Germany

BERLIN (Reuters) - The world’s largest economies should continue their rescue and support measures for workers and companies in the COVID-19 pandemic as the recovery is taking longer than initially thought, German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Friday.

“We must not scale back the support programs too early and too quickly,” Scholz said ahead of a virtual meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors of the world’s top 20 economies, adding he would campaign with his G20 colleagues for continued stimulus.

BERLIN, Feb 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) – A German court yesterday convicted alleged Syrian secret service agent, Eyad A. of aiding and abetting crimes against humanity and sentenced him to prison for four and a half years.

It was considered as proven that the man “provided assistance to others, to seriously deprive 30 people of their physical liberty and to torture them while in custody,” a statement by the Higher Regional Court Koblenz, read.

It is the world’s first trial in which a former Syrian official was convicted of crimes against humanity.

IBACH, Germany (Reuters) - Just over two weeks after his poisoning with a military-grade nerve agent in Siberia, Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny began to respond to the words of his wife Yulia and wake from a drug-induced coma.

As he emerged from what he would later describe as days of appalling hallucinations, he found himself in Berlin’s Charite hospital, where he’d been evacuated for emergency treatment on Aug. 22. He would later recount how he had to be lifted into a chair from his hospital bed and would sit with his mouth open, staring at a single spot on the wall.

KOBLENZ, Germany (Reuters) - A German court sentenced a former member of President Bashar al-Assad’s security services to 4-1/2 years in prison on Wednesday for facilitating the torture of civilians, the first such verdict for crimes against humanity in the 10-year-old Syrian civil war.

The higher regional court in the western city of Koblenz said Eyad A. had arrested at least 30 anti-government protesters at the start of the conflict in 2011 and sent them to an intelligence facility where he knew detainees were tortured.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany said it expected to receive 16 million doses of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine in the second quarter, the health ministry said.

That could represent a shortfall from the company’s commitments to deliver about twice that number of doses to Germany in that quarter, according to the leaked contract with the EU.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that delivery volumes to the European Union were expected to be at half the level AstraZeneca had contracted to supply in the second quarter.

BERLIN/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission on Tuesday told six EU nations to ease unilateral border restrictions they have set up to combat COVID-19, as it sought to coordinate a less restrictive approach to the movement of goods and people within the bloc.

The EU executive’s Justice Commissioner, Didier Reynders, said it had given Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary and Sweden 10 days to justify curbs he said had “gone too far”.

BERLIN (Reuters) - China has tried to intimidate Hong Kong residents living in Germany since pro-democracy protests broke out in the city two years ago, the German interior ministry said in a letter to a lawmaker published on Tuesday.

The letter, sent to the head of parliament’s human rights committee, Gyde Jensen, in response to a request for information on the subject, could add to pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel to take a firmer line toward China over human rights.

BERLIN, February 22. /TASS/: Nord Stream 2 AG, the project operator of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, has filed a request to the German federal navigation and hydrographic authority (BSH) for the immediate entry into force of the earlier issued permit to construct the gas pipeline in German waters, NDR radio station reports.

A regulator’s spokesperson confirmed receipt of the request and noted that "it is under review." No information has been provided so far regarding the time when the authority will decide upon the request.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A former Nazi concentration camp guard who lived in the United States for over 60 years returned to Germany on Saturday after being expelled, a police spokesman said.

The 95-year-old man faces questioning by local police after arriving at Frankfurt airport. He was not arrested. U.S. Justice Department officials have named him as Friedrich Karl Berger, while Germany authorities refer to him only as Friedrich Karl B.

BERLIN, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Embassy in Germany on Saturday accused German tabloid BILD of hyping up conspiracy theories over the origins of the novel coronavirus, saying its reports are "tasteless and shameless."

In a statement, the Chinese Embassy said the so-called "study" cited by BILD is not a logical and science-based report at all. Shortly after being published, the "study" was widely questioned and sharply criticized by the scientific circle as well as the media and the public in Germany.