TOP NEWS

The political situation in Japan
Japan's imperial family is dying out - can a woman take the throne?

On Monday, Japanese Princess Aiko turns 24. She is immensely popular in her homeland and several experts now want Japan to introduce cognatic succession, meaning that women can also inherit the throne, reports AP.

Japan has had male succession since 1889, but currently there is only one male heir, Emperor Naruhito's 19-year-old nephew Hisahito.

Hideya Kawanishi, a history professor at Nagoya University, says that Hisahito's future wife will have a difficult life.

- Who wants to marry him? If someone does, there will be enormous pressure on her to have a male offspring, he says.

The political situation in Germany
AFD tries to rebrand – tones down extreme rhetoric

Some profiles within the German right-wing party AFD are trying to tone down the party's extremist image ahead of regional elections next year, writes Politico.

In several places, it is within reach for the party to gain significant political influence for the first time since it was founded ten years ago. For example, in the federal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where it leads the opinion polls with 38 percent support. The first name, the former morning radio host Leif-Erik Holm, is according to Politico an example of the AFD's attempt at a new image.

He avoids the inflammatory rhetoric that has previously been customary and says he seeks dialogue with political opponents. But the soft attitude is part of a calculated rebranding orchestrated by the party's national co-chairwoman Alice Weidel, according to the site. She believes that the AfD will never be able to take real political power if the party does not move away from candidates who openly embrace extreme positions. 

Political situation in Bangladesh
British politician sentenced to prison in Bangladesh

British Labour politician Tulip Siddiq has been sentenced to two years in prison in Bangladesh, British media reports. The court believes that she was involved in corrupt land deals with her aunt, the country's ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The court finds that Siddiq abused her "special influence" as a British politician to pressure Hasina to give valuable land to her family. Siddiq has denied the charges.

The main suspect in the case was her mother Sheikh Rehana, who was sentenced to seven years in prison. Several other family members were also charged, but the trial was held in their absence.

The UK has no extradition treaty with Bangladesh and it is unlikely that Siddiq will serve the sentence.  

British war crimes revelations
Documents show: Soldiers shot unarmed men

During the war in Afghanistan, British special forces had a policy of killing combat-ready men even if they did not pose a threat. This is shown by documents that Sky News has seen.

The information in the documents comes from an officer who was told by his soldiers about the potential war crimes during Britain's operation in Afghanistan in 2011. The rumor was strengthened by the fact that the number of weapons found on the ground and the number of enemy dead did not match.

He called it "unacceptable according to the ethics of the special forces". But when he raised the information with a senior officer, referred to as N1802, a deliberate decision was made to cover it up, Sky News writes.

The documents state that N1802 wanted to handle the information in a way that “limited the damage outside of headquarters.”