Birth rate in Germany hits 33-year high

BERLIN • The birth rate in Germany reached the highest level in 33 years last year, boosted mainly by babies born to migrant women, the Federal Statistics Office said yesterday.

The rate was 1.5 births per woman last year, up from 1.47 births a year earlier, and the highest figure since 1982, when it was 1.51.

Germany and other advanced European economies have some of the world's lowest birth rates. Some 70 per cent of the almost 900,000 migrants who entered Germany last year seeking asylum were Muslims, who tend to have larger families than widely secular, European-born citizens.

The birth rate among migrant women only was 1.95, up from 1.86 in 2014. The rate rose to 1.43 births per woman from 1.42 among Germans.

REUTERS

10 killed in Brazil prison gang clashes

SAO PAULO • At least 10 inmates were decapitated and burned in clashes between rival criminal factions at a prison in north-eastern Brazil.

Sunday's confrontation at the Penitenciaria Agricola de Monte Cristo in Boa Vista was triggered when members of the Primeiro Comando da Capital prison gang invaded the prison wing where inmates from rival group Comando Vermelho were held, local news website UOL reported.

Violent prison fights and riots are common in Brazil's overcrowded prison system, which has long been criticised by human rights organisations for its prison conditions.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE