Germany

BERLIN, September 14. /TASS/: OPAL Gastransport GmbH, operator of OPAL pipeline, has restricted the usage of the pipeline’s transit capacities, the operator said on Saturday.

"By 09:00 (10:00 Moscow time), gas supplies through the Greifswald point were reduced to 32.76 mln kW/h from approximately 44 mln kW/h the day before. At the same time, gas supplies from the Nord Stream pipeline via another gas pipeline, NEL, increased.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday there was still every chance for Britain’s divorce from the European Union to take place with a deal although Berlin is prepared for a disorderly Brexit in case that does not happen.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s stated aim is to persuade the EU to give him a new deal at a summit on Oct. 17-18. Parliament has passed a law compelling him to ask Brussels to delay the departure until 2020 unless he can strike a deal but Johnson has said he will not request an extension.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Monday welcomed the release of Hong Kong’s Joshua Wong from police custody and said he was prepared to meet the pro-democracy activist in Berlin.

Maas said he had heard that Wong was on the way to the German capital and added that he may have an opportunity to talk to him later on Monday.

BERLIN, Sept 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Dozens of demonstrators belonging to a group called “Stop the Coup” gathered in central Berlin on Saturday to protest against a no-deal Brexit.

The protesters, who collected signatures for a petition, said they wanted to defend British democracy following Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s order to suspend parliament for five weeks before Britain is due to leave the EU on Oct 31.

BERLIN (AP) — The U.N.’s top refugee official urged India to ensure no one is left stateless by the exclusion of nearly 2 million people from a citizenship list in Assam state.

“Any process that could leave large numbers of people without a nationality would be an enormous blow to global efforts to eradicate statelessness,” Filippo Grandi, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, said in a statement issued Sunday in Geneva.

1 September 2019; AFP: German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Sunday asked Poland's forgiveness for history's bloodiest conflict during a ceremony in the Polish city of Wielun, where the first World War II bombs fell 80 years ago.

"I bow before the victims of the attack on Wielun. I bow before the Polish victims of German tyranny. And I ask your forgiveness," Steinmeier said in both German and Polish.

BERLIN (AP) — Two states in eastern Germany are holding elections Sunday that could bring big gains for a far-right party, further destabilize Chancellor Angela Merkel’s national government and highlight continuing cracks in German unity nearly 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Voters in Saxony, a region of around 4.1 million people bordering Poland and the Czech Republic, and neighboring Brandenburg, which has 2.5 million inhabitants and surrounds Berlin, are electing new state legislatures.

BERLIN, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Frankfurt public prosecutor's office has opened investigations into a police officer suspected of having sent pictures with right-wing extremist content in a WhatsApp chat, a spokesperson for the office said on Thursday.

According to hessenschau.de, which had first reported on the case, the suspect was a service group leader in the Muehlheim police force.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today began an official visit to Germany, where he will meet his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Palestinian Ambassador to Germany, Khouloud Daibes, told the official Voice of Palestine radio: “Abbas is discussing with his German counterpart and the German chancellor the latest political developments in the Palestinian arena.”

BERLIN (Reuters) - German business sentiment deteriorated more than expected in August to hit its lowest since November 2012, a survey showed on Monday, in a further sign that escalating trade disputes are pushing Europe’s largest economy toward a recession.

Germany’s export-reliant manufacturers are struggling with weaker foreign demand, tariff disputes sparked by U.S. President Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ policies and business uncertainty linked to Britain’s decision to leave the European Union.