Berliner Tageszeitung - News from Berlin, Brandenburg and the world

The opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics began on Friday as China attempted to turn the page on a troubled build-up overshadowed by human rights concerns and Covid.

A day after the death of Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi during a US raid in Syria, many questions remain on the operation and the jihadist group's future.

Just how do you calm down a rampaging hippopotamus? Or even a herd of angry hippos.

Moroccans waited anxiously Friday as rescuers with heavy diggers closed in on Rayan, a five-year-old boy trapped in a deep well for three nights.

Ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi returned to a junta court on Friday after skipping a previous hearing because she felt unwell, a source with knowledge of the case said.

When he arrived at the front line as a volunteer to fight Russian-backed separatists in 2014, Pavlo Dolynskiy found Ukraine's army in a desperate state.

Jesse Lingard has disputed Ralf Rangnick's claim that he requested time off to help clear his head after Manchester United blocked his move away from the club during the January transfer window.

France head coach Fabien Galthie said on Friday he had tested positive for coronavirus, two days before hosting Italy in their Six Nations opener.

India's official death toll from Covid-19 passed 500,000 on Friday, although many experts believe the real figure is likely much higher.

Thousands of Honduran believers descended on their country's most famous religious icon Thursday, praying for an end to the Catholic nation's crippling poverty and success for their newly elected leftist leader.

China's President Xi Jinping held his first face-to-face talks with a world leader in nearly two years on Friday, meeting Russia's Vladimir Putin who hailed "unprecedented" ties between the neighbours as tensions grow with the West.

Beijing says it met and even exceeded its target to make more than 300 million Chinese people winter sports enthusiasts since it won the bid to host the Winter Olympics.

Sri Lanka marked its independence day on Friday with an appeal to its diaspora to send money home to overcome the island's worsening economic crisis and a pledge to protect foreign investments.

A Nicaraguan court Thursday found two prominent opposition figures guilty of "conspiracy," according to a human rights organization which condemned the trial as "null and void" for taking place behind closed doors.

India's new white-ball skipper Rohit Sharma starts his full-time ODI tenure on Sunday as his team play the West Indies in their 1,000th one-day international, the first side ever to reach the milestone.

A veteran Hong Kong activist was arrested for "incitement to subversion" on Friday ahead of a planned protest against Beijing's hosting of the Winter Olympics, hours before the opening ceremony was due to kick off.

Asian markets rose Friday as a surge in Hong Kong on its first day back from a break helped overcome a sharp drop on Wall Street, though a surprisingly hawkish tilt from the European Central Bank added fuel to fears about the removal of pandemic-era stimulus.

Canadian snowboarder Max Parrot said that chemotherapy left him "at zero percent" when he was diagnosed with cancer in 2018 -- now he is going for gold at the Beijing Olympics.

Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde underlined his tag as favourite for the men's Olympic downhill by topping the second wind-swept training session on Friday.

The Atlanta Hawks, fueled by 43 points from Trae Young, halted the Phoenix Suns' 11-game NBA winning streak on Thursday with a 124-115 victory over the top team in the league.

The hair-raising sport of luge kicks off the sliding events at the Beijing Olympics with speeds of more than 130 kilometres (80 miles) per hour Friday making it feel "like Formula One on ice".

Pakistan paceman Mohammad Hasnain was suspended Friday from bowling at international level after biomechanical testing confirmed his action was illegal, the country's cricket board said.

Athletics giant Nike filed a lawsuit in New York on Thursday against shopping platform StockX for creating and marketing NFTs -- the tamper-proof digital property certificates -- based on the brand's products without permission.

The crew of an oil tanker stranded near the coast of the Indian Ocean island of La Reunion after Cyclone Batsirai swept the region were rescued and brought ashore Friday, officials said.

Strongly fancied Nathan Chen laid old demons to rest with a blistering start to his Olympics campaign in Beijing on Friday, as the figure skating competition kicked off.

The United Nations has demanded the Taliban provide information on two more women activists allegedly detained by the group this week -- bringing to four the number missing this year.

North Korea sent "warm congratulations" Friday to ally China ahead of the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics, a message analysts said likely signals it will stop test-firing missiles during the event.

The Atlanta Hawks, fueled by 43 points from Trae Young, halted the Phoenix Suns' 11-game NBA winning streak on Thursday with a 124-115 victory over the top team in the league.

The Atlanta Hawks, fueled by 43 points from Trae Young, halted the Phoenix Suns' 11-game NBA winning streak on Thursday with a 124-115 victory over the top team in the league.

The 2022 Six Nations Championship gets underway this weekend with Ireland at home to Wales, Scotland taking on arch-rivals England and favourites France facing Italy in Paris.

England coach Eddie Jones labelling Scotland "red-hot favourites" for the old rivals' Six Nations opener at Murrayfield on Saturday may be a familiar ploy, but he might have a point.

The Dutch port city of Rotterdam has not received a request for a permit to temporarily dismantle an historic bridge to allow a superyacht built for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to pass, local media reported Thursday.

A British silver medallist and a prominent US coach at the Beijing Winter Olympics have criticised the decision to award the Games to China over its human rights record.

Asian markets mostly rose Friday as a rally in Hong Kong on its first day back from a break helped overcome a sharp drop on Wall Street, though a surprisingly hawkish tilt from the European Central Bank added fuel to fears about the removal of pandemic-era stimulus.

Moroccans waited anxiously Thursday as authorities said a dramatic operation to rescue a young boy trapped in a deep well for over two days was nearing its end.

Oxford researchers announced Thursday the discovery of a highly virulent strain of HIV that has been lurking in the Netherlands for decades, but because of the effectiveness of modern treatments, is "no cause for alarm."

Activision Blizzard on Thursday said it will beef-up its "Call of Duty" video game franchise after sagging interest by players led to a sales decline in the recently ended quarter.

Director Roland Emmerich knows a thing or two about the ingredients needed for a good disaster flick, having given the world "Independence Day", "2012" and "The Day After Tomorrow".

In 1966, the late bossa nova singer Nara Leao asked Brazilian music icon Chico Buarque to write her a song about a long-suffering woman waiting on her man.