Germany

8 Nov 2018; DW: The refugee abuse scandal sent shock waves through Germany when it became public nearly four years ago. Now, 30 guards and workers at the asylum center face a host of charges.

The trial of 30 people accused of abusing refugees at an asylum center in Germany started on Thursday in the western town of Siegen.

It has been nearly four years since shocking images of abuse against refugees in the small western town of Burbach triggered widespread outrage.

8 Nov 2018; DW: France is leading a 10-country defense initiative in a bid to "face new threats" outside existing structures. Germany is wary that the project could entangle its military in foreign interventions and undermine the EU.

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s outgoing domestic intelligence chief won’t be given a new government job after lashing out at one of the governing parties, the interior minister said Monday. It was a late twist to a saga that has contributed to the administration’s unpopularity.

The center-left Social Democrats, part of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition, demanded Hans-Georg Maassen’s removal from the BfV spy agency in September after he appeared to downplay far-right violence against migrants in the eastern city of Chemnitz.

BERLIN; 4 Nov 2018; AA: Germany’s foreign minister has called for continued investigation into the shadowy neo-Nazi terrorist group NSU, which killed nine immigrants between 2000 and 2007.

“It’s a disgrace for us that the right-wing extremists could continue their killing spree for such a long time,” Heiko Maas wrote on Twitter on Sunday, on the seventh anniversary of the exposure of the killers on November 4, 2011.

BERLIN, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday she will not run for chairman of her party, the Christian Democratic Party (CDU).

The move was considered unexpected since Merkel had always insisted the post of party leader and chancellor should be filled by the same person.

Merkel's statement came in a party meeting a day after the state election in Hesse, where the CDU suffered a severe setback by garnering only 27 percent of the vote, a sharp decline from the record of 38.3 percent five years ago.

By Cuneyt Karadag

BERLIN; 28 Oct 2018; DW: Supporters of PKK terror organization on Saturday attacked a Turkish family in the German capital.

During an unauthorized demonstration at Alexander Square around 100 terror supporters unfurled banners, chanted slogans and attacked a Turkish family which came to Berlin for a visit from North Rhine-Westphalia province.

26 Oct 2018; DW: A Turkish court on Friday sentenced a German man to six years and three months in prison for membership of a terrorist organization. In addition, he received a suspended sentence of one year and eight months in jail for entering a military exclusion zone.

Since last year, a number of German citizens have been detained in Turkey, putting serious strain on relations between Berlin and Ankara.

Naumburg; 2 Oct 2018; DW: Three youths in Saxony-Anhalt allegedly stabbed a journalist and made the Hitler salute outside a supermarket. The victim is reportedly in hospital where he is receiving treatment for a six-centimeter-deep stab wound.

A freelance journalist was reportedly stabbed in an attack by three teenagers in Naumburg in the northeastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, local media reported.

1 Oct 2018; DG: Germany's state prosecutor has ordered the arrest of six men charged with forming a far-right terror group known as "Revolution Chemnitz." The men are accused of planning attacks on migrants in eastern Germany.

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s president welcomed his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with full military honors in Berlin on Friday, holding out hope that the state visit will lead to a thaw in relations between the NATO allies.

The two nations have clashed over numerous issues in recent years, including Turkey’s jailing of German journalists and a German parliament resolution labeling the early-20th century killing of Armenians in Turkey as “genocide.”