Germany

28 Mar 2019; DW: In a video posted online dated March 16 and shot in Cologne, Otto Gebauer criticizes the government of acting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, discusses the details of a recent conversation with Marian Schuegraf, the German Foreign Ministry's commissioner for Latin America and the Caribbean, and emphasizes the urgency of working with the industrial manufacturer Siemens to reduce power outages back in Venezuela.

28 Mar 2019; DW: Hornbach, a German home improvement store, has been called on to apologize over a commercial that social media users decried as promoting stereotypes against Asian women.

The controversial commercial depicts several white men doing garden work. They are then encouraged to remove their sweaty, dirty clothing — including underwear — and place it in a box.

28 Mar 2019; DW: Germany has extended its current ban on arms exports to Saudi Arabia for six more months, ending on September 30, Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Thursday.

During that period, no new contracts will be approved, Seibert said. The decision came after Merkel met with members of her cabinet to review the policy.

26 Mar 2019; DW: Prosecutors have launched an investigation into a submarine deal between German firm ThyssenKrupp and the Israeli military. Persistent bribery accusations linked to the sale have dogged Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.

25 Mar 2019; DW: Activists from 35 countries met in Berlin this week to call for a ban on lethal autonomous weapons, ahead of new talks on such weapons in Geneva. They say that if Germany took the lead, other countries would follow

25 Mar 2019; DW: Crowds at a far-right rock concert in eastern Germany threw cups of beer at police and journalists and sprayed them with a fire extinguisher, police said on Sunday.

The journalists wanted to report on the event in the town of Ostritz and had initially been refused access. When they returned with a group of police officers, they were attacked by some of the concertgoers. 

23 Mar 2019; DW: A 46-year-old woman and 59-year-old man went on trial in the German city of Darmstadt on Friday on murder and arson charges.

The two parents are accused of killing their 10- and 13-year-old children in their house in the town of Mörlenbach last August, shortly before they were due to be evicted.

23 Mar 2019; DW: Prosecutors in Frankfurt issued a statement on Friday to say the suspects were detained in police raids involving 200 officers in the Frankfurt region earlier in the day.

Commenting on the raids, Hesse state interior minister Peter Beuth said: "Police intervened in a timely manner to prevent possible attack plans at an early stage."

22 Mar 2019; DW: Around 45 percent of migrants taking part in language and integration courses in Germany do not pass, according to media reports citing the response to a request for information by the far-right AfD party.

Of the roughly 202,000 people taking a course in 2018, 93,500 failed, according to government data cited in the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung daily. One in four failed even after doing additional classes.

19 Mar 2019; DW: A court in Münster on Tuesday ruled partly in favor of three plaintiffs from Yemen who believe that their relatives were killed in a 2012 US drone strike that was relayed via an airbase in Germany.

The Münster Higher Administrative Court ruled that the German government must take "appropriate measures" to ascertain whether US operations conducted via the Ramstein Air Base are in line with international law.