Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said Germany remains a "highly attractive location" for investors. But the statistics agency said industrial output fell for a third straight month, and that wasn't the only negative news.

Since the start of the fighting mid-April in Sudan, some areas have been completely cut off. As a result, people have been sending hand written messages to loved ones delivered by taxi drivers. Also, a series of attacks in Mali: a military camp has been attacked a day after more than 60 people are killed in two seperate assaults. And the economic fallout of the coup in Niger: sanctions also impact neighbouring country, Nigeria. We hear from some traders in Kano.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his center-left coalition have been plummeting in opinion polls. But a study by the Bertelsmann Foundation finds the government has fulfilled many of its election promises.

The German Red Cross was scheduled to send a relief flight to Morocco on Thursday, upon Moroccan request. The Moroccan government has restricted aid senders to four the governments, excluding Germany, the US and France.

Climate change is partly responsible for the floods that have devastated Libya but the legacy of civil war, political chaos and corruption have exacerbated their impact. Observers say aid is desperately needed.

The European auto industry has raised concern about a wave of cheap, new electric vehicles from China hitting the EU market soon. There are calls for imposing punitive tariffs.

A German newspaper group found that North Rhine-Westphalia, the country's most populous state, saw the most violence against first responders. Experts believe the real number of victims is higher.

Li Shangfu has not been seen in public since August 29. Insider sources reportedly said he is under investigation after China's military procurement unit ordered an internal "clean-up."

German police searched the homes of suspected extremists from Hammerskins Deutschland. It is the 20th far-right organization in Germany to have been banned to date.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Armenia and Azerbaijan have been fighting for control of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is mainly populated by Armenians but internationally recognised as lying within Azerbaijan's borders. A particularly bloody conflict in 2020 enabled Baku to recover a large part of the territory. Both countries have been accused of committing war crimes over the years.

Zelenskyy's visit comes as many conservative Republicans are growing skeptical of US aid to Ukraine. Kyiv has been heavily reliant on weapons assistance from the West as it staves off Russia's invasion.

Syrian President Bashar Assad is due to meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. China has long provided diplomatic support to Assad's regime, and could play a role in reconstructing war-battered Syria.