Germany

FRANKFURT, Jan 19 (Reuters) - A Syrian doctor suspected of crimes against humanity, including torturing prisoners at military hospitals in Syria, went on trial in Germany on Wednesday in the second such case over alleged state-backed torture in Syria's conflict.

After a landmark German court ruling last week sentencing a Syrian former intelligence officer to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity, the trial of the 36-year-old doctor started at the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main.

19 Jan 2022; MEMO: Germany's arms sales have hit a record high after they were bumped up by weapons sales to Egypt, according to government figures.

In 2021 Germany exported 9.35 billion euros worth of arms, $10.65 billion, up 61 per cent from 2020, with most of these exports being authorised by the previous government under former Chancellor Angela Merkel.

BERLIN/MOSCOW, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Germany may consider halting the Nord Stream 2 pipeline if Russia attacks Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz signalled on Tuesday, as pressure grew on his government to take a more hawkish stance on the Kremlin.

Scholz met NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in Berlin to discuss the next steps after talks between Russia and Western states on the Kremlin's deployment of troops along Ukraine's border ended without a breakthrough last week.

BERLIN (AP) — The European Space Agency has narrowed down the candidate list for its next generation of astronauts, including dozens who have a physical disability.

The agency announced last year that it had received a record number of 22,589 applicants from people hoping to become the continent’s next generation of space travelers.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The risk of recession is looming for Germany after Europe’s biggest economy shrank at the end of 2021 and as it faces a bumpy start to this year, with the rapid spread of COVID-19′s omicron variant deterring people from shopping and travel and supply bottlenecks holding back manufacturers.

KOBLENZ, Germany (AP) — A former Syrian secret police officer was convicted by a German court Thursday of crimes against humanity for overseeing the abuse of detainees at a jail near Damascus a decade ago.

Anwar Raslan is the highest-ranking Syrian official so far convicted of the charge. The verdict was keenly anticipated by those who suffered abuse or lost relatives at the hands of President Bashar Assad’s government in Syria’s long-running conflict.

BERLIN, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- The number of daily COVID-19 cases in Germany hit a new record of 80,430 on Wednesday, according to data released by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).

Seventy-two percent of the country's population has been fully vaccinated as of Tuesday, according to official figures by the RKI and the Ministry of Health (BMG). At least 36.8 million people also received a booster vaccination.

However, 21 million people remain unvaccinated.

BERLIN, January 10./TASS/: The conflict in Donbass cannot be solved militarily, the German Federal Cabinet said in comments on requests from Ukrainian Ambassador to Berlin Andrei Melnik to supply defensive weapons to Kiev.

FRANKFURT, Jan 9 (Reuters) - The European Union plans to legislate in the coming months to require technology companies to do more to tackle child sexual abuse, beefing up current voluntary arrangements, a top official said in a newspaper interview.

EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson told Germany's Welt am Sonntag that internet service providers and social media firms had reported 22 million offences related to child sexual abuse in 2020, up from 17 million in 2019.

But she said that was only a fraction of the real number.

BERLIN, Jan 7 (APP): Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Friday said that IIOJK presented a sad face of human tragedy, political havoc and a constant denial of human rights to generations of innocent Kashmiris by fascist Indian regime.

“Jammu and Kashmir is not a territorial dispute, but a matter of the people of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir,” he said while addressing a webinar organized by the Embassy of Pakistan, Berlin to mark the Jammu and Kashmir, Right to Self-determination Day.