Germany

9 Apr 2019; DW: Pharmaceutical and agriculture giant Bayer confirmed on Tuesday that they would be slashing about 4,500 jobs in Germany, affecting 1 in 7 members of its workforce in the country.

The company had already announced in December that it would cut 12,000 jobs internationally. The number revealed on Tuesday indicated that its German workers, who had already protested the cuts last year, will bear the biggest brunt of the losses proportionally.

10 Apr 2019; DW: Police in Potsdam said on Wednesday that the raids started early in the morning and were continuing, centered on the area around Cottbus. The operation was expected to continue into the afternoon.

According to local media reports, 20 individuals suspected of being right-wing hooligans were being targeted. They are accused of forming a criminal union around Cottbus, Brandenburg's second-largest city. It is near the Polish border, 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Berlin.

10 Apr 2019; DW: Police carried out raids across Germany on Wednesday targeting charities suspected of providing "financial and propaganda" support to the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, the interior ministry said.

Around 90 properties in ten states were searched, with the focus of the raids targeting the charities WWR Help and Ansaar International in North Rhine-Westphalia.

8 Apr 2019; DW: The German government is planning to take part in a United Nations observer mission in Yemen, which has been torn by civil war since 2014, German media reported Tuesday.

The mission will help implement and monitor a ceasefire in the port city of Hodeida as outlined by a Security Council resolution from December. Germany will reportedly send a maximum of 10 unarmed soldiers and police, German news agencies reported, citing a government briefing document.

7 Apr 2019; DW: Last week, authorities in the Bavarian city of Nuremberg deported Vietnamese dissident and Nobel Prize-nominated writer Nguyen Quang Hong Nhan together with his wife.

The activist, who spent nearly 20 years in a Vietnam prison for spreading "propaganda against the socialist state," applied for asylum in Nuremberg in 2015. Germany's Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), however, rejected their application and denied subsequent appeals.

5 Apr 2019; DW: Authorities in the southwestern German city of Heilbronn on Friday announced that a chemical spill at a local shipping company likely killed every living creature in a 16 kilometer (10 mile) stretch of the Schozach River, a tributary of the Neckar.

5 Apr 2019; DW: The German Foreign Ministry said Friday it had brought several children of convicted "Islamic State" (IS) militants back to Germany from Iraq.

The returns were carried out with the consent of the parents, a ministry source said, adding that the number of repatriations so far had "reached a high single-digit figure." The children are staying with their relatives in Germany.

5 Apr 2019; DW: German car manufacturing giants Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW illegally colluded to hinder competition on emission cleaning technology, the European Commission said on Friday.

The initial findings from an investigation by the EU's antitrust regulators came nearly two years after authorities carried out raids on their headquarters.

What the Commission found:

3 Apr 2019; DW: The "Debt Report 2019," presented by Jubilee Germany in Berlin on Wednesday, paints a dark picture of global debt. The organization, which is comprised of civic and church groups, is engaged in efforts to end the problem.

The report claims that low interest rates and cheap credit are motivating poorer countries to borrow beyond their means, catching them in a debt trap they will never be able to escape from.

3 Apr 2019; DW: Muslim head coverings have always been a controversial topic, as they embody so many issues, whether women's rights worldwide or Western prejudice and discrimination against Muslims.  

Now that the first exhibition dedicated to fashion consciousness of women in Islam is opening at Frankfurt's Museum Angwandte Kunst, the debate surrounding headscarves has been rekindled in Germany.