Eurotopics.net

A man attacked two shisha bars in the German city of Hanau on Tuesday night, shooting dead nine people. The victims all came from immigrant backgrounds. The suspected perpetrator reportedly also killed himself and his mother. After evaluating a letter of confession Germany's Public Prosecutor General Peter Frank has evoked profoundly racist motives. Europe's press is alarmed.

The President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has accused Putin of using high energy prices to pressure his country to unite with Russia. Observers have long suspected that Putin has a plan to run for president of a newly created state in 2024. Can Lukashenko resist?

At its summit in Brussels the EU has harshly condemned the offensive led by the Syrian government forces and their supporters in the embattled Syrian province of Idlib. Shortly before the summit, Russia voted against a UN Security Council resolution for a ceasefire in northwest Syria. Commentators voice dismay that nine years after the war began, still no one is stepping in to stop the suffering.

On Tuesday the verdict was delivered in the trial on the collapse of a supermarket roof in Riga in 2013 which killed more than 50 people. A civil engineer was sentenced to six years in prison for involuntary manslaughter and violation of building regulations. The other eight defendants were acquitted. Survivors and relatives of the victims left the courtroom while the sentence was still being read. Rightly so?