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.

France and Germany are opposed to new EU proposals to help Italy and Greece cope with a massive influx of migrants crossing the Mediterranean.

Nine people were killed and 43 others injured when three buses collided on a highway in eastern Germany, police said today.

A 300km cycle might not be everybody’s idea of a fun holiday, but it allowed Richard Herriott to experience the best that the often overlooked eastern Germany has to offer.

German chancellor Angela Merkel clinched a coalition deal with the Social Democrats yesterday that preserved Berlin’s strict approach towards struggling European partners.

The swollen River Danube is approaching Budapest, where soldiers and volunteers are building flood walls, officials said.

Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes in a region of eastern Germany where the Elbe river has flooded and burst through a dam, while a swollen Danube was approaching Budapest where soldiers and volunteers are building flood walls, officials said yesterday.

Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes in a region of eastern Germany where the Elbe river has flooded and burst through a dam, officials said.

Central Europe’s worst floods in over a decade claimed a 12th victim as torrents of muddy water surged down rivers through the Czech Republic and into Germany, flooding villages and forcing evacuations.

Prosecutors in northern Poland were last night questioning a woman suspected of killing her three newborn boys whose bodies were found in the family’s freezer.

Pope Benedict XVI celebrated the final Mass of his visit to his native Germany today, making a strong appeal for unity among his Catholic flock and with the Vatican.

German health authorities investigating an outbreak of E.coli in Europe suspect cucumbers as being the possible cause of a new case.

A head-on train crash in eastern Germany killed 10 people and injured at least 33 others, eight of them severely, local firefighters said today, and police feared the death toll could rise.

FIRST, it was Knut, the overwhelmingly cute polar bear.

A snowball fight in Germany turned into a riot recently.

HOLLYWOOD actress Glenn Close has revealed it was her dream to make her latest movie in Dublin.

Hollywood actress Glenn Close has revealed it was her dream to make her latest movie in Dublin.

RODENT lovers are over the moon – beavers are breeding again in Scotland.

A girl of six has died after a tree crushed a car during a rare tornado that ripped through eastern Germany.

A girl of six has died after a tree crushed a car during a rare tornado that ripped through eastern Germany.

Four attack dogs have bitten a three-year-old girl to death in eastern Germany and badly injured her great-grandmother, who tried to rescue her.

TWENTY thousand tonnes of hot air are up for grabs in Waterford, as the Green Party arrives in town today for its annual conference.

IT HAS emerged that Eric Dowling, nicknamed “Digger” for helping excavate tunnels used in the breakout from a World War II German prison camp that became known as the “Great Escape”, has died aged 92.

IN THE latest case to shock Germany, authorities said yesterday they discovered three dead babies in a freezer and arrested the woman believed to be the mother.

GERMANY and Britain, supported by the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Latvia, Romania and Slovakia, have forced the EU to back down from a plan to cut the biggest subsidy payouts to farmers.

A mother killed her five sons aged between three and nine then confessed to her doctor.

Three young swans found dead in a pond in eastern France are being tested for bird flu, the Agriculture Ministry announced today, ordering special containment measures in the area.

A BUS carrying a group of senior citizens was hit by a truck in eastern Germany yesterday and plunged down an embankment, killing 13 people, authorities said.

A bus veered off a road and fell into a roadside ditch in eastern Germany today, killing 11 people, police said.

DOZENS of people who lived near Auschwitz and risked their lives to help inmates at the Nazi death camp were honoured on Saturday, the 62nd anniversary of the camp’s liberation.

Poland has arranged for seaborne deliveries to help boost its oil supply after Russia cut off deliveries via the Druzhba pipeline amid a row with Belarus, Polish officials said today.

THE timing was ironic on many fronts. He died in his sleep, 17 years to the day after the Berlin Wall came down.

Six people died and another two were seriously injured when a car that was being chased by police crashed into a tree in eastern Germany, police said today.

FAMILY members of a German mother accused of killing nine of her newborn babies testified yesterday that their suspicions that she was pregnant were met with denials.

Authorities have evacuated more than 1,000 people from their homes in eastern Germany as heavy rain and melting snow caused rivers to flood.

A court has dropped the murder charge against the mother of nine babies found dead in eastern Germany last year and will try her instead for manslaughter.

German police said today they rescued a 13-year-old girl and arrested an ex-convict accused of abducting and holding her captive for five weeks after they followed up a note pleading for help that the child apparently threw out of a window.

Police in Germany today said they had arrested a married couple after finding the remains of two newborn babies sealed in concrete in their house.

A fire at a shelter for the homeless in eastern Germany killed nine people today.

FERMANAGH businessman Sean Quinn is to extend his empire in central Europe with a €150 million investment in a chemical plant in eastern Germany.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and conservative challenger Angela Merkel square off today in a live televised debate – a crucial encounter that gives both candidates a chance to impress undecided voters two weeks before Germany’s September 18 election.

A woman suspected of killing nine newborn babies found buried in eastern Germany has confirmed they were her children but cannot recall how they were killed.

A woman in eastern Germany has admitted killing several of her children shortly after their birth, police said today, two days after investigators found the bodies of nine infants.