German ambassador to China, ex-Merkel adviser, dies at 54

BERLIN (AP) — The German Foreign Ministry says the country’s new ambassador to China, who was previously a senior adviser to Chancellor Angela Merkel, has died at age 54. The ministry announced Jan Hecker’s “sudden death” in a short statement in the early hours of Monday. It didn’t give details of when or where Hecker died, or specify a cause of death. Hecker, who became ambassador in August, was married and had three children, according to his biography on the Foreign Ministry website. He started work at the chancellery in 2015 as the head of a unit coordinating refugee policy. He became Merkel’s foreign policy adviser — an influential post, though one with a low public profile — in 2017.