A Europe-wide manhunt is under way for the suspected killer of an 11-year-old Dutch schoolboy on a campsite 20 years ago this month, after the largest DNA testing programme in the Netherlands’ history finally produced a 100% match. In the latest twist to a cold case that has gripped the country since 1998, police in the southern city of Maastricht said on Thursday that more than 200 people had called in following an appeal for tips about the possible whereabouts of Jos Brech, 55, a former scout and playgroup worker.

“A lot of people are calling,” said police commissioner Ingrid Schäfer-Poels on Thursday. “We are now convinced the suspect has gone into hiding.” Described as a survival specialist capable of enduring long periods alone in the wild, Brech was last known to be in the mountainous Vosges region of eastern France, where he has a cabin, and has been placed on Europol’s list of the continent’s most wanted fugitives.(theguardian)…[+]

A police officer in Argentina has been promoted after she comforted a crying baby by breastfeeding him. Celeste Ayala was on duty at Sor María Ludovica children’s hospital near Buenos Aires when she heard the cries. After speaking with hospital management, she breastfed the baby, who had recently been taken away from his mother, Buenos Aires provincial police told CNN.

News of Ayala’s compassionate deed spread after her colleague, Marcos Heredia, posted a picture on Facebook of her feeding the baby last week. Hereida wrote: “I want to make public this great gesture of love that you made today with that baby, who you did not know, but for whom you did not hesitate to act like a mother. You did not care if he was dirty or smelly … Things like that are not seen every day.”The post has been shared more than 100,000 times. The incident took place on 14 August, which coincidentally is national day of the female officer in Argentina.(theguardian)…[+]

German authorities are unlikely to ever bring to trial a 95-year-old former second world war concentration camp guard who was deported from the US earlier this week, the country’s leading Nazi hunter has said. Jens Rommel, who heads the Central Office for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Ludwigsburg, said there was not enough evidence to prosecute Jakiw Palij, whom US authorities accuse of involvement in war crimes.

“Right now there is no investigation into him in Germany, which means there is no arrest warrant and as a result it is not very likely that he will ever be convicted,” Rommel told the broadcaster Deutsche Welle on Wednesday. Palij was taken from his home in Queens, New York City, on Monday, in a wheelchair and wrapped in a white sheet, and flown from New Jersey to Düsseldorf airport in Germany, where an ambulance took him to a retirement home, where he is likely to live out the rest of his days. US authorities accuse him of participation in the deaths of 6,000 Jewish men, women and children, a charge Palij denies.(theguardian)…[+]

The popularity of Italy’s hardline interior minister, Matteo Salvini, is growing as he taps into the emotions of a nation in despair and seizes on them as if he was still on the campaign trail.

Nowhere was this more evident than at the state funeral on Saturday for 19 of the 43 people killed in Genoa’s Morandi bridge collapse last Tuesday. Cheers and hugs greeted Salvini, also deputy prime minister and leader of the far-right League, and his coalition partner, Luigi Di Maio, the leader of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), as they arrived at the ceremony.

In contrast, deep disdain for Italy’s previous government was reflected in the insults hurled at members of the centre-left Democratic party. In what some describe as a watershed moment, many Italians are not only counting on a robust and swift response to the tragedy from their new leaders but are also depending on them to resolve chronic problems, from high unemployment to corruption, that have weighed the country down for decades.(theguardian)…[+]

Pope Francis has publicly acknowledged the failures of the Roman Catholic church in dealing with sexual abuse by priests, attacking a “culture of death” and deferential “clericalism” that helps perpetuate evil. An unprecedented letter from “His Holiness Pope Francis to the People of God” was issued after almost a week of mounting pressure following the publication of an excoriating report into abuse by priests in Pennsylvania.
According to a Vatican official, it is the first time a pope has written to all of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics about sexual abuse. The letter opens with an acknowledgement of suffering endured by children and abuse of power. Francis admits the church has failed to “act in a timely manner” and promises zero tolerance and sanctions. “We have realised that these wounds never disappear and that they require us forcefully to condemn these atrocities and join forces in uprooting this culture of death,” he said.(theguardian)…[+]

Summer weather patterns are increasingly likely to stall in Europe, North America and parts of Asia, according to a new climate study that explains why Arctic warming is making heatwaves elsewhere more persistent and dangerous. Rising temperatures in the Arctic have slowed the circulation of the jet stream and other giant planetary winds, says the paper, which means high and low pressure fronts are getting stuck and weather is less able to moderate itself.

The authors of the research, published in Nature Communications on Monday, warn this could lead to “very extreme extremes”, which occur when abnormally high temperatures linger for an unusually prolonged period, turning sunny days into heat waves, tinder-dry conditions into wildfires, and rains into floods.

“This summer was where we saw a very strong intensity of heatwaves. It’ll continue and that’s very worrying, especially in the mid-latitudes: the EU, US, Russia and China,” said one of the coauthors, Dim Coumou from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. “Short-term heatwaves are quite pleasant, but longer term they will have an impact on society. It’ll have an affect on agricultural production. Harvests are already down this year for many products. Heatwaves can also have a devastating impact on human health.”(theguardian)…[+]

Kofi Annan was a guiding force for good.  It is with profound sadness that I learned of his passing.  In many ways, Kofi Annan was the United Nations. He rose through the ranks to lead the organization into the new millennium with matchless dignity and determination.

Like so many, I was proud to call Kofi Annan a good friend and mentor. I was deeply honoured by his trust in selecting me to serve as UN High Commissioner for Refugees under his leadership. He remained someone I could always turn to for counsel and wisdom — and I know I was not alone. He provided people everywhere with a space for dialogue, a place for problem-solving and a path to a better world.  In these turbulent and trying times, he never stopped working to give life to the values of the United Nations Charter. His legacy will remain a true inspiration for all us. My heartfelt condolences to Nane Annan, their beloved family, and all who mourn the loss of this proud son of Africa who became a global champion for peace and all humanity…[+]

Prominent US climate scientists have told the Guardian that the Trump administration is holding up research funding as their projects undergo an unprecedented political review by the high-school football teammate of the US interior secretary.

The US interior department administers over $5.5bn in funding to external organizations, mostly for research, conservation and land acquisition. At the beginning of 2018, interior secretary Ryan Zinke instated a new requirement that scientific funding above $50,000 must undergo an additional review to ensure expenditures “better align with the administration’s priorities”. Zinke has signaled that climate change is not one of those priorities: this week, he told Breitbart News that “environmental terrorist groups” were responsible for the ongoing wildfires in northern California and, ignoring scientific research on the issue, dismissed the role of climate change.(theguardian)…[+]

The UN human rights committee ruled on Friday that Brazil’s imprisoned leftist leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva cannot be disqualified from upcoming presidential elections because his legal appeals are ongoing. The committee issued the finding following an urgent request filed by Lula’s lawyers on 27 July. In a statement, the panel “requested Brazil to take all necessary measures to ensure that Lula can enjoy and exercise his political rights while in prison, as (a) candidate in the 2018 presidential elections”.

Lula, a two-term former president who is serving time behind bars for corruption, is currently leading the polls for the October vote. The committee said Lula cannot be barred as a candidate “until his appeals before the courts have been completed in fair judicial proceedings”.

The Geneva-based committee monitors a member state’s compliance with the international covenant on civil and political rights, as well as a supplementary text called the optional protocol. Because Brazil has ratified both texts, it is technically obligated to abide by the committee’s findings. Committee member Olivier de Frouville told AFP Lula’s laywers had asked for urgent action on three issues: that he be immediately freed from jail, that he be granted access to the media and his political party, and that he be allowed to run in the election.(NU)…[+]

Vladimir Putin is to attend the wedding of Austria’s foreign minister, Karin Kneissl, triggering outrage among critics who say the invitation undermines the EU’s stance against Russia over Ukraine.

The Russian president will drop by on Saturday afternoon to raise a glass to Kneissl and her groom, the businessman Wolfgang Meilinger, in a vineyard in Austria’s picturesque Styria region, before flying to Berlin for talks that evening with Angela Merkel. Described by the Austrian foreign ministry as a “personal visit”, Putin’s brief appearance will be accompanied by the usual security measures for the visit of a foreign state visitor, a spokesman told Der Standard. “It will be a private celebration and a personal visit. No change will result in terms of Austria’s foreign policy position.”(NU)…[+]