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DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH

Australia halts German ship after crew reports mistreatment and food shortages AGerman-owned cargo shipcalled the "Anna Elisabeth" was detained off the coast of Australia after the crew complained of poor working conditions, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said on Wednesday.

The Liberian-flaggedbulk carrieris owned by the German shipping firm Johann MK Blumenthal, and union inspectors say the reported conditions on the ship are "systemic to this company." The Anna Elisabeth is currently being held at Port Kembla in New South Wales, Australia. Reports of mistreatment The crew — comprised of 17 workers from Sri Lanka and the Philippines — said theyʼd experienced bullying and unsafe conditions on board. They have not been allowed to take shore leave since January 23, when the ship was in South Africa, according to the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF).

Violence and fraud in Nigeriaʼs gubernatorial elections All Rukayya Abba wanted to do on March 23 was cast her vote.

But the scene she came across in the village of Bichi quickly made her change her mind. "There were armed thugs everywhere," she said. "We didnʼt vote because we were afraid of getting killed."

There were similar stories from other parts of Kano state, from people who had also wanted to take part in the postponed governorship elections. The two-week postponement affected 128,000 people in 28 administrative districts. It appears that many of them were deliberately prevented from taking part, like Rukayya Abba.

"Thousands of thugs, armed with machetes, cudgels and other weapons, including knives, were surrounding each of the polling units, threatening people and finally forcing a change of results by taking over the electoral process," Jibrin Ibrahim, an election observer with the NGO "Center for Democracy and Development" told DW.

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India shoots down satellite, becomes ʼspace superpowerʼ Such capabilities raise fears of a weaponization of space at a time of rising tension with Pakistan

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has claimed his forces shot down a low-earth satellite in a pre-planned test.

Ford to cut 5,000 jobs in Germany in savings drive The US carmaker will ditch 5,000 workers in Germany in a bid to boost profitability. Rival firm Volkswagen announced similar cuts earlier this week.

US carmaker Ford will shed 5,000 workers in Germany, it announced on Friday. Ford hopes to save at least $500 million (€441 million) with the measures, according to a letter from executives to employees. "This is part of a restructuring operation for Ford in Europe that was already announced in January with the goal of getting back being a profitable business," a spokesman said. The Kölner StadtAnzeiger daily reported that the job cuts were to be achieved through sev-

erance payments for employees up to 49 years of age and early retirement for employees over 50 years of age.

The job losses will cover all areas from production to management. Read more: Germany: 1 in 3 unemployed canʼt afford a proper meal Streamlining measures The company employs about 24,000 people in Germany, mostly in Cologne. The groupʼs European business is suffering from deep losses and the restructuring process announced in January also envisages potential plant closures. Earlier this week, German carmakerVolkswagen announced 7,000 job cutsdespite operating at a profit.

Nazi-era mass grave site to become luxury homes in Belarus Young soldiers comb through the soil with their gloved hands and with shovels. They pull out blackened bones, skulls, fragments of shoes — and lay them out to be counted. The site opens up like a huge wound in the middle of the city. After around two months of work, the exhumation work here is coming to an end. In total, the special army search battalion has found the remains of 1,190 people, according to authorities in Brest, a Belarusian city on the border to Poland. Builders discovered the first bonesin mid-January, when they began to lay the foundations for an apartment block in the historical center of Brest. From December 1941 until October 1942 this district was a Jewish ghetto. When the site was "cleared," Nazi occupiers shot an estimated 16,000 Jews in a forest to the northeast of the city. Thousands more were executed within the confines of the ghetto.

German government split on Saudi arms ban Germanyʼs government coalition is split on whether to maintain the ban on arms sales to Saudi Arabia in the face of increasing pressure on France.

The temporary embargo, imposed in November, is due to expire at the end of this week, but a meeting of the national security council (Chancellor Angela Merkel and her senior ministers) ended inconclusively on Wednesday, according to the DPA news agency.

weather today BUDAPEST

Hungary at a Glance (Published by Scolar Publishing Company) It is a unique feature of the Carpathian basin that its relatively small area hosts an unparalleled variety of ethnic groups, religions and civilizations. This cohabitation gave birth to a common culture, while a truly multi-layered nation was also formed. For centuries the descendants of the founding Hungarian tribes lived alongside ancient peoples who preceded them and the people migrating here from neighbouring nations.

Hungarians, Slovaks, Romanians, Serbs and Germans shared a common

land here, just like the members of the different faiths – Catholics, Calvinists, Lutherans and Jews – did. Our book is a special project, as it tries to convey the colourful nature of Hungary and its people. This unique “guidebook” covers everything from history to cultural heritage, from the achievements of the arts and sciences to the extraordinary music scene. Although these pages will give you only a glance, we do hope that this glimpse will inspire real love for this country in all our readers.

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72/2019 • 28 March, 2019

Reform Germanyʼs welfare state, urges communal association A simplification of Germanyʼs welfare state is wanted by its Association of Towns and Municipalities (BStGB). Only then, it says, will communities be able to cope with demographic aging and future economic strains. Germanyʼs11,054 communal authoritieswere overburdened with complicated welfare delivery and needed "de-bureaucratization" to stay within budget in the future, asserted association chief executive Gerd Landsberg on Tuesday. "Every problem is met with the promise that there is more money and naturally more personnel," he said, adding that, longterm, Germanyʼs highly legislated welfare state would not function, given finite taxation revenues, populations withmore elderly, and regions facing loss of industry and jobs.

Two Germans win second gold medals at Nordic World Ski Championships Germanyʼs Markus Eisenbichler on Sunday helped destroy the opposition to win gold in the large hill skijumping team event — his second world title at this yearʼs FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Seefeld, Austria. Eisenbichler and his compatriots Karl Geiger, Richard Freitag, and Stephan Leyhe led from start to finish on Innsbruckʼs Bergisel hill, winning 987.5 points overall, a massive 56.5 points — or 31 meters (101 feet) — ahead of hosts Austria, who took silver, and Japan (bronze).

Eisenbichler won individual gold ahead of Geiger on Saturday on the Innsbruck hill and now joins compatriot Nordic combined skier Eric Frenzel and Norwegian cross-country skier Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo as a two-time Seefeld champion.

EU must be united on trade with China China is trying to divide the European Union on the issue of trade. It must not be allowed to succeed, says DWʼs Christoph Hasselbach.

By presenting a united front, the bloc can win far more concessions from Beijing.

If he had his way, Chinese President Xi Jinping would prefer to negotiate with each European government individually, to try to get a better deal for his country. But on Tuesday in Paris, he had to settle for dealing with the European Union trioof French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. Presenting a united front, they showed Xi that the EU speaks with one voice when it comes to trade. Thatʼs the idea, anyway. Before Paris,Rome

rolled out the red carpet for Xi with promises to participate in the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinaʼs vast infrastructure project that would link the country with Africa, Europe and beyond. Italy is the first major Western industrialized country to take this step.

Italian companies are expecting to benefit, but the real winners will be Chinese firms in Italy. With its longplanned state-led strategy, Beijing wants to establish another toehold in Europe; in Italy, it plans to invest and expand the ports of Genoa and Trieste.

Diagnosing Alzheimerʼs with peanut butter?

For years there have been reports that Alzheimerʼs can be diagnosed with peanut butter.

Diagnosing Alzheimerʼs with peanut butter - researchers caused a sensation with this study in 2013. It has since been regularly quoted by various media, including the Washington Post, which promoted the idea again just last year.

But can the diagnosis of a stillincurable disease be so simple? The peanut butter test For the test, the patient has to smell peanut butter alter-

nately with the left and right nostril while the other one is held closed. The patient starts sniffing at a distance of 30 centimetres. The distance is then reduced in one-centimetre steps until the patient is able to smell the product. According to the 2013 study, Alzheimerʼs patients have a significantly poorer olfactory ability with their left nostril than with their right. The researchers attribute this to the fact that the left half of the frontal lobe of the brain is affected more by Alzheimerʼs disease. This area also contains the sense of smell.

Budapestʼs historic Lotz Hall café reopened as Café Párisi After two years of undesired silence a new café has opened its gates in Budapest’s neo-renaissance styled jewellery box, the former Paris Deparment Store (Párisi Nagy Áruház). Situated in the heart of the city on Andrássy avenue, Café Párisi is the perfect location for those who wish to enjoy the luxury of early 20th century Budapest.

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Published by: Mega Media Kft. 1075 Budapest, Madách I. út 13-14. +36 1 398 0344 www.hotelujsag.hu

Mann+Hummel: Hidden champion fights fine particles It only takes the weather to be unfavorable,and megacities across the world sink into wafts of mist. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), some 7 million people die every year partly as a result of inhaling polluted air over longer periods. Increasing traffic has no doubt contributed to creating "thick air."

Many nations are in the middle of campaigns to reverse the trend by pushing e-mobility, arguing that electric vehicles donʼt have exhaust pipes as sources of poisonous nitrogen oxides and particulate matter.

But a closer look reveals that fine particulates cannot be reduced drastically through electric cars. "Irrespective of a carʼs transmission system, it will always produce a lot of particulate matter," says Jan-Eric Raschke, who heads the fine particulates/filtration division at the German company Mann+Hummel. He explains thatroughly 90 percent of all particulate emissions in cars stem from tire wear and the braking system.

Germanyʼs migrants: wooed and discriminated "We are Hamburg. Are you in?"

Thatʼs the slogan Hamburg is using to advertise municipal jobs to migrants. From police officers to teachers, doctors, bookkeepers and prison workers — the city is hoping to hire more employees with an migrant background.

And itʼs not just Hamburg making this push. All throughout Germany, the business and public sectors alike are focusing on the countryʼs newest residents. Rising education levels Thatʼs because the average education level of migrants in Germany is on the rise.

In 2011, one-quarter of young migrants between the ages of 18 and 25 had completed their "Abitur," or high school certificate exam. By 2015, that figure had climbed to 33 percent. During that same period, the percentage of youth without a migrant background who completed high school rose from 32 to 39 percent.