Germany

BERLIN (AP) — Germans are beginning to embrace electric cars, with experts predicting the country will have a million hybrid or battery-electric vehicles on the road by 2022.

The government originally aimed to have that many e-cars in Germany by 2020, but slow uptake in the land of the Autobahn forced it to abandon that goal.

A government advisory panel said Wednesday that recent additional financial incentives for buyers have helped provide the necessary jolt for Germany to reach the million mark two years late.

Bremervorde, Sep 17 (AFP) Germany on Monday rolled out the world's first hydrogen-powered train, signalling the start of a push to challenge the might of polluting diesel trains with costlier but more eco-friendly technology.

Two bright blue Coradia iLint trains, built by French TGV-maker Alstom, began running a 100-kilometre route between the towns and cities of Cuxhaven, Bremerhaven, Bremervoerde and Buxtehude in northern Germany -- a stretch normally plied by diesel trains.

16 Sep 2018; DW: Some 12,000 people took to the streets in Cologne, Dortmund and Gelsenkirchen on Sunday to demand the German government cease deportations to countries like Iraq and Afghanistan.

Opponents of the policy say both nations are too dangerous for individuals to be deported to, and that they should be allowed to stay in Germany instead.

13 Sep 2018; DW: A 33-year-old has been convicted of hate speech and assault after displaying a banned Nazi greeting at a far-right rally. The district court in Chemnitz is fast-tracking trials related to the recent unrest in the city.

A German court on Thursday sentenced a 33-year-old man to eight months probation and a fine of €2,000 ($2,300) for making the Hitler salute during far-right protests in Chemnitz.

BERLIN, September 14. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will discuss the situation in Idlib at a meeting on September 17 in Sochi, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday at a plenary session of the German-Russian Forum.

VILNIUS, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- The European Union will not consider lifting its sanctions on Russia until the implementation of Minsk agreements, however, the EU's dialogue with Russia must be maintained, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said here Friday.

"Ukraine's territorial integrity has not been restored and this remains to be a key topic. We will not consider lifting sanctions on Russia until the Minsk agreements are implemented," Merkel told a joint press conference with Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite.

12 Sep 2018; DW: A study commissioned by the German Bishops Conference examined 3,677 cases of abuse allegedly perpetrated by clergy nationwide, German magazine Der Spiegel reported on Wednesday. The universities of Giessen, Heidelberg and Mannheim were involved in the research, which implicated 1,670 priests in sexual abuse spanning from 1946 to 2014.

Chemnitz; 9 Sep 2018; DW: The reported attack on a Jewish restaurant in the eastern German city of Chemnitz has shocked the Jewish community in Germany. The government's anti-Semitism commissioner has spoken of a "new quality" of offense.

2 Sep 2018; DW: Almost 20,000 people have marched through Berlin and Hamburg demanding that Germany take in more migrants stranded at sea. Sunday's marches were organized in response to the violent anti-migrant protests in Chemnitz.

Up to 16,000 people marched through the northern German city of Hamburg on Sunday, urging officials to open up the city's ports to stranded migrant rescue ships in the Mediterranean.

CHEMNITZ, Germany (AP) — Germany’s foreign minister told his fellow countrymen Sunday they’re too lazy when it comes to battling racism and fighting for democracy.

“We have to get off the couch and open the mouth,” Heiko Maas said in an interview with weekly Bild am Sonntag. “Our generation was given freedom, rule of law and democracy as a present. We didn’t have to fight for it; (now) we’re taking it too much for granted.”