A Syrian man suspected of planning a bomb attack was checked by a trainee guard 15 minutes before he was found dead in a German jail cell, authorities say.

A Syrian man arrested in Germany over a suspected Islamic extremist bomb plot has killed himself in a prison cell in Leipzig, according to Saxony's state Justice Ministry.

Security officials from German chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative bloc are proposing a ban on wearing the burka and other face-covering veils in schools, courts, while driving and in other situations.

Germany has proposed stripping dual nationals who fight for extremist groups abroad of their citizenship.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility after a Syrian blew himself up outside a wine bar, injuring 15 people.

A 17-year-old Afghan asylum seeker who launched an axe and knife attack on passengers on a train in Germany is believed to have acted alone.

Police in Germany are in possession of files containing personal data on members of the extremist Islamic State group and believe them to be authentic.

Turkish police have arrested five people suspected of direct links to the suicide bombing that killed 10 Germans in Istanbul's main tourist area.

Munich train stations reopened and trains were running again yesterday as Bavaria’s top security official said that the warning about Islamic State (IS) extremists intending to blow themselves up in the German city was no longer acute.

Bavarian allies cranked up pressure on German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday to reverse her “open-door” refugee policy, saying the deadly attacks in Paris underlined the need for tougher measures to control the influx of migrants.

Hundreds of migrants and refugees have been gathering at the Austrian German border following Berlin’s decision to reintroduce border checks on Sunday. 

While many Germans have welcomed record numbers of refugees to their country, the new arrivals have unleashed fear and fury in small eastern German towns such as Riesa, a centre of far-right support in a country ashamed of its Nazi past.

Although Germany is leading the European reaction to the refugee tragedy by welcoming hundreds of thousands to its cities; the reaction of the rest of the world, most especially the United States, has been one of offering advice and criticism from afar. 

JUST as our friends and neighbours in the North can only look on in despair — or even indifference — as Stormont politicians of all hues talk themselves into another frenzy of no-surrender obstructionism, the citizens of Europe, most of whom want a humane response to the growing refugee crisis, can only look on in frustration fast turning to shame as national ministers struggle to agree on how each EU member state might contribute proportionately to a community-wide response.

Germany pulled down the shutters on its borders, temporarily exiting the Schengen system and triggering a crisis as diplomats from all the EU countries struggled to reach agreement on the refugee problem in Brussels last night.

The top security officials of Germany, France and Britain are pressing for better processing of migrants arriving in southern Europe and for a European Union-wide list of countries considered safe.

Three murdered Irish tourists were ordinary people on a summer holiday, who were just hours away from flying home, when Seifeddine Rezgui took to Marhaba beach armed with an assault rifle and grenades and massacre of the innocent on his mind, reports Cormac O’Keeffe.

The Office of the Data Protection Commission (ODPC) is now the first port of call for some 300m non-US Twitter users who wish to make a privacy or data protection complaint against the social networking giant.

Germany has halted its internet surveillance for the US’s National Security Agency (NSA) in response to a row over the BND intelligence agency’s co-operation with Washington.

German authorities have conducted raids across the country, seizing explosives and arresting four people accused of founding a right-wing extremist group to attack mosques and housing for asylum seekers.

Germany’s distrust of Ireland’s data protection authority came out into the open when a senior minister related it to the failure of the country’s banking supervisor in the lead-up to the financial crisis.

A Hamburg daily that reprinted satirical cartoons from French newspaper Charlie Hebdo was hit by arsonists at the weekend, raising security concerns in Germany on the eve of a planned mass rally against Islam in the city of Dresden.

Germany took the dramatic step yesterday of asking the top US intelligence official in Berlin to leave the country, following two suspected cases of American spying and the year-long spat over eavesdropping by the National Security Agency.

Germany has taken the dramatic step of asking the top US intelligence official in Berlin to leave the country after two reported cases of suspected US spying and a spat over the National Security Agency.

German-US relations are facing a new test over a German intelligence employee who reportedly spied for the US, with Germany’s president saying if the allegations are true, that kind of spying on allies must stop.

The NSA has stepped up its surveillance of senior German government officials since being ordered by Barack Obama to halt its spying on chancellor Angela Merkel, Bild am Sonntag reported yesterday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says trust between the US and its partners has to be restored following allegations that American intelligence targeted her mobile phone, and insisted that there must be no “spying among friends”.

The German Foreign Ministry has summoned the US ambassador in the wake of allegations that American intelligence may have targeted Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone.

International envoy Kofi Annan said today he was “gravely concerned” about the latest violence in Syria, citing shelling of opposition areas in Homs and reports of mortar, helicopter and tank attacks near the coast.

Germany has closed down the glass and steel dome and rooftop terrace of the famous Reichstag parliament building to visitors over concerns of a possible terror attack.

A SUSPICIOUS package found in a Namibian airport near bags of a flight bound for Munich, which prompted fears Germany was being targeted in a terrorist attack, was a device designed to test security and didn’t contain explosives, a senior official said yesterday.

A suspicious package found in a Namibian airport near bags bound for Munich was designed to test airport security, Germany’s top security official has said.

A SUSPECTED bomb in a suitcase that was to be put on a German-bound plane was intercepted in Namibia, German police said yesterday, a day after Berlin issued an alert on a tip about an imminent attack.

A suitcase containing a fuse and a clock was found in an African airport probably intended to be loaded onto a Munich-bound flight, German authorities said today.

An Air Berlin flight from Namibia to Germany was delayed after police found a suitcase with a fuse in the luggage hall of the airport in the capital Windhoek.

GERMANY said yesterday it was tightening security at airports and train stations after receiving “concrete” evidence of planned terrorist attacks in the country, including one this month.