gold, but by inventing the blue jeans. Leviʼs museum Levi Strauss

was born in Buttenheim in the southern German state of Bavaria. His birth house, which is more than 300 years old, has been converted into a museum dedicated to the timeless piece of fashion. Birth of blue jeans It was one of Levi Straussʼ customers, tailor Jacob Davis, who actually first put metal rivets in menʼs work pants to increase their durability. Davis shared his idea with Strauss and the two together obtained a US patent on the riveted pants in 1873. The blue denim jeans — then called waist overalls — became an instant hit among the gold miners.

Where persecuted writers find refuge Rabab Haidar is one of the countless people looking for a secure life in Germany. A writer, translator and journalist, she fled Damascus in October 2018. The Syrian civil war, which has been going on for eight years, expelled her from her homeland. Haidar found refuge in Langenbroich in the region of North Rhine-Westphalia. For the past three decades, authors who can not freely write in their homelands have

been given the opportunity to stay in the former home of German writer Heinrich Böll. As one of these authors, Haidar received a one-year scholarship that has allowed her to live in peace and work on her second novel. Her first novel Land of the Pomegranate was published in 2012 and she also translated a volume of poetry by the Bahraini poet Iman Aseeri, The Book of the Female, into English.

Crowded ferry sinks in Iraq, dozens drown Over 80 people drowned when an overcrowded ferry capsized and sank in northern Iraqnear the city of Mosul, Iraqi authorities said on Thursday. Rescuers were still working to retrieve survivors from the Tigris River. "Itʼs a disaster, no one expected that," said a young man who managed to swim to the shore. Officials fear that the death toll could rise.

Most of the victims were women and children who could not swim. At least 55 people were rescued but many remain missing, according to the Interior Ministry. "The capacity of the boat was 50 people, but it sank because the number of people aboard reached around 200," Iraqi lawmaker Abdel-Rehim al-Shamari said. Other sources later said it was not clear how many people were on board. The vessel carried several families who were celebratingNowruz, the Kurdish New Year, which is traditionally marked by going for a picnic on March 21. They were taking the ferry boat across the river to reach a popular picnic area.

New Zealand bans semiautomatic, automatic weapons Military-style semi-automatic and automatic firearms like the ones used in thedeadly attack on two mosques in Christchurchon March 15 will no longer be available in New Zealand, the prime minister announced on Thursday. "Every semi-automatic weapon used in the terrorist attack on Friday will be banned," Jacinda Ardern said.

The ban will apply to all military-style semi-automatics (MSSA) and assault rifles, along with parts used to convert weapons into MSSAs and all high-capacity magazines.

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67/2019 • 22 March, 2019

Auschwitz Museum asks visitors not to balance on train tracks The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museumimplored visitors to respect the memories of the 1.1 million people who were killed at the concentration camp — and not to balance on the train tracks that brought Holocaust victims to the site. "There are better places to learn how to walk on a balance beam than the site which symbolizes deportation of hundreds of thousands to their deaths," the museum wrote on Twitter. They also posted several pictures visitors had taken of themselves walking on the tracks. In recent years, numerous visitors to concentration camp museumsand other Holocaust memorialshave beencriticized for taking selfiesand other seemingly jovial pictures at the sites that remember the victims of Nazi genocide. Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest Nazi death camp, where 1.1 million victims, including some 1 million Jewish prisoners, were killed. Last year,the Auschwitz Museum saw a record number of visitors, with 2.1 million people coming to visit the site.

F1 2019 — the runners and riders Itʼs all change in the Formula 1 paddock ahead of the 2019 campaign.

Three familiar teams are likely to fight it out at the front, but two of them have fresh faces behind the wheel. Mercedes seeking sixth season in charge Defending champions Mercedes are one of just two teams with an unchanged driver roster this season. Five-time champ Lewis Hamilton and his Finnish wingman Valtteri Bottas will try to maintain the teamʼs perfect record in the turbo-hybrid engine era. Ever since the major engine overhaul of 2014, Mercedes have won everything in sight. Is it time for a change?

US Federal Reserve holds rates steady, cuts economic growth forecast After a series of rises, the US central bankʼs policy meeting decided to hold interest rates in their current range. It also predicted a gloomier outlook for growth than that coming from Trumpʼs White House.

The Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday it is to keep its benchmark rate in a range of 2.25 percent to 2.5 percent. The rate influences financial products and services such as mortgages, credit cards and home equity lines of credit. After raising rates for five consecutive quarters, the Fed indicated it saw no further need to raise them again in the near future. At their December meeting, the policymakers had predicted there would be two interest rate hikes in 2019, but now they project one rate hike in

2020 and none in 2021. The Fed also revised down expectations for headline inflation, which includes oil and food, to 1.8 percent for the year, down from the 1.9 percent predicted at their December meeting. Trumpʼs displeasure President Donald Trump had called the December rate riseby the supposedly independent Federal Reserve wrong-headed, with suggestions he was contemplating trying to fire Chairman Jerome Powell, who had been his choice to lead the central bank.

Japan prepares to party under the cherry blossoms It is arguably also the best time to meet and mingle with Japanese people as they let their hair down.

For a small and delicate flower, the cherry blossom is very big in Japan.

After a long grey winter, the blooming of these pale pink flowers that herald the arrival of spring is eagerly anticipated across the nation. In the weeks before the blossomʼs bloom, companiesʼ portable karaoke machines are dusted off and new recruits are instructed on the importance of reserving the best spot for the companyʼs annual "hanami" revelries — a ritual that can trace its roots back to the samurai of

the 12th century Kamakura period.

Back then, the elite imperial courtiers paused to appreciate the delicate pink cherry blossoms known as sakura before indulging in picnics and poetry sessions beneath the blooms. A millennium later and the flowers that inspired a thousand haiku are no less revered in modern-day Japan. Hanami literally translates as "looking as flowers," and refers to flower appreciation picnics under the blooms. University friends, school groups, neighborhood associations and families all prepare picnics, drinks and the ubiquitous blue tarpaulin to lay out beneath the elegant pink flowers.

Múzeum+ February at Museum of Fine Arts The February edition of monthly event series Múzeum+ is being held on the 14th at the Museum of Fine Arts. For each of these events, besides interactive workshops and concerts, an English-language guided tour also features. This time the theme is German Renaissance Art, starting at 7pm. For the complete schedule, check the museum website.

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Germanyʼs FlixBus in talks to buy intercity competitor Eurolines FlixBus, which offers low-cost intercity bus travel across Europe, is negotiating to buy its smaller competitor Eurolines. French transport group Transdev, which owns Eurolines, and the Munich-based Flixbus confirmed on Monday that exclusive talks were underway, without disclosing the financial details. Eurolines, whose network spans 25 countries, operates French domestic routes under the Isilines brand, which would be part of the possible deal. "With this merger, FlixBus would have an even more comprehensive and more diverse offer to attract even more passengers.

We want to be the first choice for travelers across Europe," Flixbus managing director Jochen Engert said.

Airbnb cuts listings in Israeli West Bank settlements Home-rental platform Airbnb announced Monday it would no longer offer its service in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, drawing an angry response from Israel. Israel seized the West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day War, but most countries consider the Jewish settlements there to be illegal.

The company said in a statement the decision would affect about 200 properties "in the occupied West Bank that are at the core of the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians." "Our hope is that someday sooner rather than later, a framework is put in place where the entire global community is aligned so there will be a resolution to this historic conflict and a clear path forward for everybody to follow," it added. Palestinian and human rights groups had long called on Airbnb to remove the settlement listings from its site. Waleed Assraf, head of a Palestinian anti-settlement group welcomed the development, saying if more companies followed it would "contribute to achieving peace." Israeli Tourism Minister Yariv Levin condemned the move as "the most wretched of wretched capitulations to the boycott efforts."