Germany

BERLIN/PARIS, Sept 1 (Reuters) - France and Germany on Wednesday urged Iran to return rapidly to nuclear negotiations, after a break in talks following Iranian elections in June, with Paris demanding an "immediate" restart amid Western concerns over Tehran's expanding atomic work.

France's foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told his newly-appointed Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian in a telephone call it was urgent for Tehran to return to the talks, Le Drian's ministry said in a statement.

BERLIN, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday migrants who settle in Germany are German even if they have foreign-sounding names, making a subtle dig at a widespread habit among white Germans of asking Turks born on German soil where they come from.

"Integration cannot be a seven-generation endeavour that never ends just because one isn't called Klaus or Erika," Merkel said with a wry smile during a ceremony to mark 60 years since Germany signed a treaty with Turkey to bring in hundreds of thousands of Turkish men to fill labour shortages in the 1960s.

BERLIN, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives on Monday rallied behind their candidate to replace her after a national election on Sept. 26, promising to go on the offensive after he struggled to revive their campaign in a debate with rivals.

Armin Laschet, leader of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), lost a heated televised debate with his two main rivals on Sunday, according to a snap poll, as surveys show his party falling behind the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).

BERLIN, Aug 29 (Reuters) - The campaign over who will replace German Chancellor Angela Merkel heated up on Sunday after an opinion poll showed the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) opening up a bigger lead over Merkel's conservatives.

Support for the SPD rose two points from last week to 24%, their highest result in four years according to the INSA poll conducted for the Bild am Sonntag newspaper. The conservatives slipped one point to 21%, their lowest ever polled by INSA.

LEIPZIG (Germany), Aug 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Sayed Sadaat used to be communications minister in the Afghan government before moving to Germany last December in the hope of a better future.

Now he is a delivery man in the eastern city of Leipzig.

He said some at home criticised him for taking such a job after having served in the government for two years, leaving office in 2018. But for him now, a job is a job.

“I have nothing to feel guilty about,” the 49-year-old British-Afghan dual citizen said, standing in his orange uniform next to his bike.

BERLIN (AP) — It’s not that politics bore him; quite the opposite. But Christoph Gillitzer is stumped by whom to vote for in Germany’s federal election next month.

The retired engineer says he usually backs the underdog, yet the choices on offer Sept. 26 don’t have him convinced.

“It’s really difficult this time,” he said on a dreary Berlin morning this week.

Like Gillitzer, a large chunk of the German electorate remains undecided going into a parliamentary election that will determine who succeeds Angela Merkel as chancellor after her 16 years in office.

BERLIN, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Germany's centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) have pulled ahead of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives for the first time in 15 years, according to an opinion poll published on Tuesday, just a month before the country's federal election.

Germany goes to the polls on Sept. 26, when Merkel steps down as chancellor after 16 years in office and four straight national election victories. Merkel's imminent departure has heightened divisions over the direction of the party.

BERLIN (AP) — Seven people at a university in western Germany have received medical treatment after showing symptoms of poisoning, and prosecutors have opened an investigation into suspicions of attempted murder, authorities said Tuesday.

BERLIN, Aug 23 (Reuters) - With just five weeks to go before Germany holds an election that decides who succeeds Chancellor Angela Merkel, Syrians on asylum visas are concerned that an Afghan migrant crisis could fuel an anti-immigrant vote and block their path to citizenship.

Some leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party are warning about a possible influx of Afghan refugees, seeking to draw voters fearing a repeat of the 2015 migrant crisis when Merkel opened Germany's borders to almost one million asylum seekers.

BERLIN (AP) — Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie, an iconic modern art museum designed by Bauhaus pioneer Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, reopened to the public Sunday after a six-year refurbishment of the glass-fronted building.

Germany’s culture minister, Monika Gruetters, said during a celebration ceremony held Saturday that the occasion marked the museum’s “brilliant comeback as a pilgrimage site for lovers of modern art and as a stage for contemporary artists.”