The mass attacks on women in Cologne and other German cities on New Year’s Eve have prompted more than 500 criminal complaints, with Cologne investigations focused largely on asylum seekers or illegal migrants from north Africa, police have said.

Cologne’s police chief has been removed amid criticism of his force’s handling of a string of New Year’s Eve assaults and robberies.

Refugees in a western German town have been banned from setting off fireworks to mark the new year, partly out of concern that loud blasts could traumatise people who have fled war zones.

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.

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.

Hitler coffee mugs sold in Germany

ON April 11, European bison were released to the wild in Germany.

Germany’s Angela Merkel has insisted that a bad local election defeat for her party will not weaken her as she grapples with Europe’s deepening debt crisis.

Voters in Germany’s most populous state strengthened a centre-left regional government which chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives sought to portray as irresponsibly spendthrift, and inflicted an embarrassingly heavy defeat on the German leader’s party, projections showed.

Germany’s health minister said today that he is hopeful the worst of an E.coli outbreak blamed on bean sprouts is over – but warned that the death toll, currently 33, may still increase.

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives looked set to lose power in a major regional stronghold yesterday after governing there for almost 60 years.

Thousands of mourners watched in tears today as German rescue workers lit one white candle for each of the 21 people crushed to death in a tunnel at the Love Parade techno music festival.

A memorial service was held today for 21 people who were crushed to death at the Love Parade techno music festival in Germany.

Voters in Germany’s most populous state dealt Chancellor Angela Merkel a painful setback, erasing her government’s majority in the upper house of parliament and curbing its power after a stumbling start and criticism over the Greek debt crisis.

ONE of rugby’s more articulate and qualified commentators – the great Australian out-half Michael Lynagh – once said during a preview of one of Munster’s European Cup do-or-die extravaganzas that hope had no place in professional sport.

An exit poll indicates Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right alliance has lost control of Germany’s most populous state.

Chancellor Angela Merkel risks losing her majority in Germany’s upper house of parliament as the country’s most populous state votes today – a setback that could make it harder to run Europe’s biggest economy.

BOTH houses of the German parliament voted to contribute €22.4 billion to the €110bn joint eurozone IMF aid package for Greece after a stormy debate in the lower house.

AGREEMENT on the conditions for the €45 billion loan to Greece was just a matter of days away, the European Commission said as several countries turned against Germany and its hard line on the Mediterranean country.

A plane slid off an icy runway and powerful winds and heavy snow forced hundreds of flight cancellations across Europe today as blasts of freezing cold buffeted Western Europe.

General Motors will sell its Opel unit and other European assets to Canada’s Magna International Inc in a deal German Chancellor Angela Merkel said today would protect the assets from GM’s likely bankruptcy.

Vauxhall and Opel are to be taken over by Canadian car parts company Magna, industry sources said tonight.

Six German states have told retailers to stop selling Red Bull Cola energy drinks after a test found a trace amount of cocaine.

Police say the bodies of three children have been found inside a freezer in the basement of a house in Germany.

A senior conservative’s participation in Germany’s proposed new left-right government was in doubt today as politicians struggled to digest the implications of a sudden leadership crisis in the centre-left Social Democrats.

Three German states today required farmers to keep their poultry in closed sheds or cages in an attempt to protect them from exposure to migratory birds that could spread bird flu from Russia.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder today called for new elections, asking Parliament to bring down his government to enable him to seek a new mandate in a vote expected in September.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder today formally set in motion his proposal for early German elections as his office notified parliamentary leaders that he plans to hold a confidence vote July 1.

GERMAN Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s party took aim at the “market radicalism” of the conservative opposition yesterday as it geared up for early national elections, signalling it will present itself as defending social programmes and workers’ rights.

The chairman of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrats today suggested that national elections should be brought forward by a year after the party suffered a stinging defeat in the country’s most populous state.

Four German children were freed unharmed tonight after police stormed a house cellar where they had been held for more than five hours by a man wielding two knives.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s party emerged weakened from elections in a small German state, where voters’ frustration with high unemployment helped make opposition conservatives the strongest force.

British transport group Arriva today said it was entering the German bus market with the acquisition of one of the country’s largest privately owned bus companies.

A group of left-wing activists frustrated with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s drive to trim the country’s social programmes is creating a new party that could eat into the support base of the German leader’s Social Democrats.

Germany’s governing Social Democrats emerged from local elections in the country’s most populous state trailing well behind the conservative opposition.

GERMANY’s governing Social Democrats avoided major losses in local elections yesterday in the country’s most populous state, while the conservative opposition lost votes but stayed well ahead in a traditional stronghold for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s party, exit polls indicated.

THE arrest of three officials of a German aid ship that disembarked 37 Africans on the Sicilian coast provoked an outcry in Italy and Germany yesterday, with politicians and aid groups saying the move violated humanitarian principles.

The arrest of three officials of a German aid ship that disembarked 37 Africans on the Sicilian coast provoked an outcry in Italy and Germany today, with politicians and aid groups saying the move violated humanitarian principles.

Two German air force bases were put on heightened alert today after federal police said they had information they could be targets for terror attacks.

STORMS killed at least 33 people across northern Europe over the weekend, destroying buildings, uprooting trees and disrupting travel by air, land and sea.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was confirmed for a second four-year term in office today after the German parliament voted to approve his centre-left coalition’s victory in elections last month.

Two farms in western Germany are under quarantine on suspicion that Britain's foot and mouth disease outbreak might have spread there.