Germany

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany and its European Union partners will agree in the coming days a joint response to the poisoning in Russia of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny with a nerve agent in the banned Novichok family, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Wednesday.

“It is a serious violation of civic rights committed with a chemical nerve agent, and we firmly believe that this cannot remain without consequence,” Maas told German lawmakers in Berlin, where Navalny has been treated.

BERLIN (AP) — A Russian man accused of the downtown Berlin daylight murder of a Georgian on Moscow’s orders was going on trial Wednesday, in a case that has contributed to growing friction between Germany and Russia.

Vadim K., alias Vadim S., is accused of being contracted by “state agencies of the central government of the Russian Federation” to carry out the killing in a small park only a few hundred meters (yards) from the Berlin district court where his trial is being held, according to the indictment.

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s justice minister on Monday called an attack on a Jewish student outside a synagogue “a horrible act of violence.”

“The hatred against Jews is a disgrace for our country,” Christine Lambrecht said in a statement. “We have to further confront agitation against Jews and be there more for the victims of hatred and violence.”

BERLIN (Reuters) - The outlook for the aviation industry has deteriorated again due to rising coronavirus infections and renewed travel restrictions, Airbus chief operating officer Michael Schoellhorn was quoted as saying on Saturday.

With air travel at a fraction of normal levels due to restrictions and travellers’ fears related to the pandemic, airlines have slowed deliveries of new aircraft.

Airbus has said it needs to shed 15,000 posts worldwide.

BERLIN, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Germany's Federal Institute for Vaccines and Biomedicines, the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut (PEI), approved the third clinical trial of a potential COVID-19 vaccine on Friday.

The vaccine candidate was developed by the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) and the pharmaceutical company IDT Biologika. During the Phase-1 trial, 30 healthy adult volunteers between 18 and 55 years would receive two vaccinations at a four-week interval, according to PEI.

BERLIN, September 30./TASS/: German Chancellor Angela Merkel views the case of Russian blogger Alexey Navalny as an issue that should be addressed globally, and not just a matter between Germany and Russia.

"This is not a bilateral case, but a crime that occurred on Russian territory and that violates the Chemical Weapons Convention, which makes it also an international issue," the chancellor said in the Bundestag during a debate on the federal budget for the next year.

BERLIN, September 28. /TASS/: German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Russian blogger Alexey Navalny when he was undergoing treatment in Berlin’s Charite hospital, Germany’s Der Spiegel wrote, citing sources.

According to Der Spiegel, Merkel’s "unusual move highlighted the German government’s solidarity with Alexey Navalny." She visited Navalny "in total secrecy."

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany plans to issue 6 billion euros ($7 billion) more debt in the fourth quarter than it originally planned, the German finance agency said on Monday, to fund spending to tackle the coronavirus pandemic that has battered the economy.

Europe’s largest economy will issue a total of 50.5 billion euros in debt in the October-December period excluding inflation-linked debt, the agency said.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany still does not recognise Alexander Lukashenko as president of Belarus even after his inauguration on Wednesday, government spokesman Steffen Seibert said.

Lukashenko was sworn in for a new term on Wednesday in an inauguration denounced as illegitimate by the opposition, which called for more protests against his 26-year rule.

A German Foreign Ministry spokesman said Berlin wanted to agree European Union sanctions against Belarus as quickly as possible.

BERLIN (AP) — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been released from a Berlin hospital after more than a month’s treatment for poisoning, with doctors now believing that a “complete recovery” from the nerve agent is possible, the facility said Wednesday.

Navalny spent 32 days in treatment in Berlin’s Charite hospital, 24 of which were in intensive care, before doctors deemed his “condition had improved sufficiently for him to be discharged from acute inpatient care.”