Germany

BERLIN, February 13. /TASS/: Several hundred politicians from around the world will attend the Munich Security Conference set to take place from February 17-19, with more than a hundred of them being presidents, heads of government or ministers, chairman of the conference Christoph Heusgen told journalists in Berlin on Monday.

"Of these, 150 are high-level government representatives," Heusgen said.

BERLIN, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- Although Germany was criticized by its partners in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for its "late" export approval of Leopard tanks to Ukraine, the country is right not to blindly rush into more and more weapon deliveries and plays a key role in calming its western allies.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned against a "public competition to outdo each other along the lines of battle tanks, submarines, aircraft..." NATO must not become a party in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, he said ahead of a special meeting of the European Union (EU).

BERLIN (AP) — The city of Berlin on Sunday held a court-ordered rerun of a chaotic 2021 state election that was marred by severe glitches at many polling stations and hours-long lines as some polling places ran out of ballot papers or received ones for the wrong district.

Berliners have long been frustrated by the German capital’s notoriously dysfunctional administration, which has defied cliches of German efficiency for years and made the city the laughing stock of the rest of the country.

BERLIN (AP) — Hans Modrow, who served as East Germany’s last communist leader during a turbulent tenure that ended in the country’s first and only free election, has died. He was 95.

Modrow died early Saturday, the Left party parliamentary group tweeted.

Modrow, a reform-minded communist, took over East Germany shortly after the Berlin Wall fell and later invited opposition forces into the government, but could not slow the gathering momentum for German reunification.

BERLIN, Feb 8 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday criticized the public competition among some countries over who can deliver more and better weapons to Ukraine, saying it harmed unity among allies.

"We preserve and strengthen this cohesion by first preparing decisions confidentially - and only then communicating them," Scholz told the Bundestag lower house of parliament according to a manuscript of his speech, citing his cooperation with U.S. President Joe Biden on the decision to supply tanks to Ukraine.

BERLIN (AP) — Asia will for the first time use half of the world’s electricity by 2025, even as Africa continues to consume far less than its share of the global population, according to a new forecast released Wednesday by the International Energy Agency.

Much of Asia’s electricity use will be in China, a nation of 1.4 billion people whose share of global consumption will rise from a quarter in 2015 to a third by the middle of this decade, the Paris-based body said.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Europe imposed a ban Sunday on Russian diesel fuel and other refined oil products, slashing energy dependency on Moscow and seeking to further crimp the Kremlin’s fossil fuel earnings as punishment for invading Ukraine.

The ban comes along with a price cap agreed by the Group of Seven allied democracies. The goal is allowing Russian diesel to keep flowing to countries like China and India and avoiding a sudden price rise that would hurt consumers worldwide, while reducing the profits funding Moscow’s budget and war.

FRANKFURT, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- The European Central Bank (ECB) raised interest rates by 50 basis points on Thursday and signalled at least one more hike of the same magnitude in March.

"In view of the underlying inflation pressures, the Governing Council intends to raise interest rates by another 50 basis points at its next monetary policy meeting in March and it will then evaluate the subsequent path of its monetary policy," the bank said in a statement after the rate-setting meeting.

02 Feb 2023; MEMO: An anti-Semitism commissioner of a major German city is launching a targeted campaign against a Jewish artist and photographer over anti-Semitism allegations for criticising the ongoing Israeli Occupation, threatening his life and career future in the process.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Europe’s economy scraped out meager gains at the end of last year as galloping inflation fed by high energy prices and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine deterred people from spending in shops and restaurants.

Economic output crept 0.1% higher in the last three months of 2022, European Union statistics agency Eurostat reported Tuesday, avoiding an outright downturn as warmer-than-usual winter weather shelved fears of energy rationing in Europe.