A nurse jailed for life for killing two patients with lethal drug overdoses murdered at least 90 patients in total, police said. Niels Hoegel, 40, was jailed in February 2015 for two murders and several attempted murders of intensive-care patients at Delmenhorst hospital near the northern city of Bremen. Police said on Monday that investigators exhuming and analysing more bodies had since found evidence of many more murders.

“The death toll is unique in the history of the German republic,” said the chief police investigator, Arne Schmidt, adding that Hoegel killed randomly and preyed especially on those in critical condition. “[There was] evidence for at least 90 murders, and at least as many [suspected] cases again that can no longer be proven,” he told a press conference, declaring himself “speechless” at the outcome. Hoegel admitted to injecting patients with a drug that can cause heart failure or circulatory collapse so he could then try to revive them and, when successful, shine as a saviour before his medical peers. He said he felt euphoric when he managed to bring a patient back to life, and devastated when he failed.(theguardian)…[+]

At least 16 US government employees associated with the US embassy in Havana have suffered unexplained health problems, including hearing loss, that officials believe could be caused by a covert sonic device. The US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Thursday that reports of the “incidents” had started in autumn 2016 and ended in April this year.

Earlier, US officials had said the symptoms appeared to have resulted from a covert sonic device. But Nauert said on Thursday no device nor any perpetrator had yet been found and that Cuba was cooperating with the US investigation. “We take this situation extremely seriously,” Nauert added. Diplomats and their spouses were among those treated in May by doctors in Cuba or the US, Nauert said. Some of the 16 are still in Cuba, while others have returned to the US. Earlier this month the US state department revealed that it had expelled two diplomats from the Cuban embassy in Washington in May after Americans in Cuba “reported incidents which have caused a variety of physical symptoms”. Cuba employs a huge state security apparatus to facilitate constant surveillance of potentially thousands of people, and US diplomats are among the most closely monitored.(theguardian)…[+]

Thailand’s former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra may have fled the country after failing to appear in court to hear the verdict in her long-running trial, according to the junta that ousted her in a coup in 2014 and reports in local media. Thousands of Yingluck’s supporters had massed outside the country’s supreme court on Friday morning to witness the outcome of the trial over allegations of failing to prevent alleged corruption. However, the 50-year-old did not turn up. Her lawyer told the judge that his client was suffering from an issue with fluid in her ear and was unable to attend. The judge ruled the court would issue an arrest warrant and seize her bail bond. “We don’t think that the defendant is ill. We think that the defendant is hiding or has fled … We have pushed back the verdict date to 27 September,” a statement from a supreme court judge said. “She asked for sick leave not to show up today.”(theguardian)…[+]