Germany

BERLIN, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- The free trade deal agreed by the UK and the European Union (EU) on Christmas Eve would significantly lessen the negative economic impact of Brexit, according to a study published by Germany's Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) on Tuesday.

"The agreement on a comprehensive agreement between the EU and the UK without tariffs and without quotas is a good signal for the economy in Germany, the EU and the UK," said Minister for Economic Affairs Peter Altmaier in a statement.

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s disease control center on Tuesday reported 944 more COVID-19 deaths, fueling expectations that Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country’s 16 state governors will extend the country’s lockdown until the end of the month.

Germany’s latest lockdown took effect Dec. 16 after a partial shutdown starting in early November failed to reduce the number of daily new coronavirus infections. It was initially set to expire Jan. 10.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany is likely to extend a national lockdown beyond Jan. 10 to curb coronavirus infection rates that are still running high and putting huge strains on hospitals and health workers, politicians said at the weekend.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and regional leaders are expected to agree to extend the restrictions when they convene on Tuesday. It is not yet clear how long the extension would last.

BERLIN, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- The new coronavirus variant discovered in Britain earlier this month seems to have been present in Germany since November, German national daily Die Welt said Monday.

Researchers at Hannover Medical School detected the new variant in samples of an elderly patient who contracted the virus around November and later died, the newspaper said.

Germany reported its first known case of the new variant on Thursday in a woman who flew in from Britain, according to the health ministry of the southwestern state of Baden-Wurttemberg. 

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Germany, Hungary and Slovakia began giving out their first coronavirus vaccine shots on Saturday only hours after receiving their first shipments, upsetting the European Union’s plans for a coordinated rollout Sunday across the bloc’s 27 nations.

“Every day that we wait is one day too many,” said Tobias Krueger, operator of a nursing home where immunizations began in Halberstadt, in the northeast German region of Saxony-Anhalt.

BERLIN, Dec 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Four people were injured in a shooting early Saturday in Germany’s capital Berlin, the fire service said.

A police spokeswoman said four people were taken to the hospital following an altercation involving several people in the Kreuzberg district.

The shooting took place in a gateway on Stresemannstraße, close to the offices of the center-left Social Democrat Party (SPD).

The police spokeswoman said there was no indication of a political motive but that the situation was still very unclear.

BERLIN, December 25. /TASS/: Vaccination which starts on December 27 in Germany "at first won’t influence the epidemic" of the coronavirus infection, President of the German Association for the Control of Viral Diseases Helmut Fickenscher said in an interview with the DPA news agency on Friday.

BERLIN/BEIJING (Reuters) - The Chinese foreign ministry on Thursday denied that talks on an investment pact between the European Union and China had run into complications due to Chinese demands on nuclear power investment.

Negotiations have stalled at the last stretch because China is raising additional demands on nuclear energy, German magazine WirtschaftsWoche reported on Wednesday.

“As I understand, talks are goings smoothly,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a news briefing on Thursday.

23 Dec 2020; MEMO: Germany opposes a request submitted by Greece to impose an arms embargo on Turkey over tensions between the two countries in the Eastern Mediterranean region, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said yesterday.

In remarks to Germany's DPA news agency, Maas said Greece's request to the European Union (EU) to impose an arms embargo on Turkey was "strategically incorrect".

BERLIN (AP) — German doctors treating Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny after he was poisoned with a nerve agent have detailed the case in an article for a major medical journal.

Berlin’s Charite hospital said Wednesday that Navalny had given his permission for the article to be published in The Lancet journal.

Navalny fell ill suddenly on a domestic flight in Russia on Aug. 20. Following an emergency landing and treatment at a Siberian hospital in Omsk, after two days of political wrangling Navalny was flown to Berlin on a private air ambulance on Aug. 22.