Germany

BERLIN, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Germany's pandemic-related state of emergency looks set to expire next month after the three political parties in talks to form the next government said on Wednesday they did not support extending it.

The state of emergency that enabled the federal and state government to impose measures like lockdowns and curfews without a parliamentary vote is set to lapse on Nov. 25 unless parliament agrees to extend it.

BERLIN, October 26. /TASS/: German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier presented Chancellor Angela Merkel and members of her cabinet with official resignation papers; the outgoing Chancellor and her cabinet will continue to act as interim government until the new cabinet is established. The presentation ceremony was aired by NTV.

"A lot happened during the last four years. To say that the previous legislative period was difficult, considering the tasks that had to be solved, does not nearly reflect the real state of affairs," the German President noted.

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s newly elected parliament is set to hold its first meeting on Tuesday. The 736-member lower house, or Bundestag, is expected to elect as its new speaker Baerbel Bas of the center-left Social Democrats, which emerged from last month’s election as the strongest party.

BERLIN (AP) — The United Nations reported Tuesday that fresh pledges by governments to cut greenhouse gas emissions raise hopes but aren’t strict enough to avoid catastrophic global warming.

A report by the U.N. Environment Programme found recent announcements by dozens of countries to aim for “net-zero” emissions by 2050 could limit a global temperature rise to 2.2 degrees Celsius (4 F) by the end of the century.

BERLIN (AP) — A German convert to Islam was sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday on charges that, as a member of the extremist Islamic State group in Iraq, she allowed a 5-year-old Yazidi girl she and her husband kept as a slave to die of thirst in the hot sun.

The Higher Regional Court in Munich convicted the 30-year-old, identified only as Jennifer W. in line with privacy rules, of — among other things — membership of a terrorist organization abroad, aiding and abetting attempted murder, attempted war crimes and crimes against humanity, German news agency dpa reported.

BERLIN, Oct 24 (Reuters) - German police said on Sunday they had stopped more than 50 far-right vigilantes armed with pepper spray, a bayonet, a machete and batons who were trying to patrol the Polish border to stop migrants from entering the country.

The vigilantes were following a call by the Third Way, a far right-party with suspected links to neo-Nazi groups, for its members to stop illegal crossings near the town of Guben on the German-Polish border.

BERLIN, October 22. /TASS/: All the available capacities for natural gas supplies from Russia to Europe are used, spokesperson of the German Ministry of Economy Beate Baron said on Friday.

"According to my data, pipeline capacities are used properly," she said. "You need to check with market players how high capacities are," Baron added.

"Various routes [of gas supplies] to Germany exist. There are two lines of the Nord Stream, supplies over Yamal (the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline - TASS). Volumes are available on the market," she said.

BERLIN, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The liberal FDP party has followed in the footsteps of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Greens by agreeing to enter into official coalition negotiations to form a new government, German media reported on Monday.

On Friday, the SPD was the first of the three parties to speak out in favor of negotiations. The Greens followed suit on Sunday, agreeing to negotiate the formation of a so-called traffic light coalition.

BERLIN, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Germany's business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) joined the Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens on Monday in approving a decision by party leaders to proceed with three-way coalition talks to form what they called "a government of the middle".

The FDP leadership and members of parliament voted in favour of the start to negotiations after initial exploratory talks that saw the three parties agree a roadmap. The Greens and centre-left SPD had already given their approval.

BERLIN, Oct 15 (Reuters) - The leader of Germany's centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), Olaf Scholz, took a major step towards succeeding Angela Merkel as chancellor on Friday, announcing that he and the leaders of two smaller parties aimed to move into formal coalition talks.

The leaders of the SPD, who came first in last month's election, the Greens and the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) said exploratory talks had been constructive and allowed them to establish a road map for more formal negotiations.