Ade Bantu (right) and Harry Belafonte/Photo: Courtesy of Ade Bantu Tributes are being paid across the world to the African-American entertainer and rights icon Harry Belafonte, who died in New York on Tuesday at the age of 96. Ade Bantu, the Afro-German musician and rights activist who once met Belafonte, has penned a moving tribute to the Black singer, actor …

As from 1 January 2024 at the latest, Kosovo passport holders will be able to enter the European Union (EU) and the Schengen area twice a year for 90 days without a visa. Following agreement between the European Parliament and the Council on a proposal by the Commission, passport holders from Kosovo will be allowed to travel to the EU …

A leading member of the Left party (Linke) has called for a change of strategy in Germany’s asylum policy. In the opinion of Thuringia’s Premier Bodo Ramelow, it amounts to a paradox that Germany is looking for skilled workers abroad while at the same time skilled workers in Germany are stuck in the asylum trap. Migrants should be given the …

The Special Fraud Unit of the Nigerian Police (PSFU) in Lagos has arrested a suspected female fraudster for allegedly defrauding a 50-year-old German man of US$220,000 (about 200,000 euros), after promising to marry him. The police spokesperson, SP Eyitayo Johnson, who confirmed the arrest in a statement on Wednesday (19 April 2023), said the 21-year-old suspect lured the victim on …

Almost a quarter of the people living in Germany last year have an immigration history. That is 20.2 million people or 24.3 per cent of the total population, the Federal Statistical Office said on Thursday in a micro census data report. The authorities defined people with an immigration history as those who arrived in Germany since 1950 and their direct …

Every tree is a living symbol of peace and hope. With its roots deep in the earth and its branches reaching for the sky, it lets us know that in order to aspire to reach higher and higher, we too must be firmly rooted to the ground, for, no matter how high we reach, it is always from our roots …

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier presented former Chancellor Angela Merkel with the country’s highest honour on Monday at a ceremony in Berlin. Ms Merkel, who was head of government for 16 years, was honoured with the Großkreuz des Verdienstordens (“Grand Cross of the Order of Merit”) for her contribution to German political life. The national honour has been received by only two …

A dead man was discovered in the wheel well of a KLM flight KL588 that arrived at Schiphol airport, Amsterdam, from Lagos, Nigeria, on Monday (17 April). The man is assumed to have climbed into the aircraft at the Lagos international airport. The incident which is not new has raised serious security concerns about how and when the man was …

The housing shortage among students in Berlin may be getting worse, according to a new report by the German news agency dpa. The waiting time for a place in a student hostel, for example, is at least three semesters. At the beginning of the summer semester, many students in Berlin are still desperately looking for a flat. As of 1 …

Nigerian human rights activist, lawyer and writer Chidi Anselm Odinkalu* writes on the democratic backsliding in Africa as military officers increasingly seize power and elected leaders elongate their tenure by arbitrarily changing the constitution. And he analyses the causes of the unsavoury trend and what it portends for the continent — Macky Sall, Senegal’s president since the beginning of April …