To the family next door, Armin Meiwes seemed the perfect neighbour. He mowed their lawn, repaired their car and even invited them round for dinner. Other residents in the small German town of Rotenburg also believed there was nothing odd about the 42-year-old computer expert, whose light burned late into the night inside his creaking mansion.

Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF holds its annual conference in the southern city of Masvingo on Thursday, but has ruled out any debate on the issue of a successor to President Robert Mugabe. "If there are people who wish succession to dominate the agenda, we are yet to find out how they will do it," said a Zanu-PF official.

A rise in anti-semitism across Europe in the past three years is recorded in a controversial European Union report leaked this week. The World Jewish Congress made the report public after alleging that the EU was suppressing it because the findings were embarrassing.

One-third of the Great Barrier Reef — an area almost the size of Japan — is to be turned into a protected area under conservation plans announced on Wednesday by the Australian government. The proposals will add nearly 100 000 square kilometres, seven times the area currently protected, to the safeguarded region of the reef.