Germany

BERLIN, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his Social Democrats are pushing ahead with one of their key election promises by increasing the national minimum wage to 12 euros ($13.62) per hour from October onwards, a draft law seen by Reuters showed on Friday.

Currently, Germany's minimum wage is 9.82 euros per hour. It will increase to 10.45 euros per hour from July.

BERLIN/KYIV, Jan 20 (Reuters) - The United States and Western countries sought to project unity and a tough stance over Ukraine on Thursday, after U.S. President Joe Biden suggested allies were split over how to react to any potential "minor incursion" from Russia.

Biden rowed back on his comments, made during a Wednesday news conference, saying on Thursday that "I have been absolutely clear with President (Vladimir) Putin, he has no misunderstanding. If any, any assembled Russian units move across the Ukrainian border that is an invasion".

BERLIN (AP) — Top American and European diplomats sought to project a united front to Russia on Thursday over concerns that it may be planning an invasion of Ukraine.

Russia has massed an estimated 100,000 troops near Ukraine, and U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday he thinks Moscow will invade. He warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that his country would pay a “dear price” in lives lost and a possible cutoff from the global banking system if it does.

FRANKFURT, Jan 19 (Reuters) - A Syrian doctor suspected of crimes against humanity, including torturing prisoners at military hospitals in Syria, went on trial in Germany on Wednesday in the second such case over alleged state-backed torture in Syria's conflict.

After a landmark German court ruling last week sentencing a Syrian former intelligence officer to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity, the trial of the 36-year-old doctor started at the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main.

19 Jan 2022; MEMO: Germany's arms sales have hit a record high after they were bumped up by weapons sales to Egypt, according to government figures.

In 2021 Germany exported 9.35 billion euros worth of arms, $10.65 billion, up 61 per cent from 2020, with most of these exports being authorised by the previous government under former Chancellor Angela Merkel.

BERLIN/MOSCOW, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Germany may consider halting the Nord Stream 2 pipeline if Russia attacks Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz signalled on Tuesday, as pressure grew on his government to take a more hawkish stance on the Kremlin.

Scholz met NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in Berlin to discuss the next steps after talks between Russia and Western states on the Kremlin's deployment of troops along Ukraine's border ended without a breakthrough last week.

BERLIN (AP) — The European Space Agency has narrowed down the candidate list for its next generation of astronauts, including dozens who have a physical disability.

The agency announced last year that it had received a record number of 22,589 applicants from people hoping to become the continent’s next generation of space travelers.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The risk of recession is looming for Germany after Europe’s biggest economy shrank at the end of 2021 and as it faces a bumpy start to this year, with the rapid spread of COVID-19′s omicron variant deterring people from shopping and travel and supply bottlenecks holding back manufacturers.

KOBLENZ, Germany (AP) — A former Syrian secret police officer was convicted by a German court Thursday of crimes against humanity for overseeing the abuse of detainees at a jail near Damascus a decade ago.

Anwar Raslan is the highest-ranking Syrian official so far convicted of the charge. The verdict was keenly anticipated by those who suffered abuse or lost relatives at the hands of President Bashar Assad’s government in Syria’s long-running conflict.

BERLIN, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- The number of daily COVID-19 cases in Germany hit a new record of 80,430 on Wednesday, according to data released by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).

Seventy-two percent of the country's population has been fully vaccinated as of Tuesday, according to official figures by the RKI and the Ministry of Health (BMG). At least 36.8 million people also received a booster vaccination.

However, 21 million people remain unvaccinated.