Germany

(Reuters) --- Germany must update its climate law by the end of next year to set out how it will bring carbon emissions down to almost zero by 2050, its top court ruled on Thursday, siding with a young woman who argued rising sea levels would engulf her family farm.

The court concluded that a law passed in 2019 had failed to make sufficient provision for cuts beyond 2030, casting a shadow over a signature achievement of Chancellor Angela Merkel's final term in office.

BERLIN (AP) — German police said Thursday that a 51-year-old woman detained on suspicion of killing four people at a hospital in the eastern city of Potsdam is an employee at the clinic.

Officers called to the Oberlin Clinic shortly before 9 p.m. on Wednesday found the victims and a fifth person who was seriously injured in patient rooms, Brandenburg state police said.

“The victims showed signs of significant external violence,” police spokesman Thorsten Herbst told The Associated Press.

(Reuters) --- Germany's domestic spy agency is monitoring individuals who have joined anti-lockdown protests to decide if their rejection of government curbs amounts to subversion and incitement to violence.

The surveillance includes some members of the "Querdenker" or "Lateral Thinkers" movement, which has been organising increasingly violent protests against coronavirus lockdowns and includes conspiracy theorists and suspected far-right extremists, a spokeswoman for the BfV spy agency said.

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel pressed China’s prime minister Wednesday for broader discussions on human rights issues, telling him that the relationship between their countries “means that we can address difficult issues and put everything on the table.”

The comments came after Merkel and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang led broad-ranging governmental consultations on issues like the fight against the spread of the coronavirus, economic cooperation and other topics. The talks were held virtually due to the pandemic.

BERLIN (AP) — Europe can achieve herd immunity against the coronavirus within the next four months, the head of German pharmaceutical company BioNTech, which developed the first widely approved COVID-19 vaccine with U.S. partner Pfizer, said Wednesday.

While the exact threshold required to reach that critical level of immunization remains a matter of debate, experts say a level above 70% would significantly disrupt transmission of the coronavirus within a population.

27 Apr 2021; MEMO: Police forces in a number of European countries raided call centres and arrested suspects last month in connection with alleged investment scams linked to Israel, the Times of Israel reported last week. The raids by police in Germany, Kosovo and Bulgaria took place on 31 March.

BERLIN April 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Germany will send oxygen and medical aid to India in the coming days to help it tackle its COVID-19 crisis, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said.

India is suffering from a spike in coronavirus infections, with the number of cases surging by 349,691 in the past 24 hours, the fourth straight day of record peaks. Hospitals are turning away patients after running out of medical oxygen.

BERLIN, April 25. /TASS/: German Minister of Economy and Energy Peter Altmeier believes it would be wrong to connect the completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project and the situation surrounding Russian blogger Alexey Navalny.

(Reuters) --- Germany's Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Sunday the opposition Greens candidate for chancellor, Annalena Baerbock, lacked political experience and said he was better placed to lead Europe's largest economy after a Sept. 26 election.

The Greens said last week Baerbock would run to become chancellor, the first time the left-leaning ecologist party has sought the top job in its 40-year history.

(Reuters) --- Germany's coronavirus infection rate rose at the weekend despite stricter restrictions and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said he did not expect moves to ease curbs before the end of May.

"We need a timetable how to get back to normal life, but it must be a plan that won't have to be revoked after just a few days," Scholz told Bild am Sonntag.