NEWS ANALYSIS

Berlin, Germany | AFP | The man believed to be post-war Germany’s worst serial killer was known to colleagues as a “nice guy” who did little to arouse suspicion until well into his murder spree. A court in the northern city of Oldenburg sentenced Niels Hoegel, 42, a heavy-set, second-generation caregiver, …

Paris, France | AFP |  The last time French President Emmanuel Macron hosted Donald Trump in France, it turned into a diplomatic fiasco which underlined how once warm relations between the men had chilled to the point of freezing. As the two men prepare to hold talks on Thursday on …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Sudanese protest leaders on Wednesday turned down an offer by the ruling military council for talks and demanded justice for a crackdown that doctors said has left 108 people dead. Security forces moved in to brutally disperse a protest sit-in on Monday. The Rapid Support Forces, …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Sudanese protest leaders on Wednesday turned down an offer by the ruling military council for talks and demanded justice for a crackdown that doctors said has left 101 people dead. Security forces moved in to brutally disperse a protest sit-in on Monday. The Rapid Support …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Sudan’s army ruler said Wednesday he was open to negotiations even as gunfire crackled across the capital after a crackdown that doctors close to protesters said left at least 60 people dead. Despite mounting international concern at what demonstrators called a “bloody massacre”, a bid at …

  Paris, France | AFP | Humans eat and breathe in tens of thousands of microplastic particles every year, according to a new analysis Wednesday that raised fresh questions over how plastic waste could directly impact our health. Microplastics — tiny plastic shards broken down from man-made products such as synthetic …

Lisbon, Portugal | AFP |  In a neighbourhood bar on a cobbled square in Lisbon’s historic working-class Alfama district, an eclectic mix of punters pull up little wooden stools around a dozen intimately lit tables. On the walls hang guitars and an old piano stands ready to accompany that evening’s music, …

Kathmandu, Nepal (| AFP |   Under pressure after a deadly season on traffic-clogged Mount Everest, Nepal is considering tightening access to the world’s highest peak, but mountaineering experts fear the proposed changes could amount to little more than lip service. Eleven people died during the climbing season that ended this …

Paris, France | AFP |  Western countries must increasingly deal with hard to dispose of plastics because China and many southeastern Asian countries no longer want them. Incinerators or landfills are two quick fixes since Beijing shut the door in January 2018 to some foreign refuse, but specialists say longer …

Awamiya, Saudi Arabia | AFP |   Strip malls and palm-dotted boulevards stand in the once bullet-scarred old quarter of Awamiya, a Shiite-majority town on Saudi Arabia’s oil-rich eastern coast where the long-planned facelift fuelled deadly clashes. Until a year ago, Musawara neighbourhood resembled a war zone following skirmishes between militants …