Punishment for incest is not a violation of human rights, according to the European Court of Human Rights. The Strasbourg court rejected the German case of a man who was convicted due to sexual relations with his sister.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg has ruled that punishment for incest does not violate human rights. A man in Leipzig, who was convicted in Germany for having sexual relations with his sister, had brought his case to the Strasbourg court.

The seven judges on the panel unanimously decided that the German ban on incest does not contravene the European Convention on Human Rights. They also said the ban and subsequent punishment did not violate his privacy rights.

Protests in Russia over recent elections have impressed the international community. But will they also have a lasting effect on Russian society? That was just one question a DW-Trend poll has sought to answer.

A vast majority of Russian citizens, or 89 percent, is familiar with the national protests against election fraud and in favor of greater democracy, a DW study for April has found. The Ukrainian polling firm IFAK, which DW hired to carry out the inquiry, had surveyed a representative sample of 1,000 people between the ages of 18 and 65 from all over Russia.

BRUSSELS - Most member states and EU institutions are keen to draw a new veil of secrecy over how they appoint top officials and enforce EU law.

The rights of journalists, NGOs and average people to get access to internal EU documents is currently governed by a regulation from 2001.

It is already hard to gain access because there is no simple registry of which documents exist and because it can take long legal battles to make institutions drop their objections - for instance, on grounds that it would violate people's privacy, threaten national security or that there is no "overriding public interest" to publish sensitive information.

BRUSSELS - Amnesty Intentional, Oxfam, Reporters without Borders as well as internet rights groups and the Council of Europe all spoke out against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta) at a European Parliament hearing on Wednesday (11 April).

"The vision set out by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is at stake," warned Marianne Mollmann, senior policy advisor of the London-based organisation human rights group Amnesty International.

AP - Lawyers for 15 French people, either black or of Arab descent, filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the state for abusive identity checks based on alleged racial profiling.

A lawyer for the group said they were routinely targeted for police identity checks that often included humiliating public body pat downs, insults and even threats because of the way they look.

The plaintiffs' lawyers said this was the first such collective action in France to tackle abusive identity checks, a problem documented by several studies. The lawsuit against the French state targets the Interior Ministry, which oversees police.

Italy's bond auction went well, but at the price of much higher interest rates, up 1.1pp, compared with a month ago; the total funds raised still fell a little short of the target; overall Italian yields fell marginally after the auction; Jörg Asmussen says Ireland should honour promissory notes, and makes the point that this was fully factored into the Irish EFSF programme; John McHale argues that the initial repayment schedule was too ambitious, and did not take account of the subsequent deterioration in the eurozone's debt crisis; Greek unemployment rises to 21.8%, and the finance ministry reports a massive budget overshoot in Q1; the ECB warns about the rise in "shadow debt" that result from state guarantees for the banks; Suddeutsche Zeitung thinks the rise in bond yields was merely an outbreak of market irrationality, and should therefore be ignored; Spain passes law to curb deficit of the autonomous regions; EU mission will today discuss report on excessive imbalances with Spanish policy makers; Christine Lagarde says there will no agreement on eurozone firewall at the spring meetings; there is more polling evidence to suggest that Francois Hollande is increasing his lead in the second round run-off with Nicolas Sarkozy; Mark Schieritz discusses eurozone adjustment scenario, and says there is no easy way out; George Soros, meanwhile, says the eurozone crisis has become less volatile, but more lethal.

Direct investments abroad have increased globally, a new study by the United Nations' trade and development body bears out. But developing and emerging nations have not contributed to the rise.

Foreign direct investments (FDI) rose by 16 percent globally last year, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development announced on Thursday. The Geneva-based body said financial outflows in 2011 amounted to $1.66 trillion ($1.26 trillion euros), up from $1.43 trillion in the previous year.

But the picture was far from homogeneous, UNCTAD warned in its report. While the value of money flowing from highly industrialized nations jumped by a quarter, developing and emerging countries scaled back their foreign financing by 7.0 percent.

Greece will see elections on May 6. With tough austerity measures, dramatic cuts in social programs and little prospect of improvement, the new government will face major challenges.

Just six months after taking up his post, Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos declared his resignation on April 11, paving the way for general elections on May 6. During his brief time in office, a 130-billion-euro bailout package from international lenders saved Greece from bankruptcy. The price for that: painful cuts for Greeks and tough austerity measures. Experts from abroad are now wondering whether the nation will be able to continue with promised reforms.

An offer by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resume direct peace talks without preconditions has been rejected by the Palestinians, who insist Israel must halt settlement construction first.

Israel's latest offer for direct peace talks has been spurned by the Palestinians, who insist Jerusalem first stop building settlements and release prisoners, according to Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat.

A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also said on Thursday that Abbas is ready for talks only if Israel halts settlement construction and accepts its 1967 boundaries as the basis for negotiations. Otherwise, Nabil Abu Rdeneh said, any negotiations will "waste time."

South Sudan has said it will not leave the oil-rich border town it has captured from Sudan during fierce fighting, despite international pleas. Both sides seem willing to let the conflict escalate.

South Sudan said Thursday it will not withdraw its troops from the oil-rich town of Heglig, a disputed area that borders with Sudan, despite calls from the international community for its soldiers to pull out.

"I will not order the forces to withdraw from Heglig," The President of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, told parliament. "I always say we will not take the people of South Sudan back to war, but if we are being aggressed like this we will have to defend ourselves,"

UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan has told the Security Council that he's "encouraged" by the reports of relative calm in Syria since a cease-fire came into effect Thursday morning, but said there was much work ahead.

Special envoy Kofi Annan briefed the UN Security Council on Thursday after the first few hours of a fragile cease-fire deal implemented in Syria. The mediator for the UN and Arab League said the truce appeared to be holding, though diplomats also said that he cautioned that the Syrian military had not yet withdrawn from all built-up areas.

Mali's new interim leader Dioncounda Traore, who was sworn in on Thursday, has pledged to fight Tuareg rebels and outlaws who have taken over the north of the country.

Dioncounda Traore, Mali's new interim leader, was sworn into office on Thursday, vowing to master the chaos his country is in after the military staged a coup and Tuareg rebels took over the north of the country.

Dioncounda Traore, who has been head of the country's parliament since 2007, will serve as Mali's president for 40 days following an agreement between West African regional mediators and the leader of the junta that seized power last month

The Philippines has pulled back its biggest warship from a tense standoff with Chinese vessels. The two countries are trying to avoid an escalation in the conflict over disputed territory in the South China Sea.

Manila withdrew the warship and instead deployed a coast guard vessel to the area, said Philippines Foreign Minister Albert Del Rosario on Thursday, adding that China had sent a ship from Beijing's fisheries bureau.

"We're watching developments and at the same time we're pursuing the diplomatic track," Del Rosario said. "We're moving forward but it's still a work in progress."

This weekend, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany meet with Iran in Istanbul for talks on Iran's nuclear program. DW asked Iran expert Meir Javedanfar to assess the chances of success.

A political scandal has rocked China: Bo Xilai, former party secretary in Chongqing, has lost his position in the Politburo. Before a change of power this fall, the Communist Party is trying to show a united front.

BRUSSELS - A detailed 90-page forensic report by Goldsmiths, the University of London released on Wednesday (11 April) says Nato contributed to the deaths of 63 refugees in one boat of 72 fleeing Libya by attempting to cross the Mediterranean last year.

AFP - Egypt's parliament approved an amendment on Thursday to a law that would ban members of ousted president Hosni Mubarak's regime from standing for public office.

The law, which hass still to be approved by the ruling military council, could see several former officials including ex-intelligence chief Omar Suleiman disqualified from standing in a presidential election scheduled for next month.

For several years, bee colonies have been collapsing en masse. Particularly affected are honey bees (Apis mellifera), which live in Europe, North America and the Middle East.

An analysis of 35 headwater basins in the United States and Canada found that the impact of warmer air temperatures on streamflow rates was less than expected in many locations, suggesting that some ecosystems may be resilient to certain aspects of climate change.

The study was just published in a special issue of the journal BioScience, in which the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) network of 26 sites around the country funded by the National Science Foundation is featured.

Lead author Julia Jones, an Oregon State University geoscientist, said that air temperatures increased significantly at 17 of the 19 sites that had 20- to 60-year climate records, but streamflow changes correlated with temperature changes in only seven of those study sites. In fact, water flow decreased only at sites with winter snow and ice, and there was less impact in warmer, more arid ecosystems.

Change has become the buzzword at the Japanese electronics giant, after its new CEO Kazuo Hirai announced a major restructuring drive aimed at staunching massive losses. Layoffs are part of Sony's survival strategy.

Japan's electronics maker Sony would cut about 10,000 jobs and shed lossmaking businesses to regain profitability, Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai announced Thursday.

After taking over as Sony CEO from Howard Stringer this month, Hirai said he was prepared to take "painful steps," aimed at cutting fixed costs in the company's ailing TV business by 60 percent over the business year starting in March 2013.

Serbian police have recovered an artwork believed to be worth $110 million (84 million euros). The painting by French Impressionist Paul Cezanne was stolen from a private Swiss gallery four years ago.

Police in Serbia believe they found the missing Impressionist painting, a police official told the Reuters news agency.

"We believe the painting is Cezanne's 'Boy in a Red Waistcoat' and three suspects were detained in connection with that," the official said.

Human rights activists are calling for the release of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot. The three feminists are facing up to seven years in prison following a performance against Putin in a Moscow cathedral.

In Russia, Vladimir Putin is not to be messed with. Especially not when a protest against the prime minister and future president happens to take place in one of the country's most important Russian Orthodox cathedrals.

Engineers at the German Aerospace Center have developed a concept for a light-weight car body designed to reduce fuel consumption and increase safety while lowering production costs.

The idea of a building a light-weight car body is hardly unique, but a team of researchers at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Stuttgart believes they're on to something new.

Their idea: a light-weight "sandwich" construction that uses aluminium to form the outer and inner shells, with a foam core made of high-performance plastics for added strength.

BRUSSELS - Film directors and screenwriters should be guaranteed minimum intellectual property rights by EU law, according to a group of leading trade organisations representing authors.

In a joint statement issued Tuesday (10 April) by the Society of Audiovisual Authors, the Federation of European Film Directors and the Federation of Screenwriters Europe, the three groups called for EU legislation to provide equitable rights payments for authors, adding that this should come alongside "enforceable rights, fair contracts and stronger resistance to arguments put out by the pirate lobby."

AFP - A host of potential toxins, allergens and traces of endangered animals showed up in DNA sequencing tests on 15 Chinese traditional medicines, researchers said on Thursday.

Such therapies have been used in China for more than 3,000 years, but have risen in popularity outside Asia in recent decades and now amount to a global industry worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year, according to the study in PLoS Genetics.

REUTERS - Kuwaiti lawmakers voted in favour of a legal amendment on Thursday which could make insulting God and the Prophet Mohammad punishable by death, after a case of suspected blasphemy on Twitter caused an uproar in the Gulf Arab state.

Members of Parliament must vote on the proposal again in a second session and it would need the approval of the country's ruler before becoming law.

The amendment was backed by 46 votes, while four opposed it and others abstained. Those in favour included all 15 members of the cabinet.

The study, co-authored by Anneke Buffone of UB and E. Alison Holman of the University of California, Irvine, looked at the behavior of study subjects who have versions of receptor genes for two hormones that, in laboratory and close relationship research, are associated with niceness. Previous laboratory studies have linked the hormones oxytocin and vasopressin to the way we treat one another, Poulin says.

In fact, they are known to make us nicer people, at least in close relationships. Oxytocin promotes maternal behavior, for example, and in the lab, subjects exposed to the hormone demonstrate greater sociability. An article in the usually staid Science magazine even used the terms "love drug" and "cuddle chemical" to describe oxytocin, Poulin points out.

Poulin says this study was an attempt to apply previous findings to social behaviors on a larger scale; to learn if these chemicals provoke in us other forms of pro-social behavior: urge to give to charity, for instance, or to more readily participate in such civic endeavors as paying taxes, reporting crime, giving blood or sitting on juries.

J.K. Rowling is set to release her first novel since Harry Potter. The setting is a world away from the Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry that made her the world's best-paid author.

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling will release her first novel for adults, The Casual Vacancy, a "blackly comic" tale about the fictional English town Pagford which is more troubled than its "pretty facade" would suggest, her publishers announced Thursday.

The 408-page novel starts with the sudden death of popular councillor Barry Fairweather. "Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils... Pagford is not what it first seems," Rowling's publishers Little, Brown said.