Germany

BERLIN (AP) — A major German state is voting Sunday in an election that Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left party hopes will bring some relief from poor recent nationwide poll showings as the country faces high inflation and worries about energy supplies this winter.

BERLIN, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Cables vital for the rail network were intentionally cut in two places causing a near three-hour halt to all rail traffic in northern Germany on Saturday morning, in what authorities called an act of sabotage without identifying who might be responsible.

The federal police are investigating the incident, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said, adding the motive for it was unclear.

BERLIN (AP) — Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the biggest in Europe, has lost its last remaining external power source as a result of renewed shelling and is now relying on emergency diesel generators, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Saturday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said the plant’s link to a 750-kilovolt line was cut at around 1 a.m. Saturday. It cited official information from Ukraine as well as reports from IAEA experts at the site, which is held by Russian forces.

FRANKFURT, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- European corporations have been forced to reduce or halt production and shift investments to the United States to reduce costs amid soaring energy prices.

Many industry observers warned that a prolonged energy crunch could erode Europe's industrial structure for good, and the shutdown and exodus of European companies have sparked a deeper concern over the risk of deindustrialization on the continent.

BERLIN, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Germany's BKA federal police assumes explosions in the Nord Stream pipelines last week were "a targeted act of sabotage" and said it is probable that state actors were involved, the Spiegel weekly reported, citing a letter to industry representatives.

The BKA said in the letter that it did not yet have any findings about who was behind the sabotage but "against the background of the high complexity of the execution of the act and corresponding preparation, the action of state actors seems probable", Spiegel reported.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The OPEC+ alliance of oil-exporting countries decided Wednesday to sharply cut production to support sagging oil prices, a move that could deal the struggling global economy another blow and raise politically sensitive pump prices for U.S. drivers just ahead of key national elections.

Energy ministers cut production by a larger-than-expected 2 million barrels per day starting in November after gathering for their first face-to-face meeting at the Vienna headquarters of the OPEC oil cartel since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

BERLIN, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Tighter financing conditions as a result of higher U.S. interest rates "is more an issue for emerging economies," an expert at the German Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel) has said.

"The associated depreciation of the euro vis-a-vis the U.S. dollar has an additional inflationary effect in the short term, which is not welcome at the current juncture," Klaus-Jurgen Gern, an expert on business cycles and growth at the IfW Kiel, told Xinhua in a recent written interview.

BERLIN, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Germany will deliver the first of four advanced IRIS-T air defence systems to Ukraine in the coming days to help ward off drone attacks, its defence minister Christine Lambrecht said during an unannounced visit to Odessa on Saturday.

As air raid sirens sounded in the port city above, Lambrecht held talks with her Ukrainian counterpart Oleksii Reznikov in an underground bunker. Lambrecht had extended a visit to nearby Moldova for the meeting.

BERLIN (AP) — Swiss police used rubber bullets to disperse protesters in front of the Iranian Embassy in Bern after two men climbed over the embassy’s fence and pulled down the Iranian flag from a flagpole in the yard.

Police said late Saturday that nobody was injured and that the “large crowd” of protesters was dispersed after the use of rubber bullets. The two protesters who entered the embassy’s grounds were detained, according to police in the Swiss capital.

BERLIN (AP) — Austria announced Wednesday that it will start checking travel documents at its border with Slovakia following a similar decision by the Czech Republic to keep migrants from entering without authorization.

The checks were set to start at midnight Wednesday and initially will be enforced at 11 border crossings for 10 days., the Austrian government said.