Eurotopics.net

After six years of negotiations, Germany and Namibia have agreed on a declaration on German crimes committed in the colony of German South West Africa, which existed from 1884 to 1915. In the document, Germany officially recognises the mass killings of members of the Herero and Nama peoples between 1904 and 1908 as genocide. Germany has agreed to pay Namibia 1.1 billion euros over a period of 30 years.

For weeks now, the Sea of Marmara has been covered by layers of algal slime called "sea snot" or "sea saliva". Gigantic white swathes of the slime can be seen in satellite images of the area. Conservationists, fishermen and politicians are alarmed. Turkish media complain about the abuses that are causing the problem and the government's seeming lack of concern.

The second round of local elections in Croatia ended on Sunday. The capital Zagreb now has its youngest mayor ever - 39-year-old Tomislav Tomašević of the left-wing, green alliance Možemo. The conservative ruling party HDZ also lost control of previous strongholds such as Split and Knin. Commentators are at odds over how much of an impact the election results will have on the country.

Giovanni Brusca, boss of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, has been released under a witness protection programme after 25 years in prison. Following his arrest in 1996 he confessed to detonating the 500-kilogramme bomb that killed the judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife and three bodyguards near Palermo. Brusca's testimony led to the convictions of other Cosa Nostra bosses.

Over two months after the last elections in Israel, a coalition aimed at ending Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rule is forming. The liberal opposition leader Yair Lapid was able to secure the cooperation of the nationalist-religious Yamina alliance, in return for which its leader Naftali Bennett is to become prime minister for two years, alternating with Lapid as the country's leader. Europe's press doubts that Lapid's broad, multi-party coalition will last.