Germany

BERLIN (AP) — Scuffles broke out on Monday outside a village in western Germany that is to be razed to allow the expansion of a coal mine, a plan that is drawing resistance from climate activists.

Activists threw fireworks, bottles and stones at police outside the village of Luetzerath before the situation calmed down and officers pulled back, German news agency dpa reported.

Protesters previously had set up a burning barricade, and one glued his hand to the access road.

BERLIN (AP) — The first regular shipment of liquefied natural gas from the United States arrived in Germany on Tuesday, part of a wide-reaching effort to help the country replace energy supplies it previously received from Russia.

The tanker vessel Maria Energy arrived at the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven, where its shipment of LNG will be converted back into gas at a special floating terminal that was inaugurated last month by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

BERLIN (AP) — The German government on Monday condemned incidents on New Year’s Eve in which police officers and firefighters were attacked, mostly with fireworks.

People across Germany on Saturday resumed their tradition of setting off large numbers of fireworks in public places to see in the new year. That followed two years in which sales of fireworks were banned as part of efforts to avoid overloading hospitals and discourage large public gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jan 1 (Reuters) - For much of the global economy, 2023 is going to be a tough year as the main engines of global growth - the United States, Europe and China - all experience weakening activity, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Sunday.

The new year is going to be "tougher than the year we leave behind," IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on the CBS Sunday morning news program "Face the Nation."

"Why? Because the three main economies - the U.S., EU and China - are all slowing down simultaneously," she said.

BERLIN (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI leaves his homeland with a complicated legacy: pride in a German pontiff but a church deeply divided over the need for reforms in the wake of a sexual abuse scandal in which his own actions of decades ago were faulted.

Benedict has long drawn mixed reviews in Germany, a country where Christians are roughly evenly split between Catholics and Protestants and where many struggled with his conservative stance.

BERLIN, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- Germany recorded its hottest year in 2022 with an annual mean temperature of 10.5 degrees Celsius, the National Meteorological Service (DWD) said on Friday.

The country saw an "exceptional weather year," the DWD said. Temperatures were 2.3 degrees Celsius above the value of the internationally valid reference period (1961-1990), and were higher than in 2018, the previous record holder.

28 Dec 2022; MEMO: Germany said on Wednesday that it sees no reason to revive the stalled talks on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

"From our point of view, there are currently no indications or reasons for a resumption of the Iran nuclear negotiations," Foreign Ministry spokesman Christofer Burger told media representatives in Berlin.

Germany has repeatedly made it clear that "these negotiations are not taking place at the moment," he added.

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s governing coalition is arguing over whether remaining COVID-19 restrictions should be dropped after one of the country’s top virologists was quoted as saying that the pandemic is over.

Germany has scrapped the bulk of restrictions imposed at the height of the pandemic but, unlike other European countries, still requires mask-wearing on long-distance trains and buses. Masks are also mandatory in doctors’ practices, while masks and negative tests are still required to enter hospitals and nursing homes.

23 Dec 2022; MEMO: Germany's government is suspending state measures designed to foster business with Iran due to the repression of nationwide protests in the Islamic Republic, the economy ministry said on Friday.

The suspension will affect export credits and investment guarantees as well as Germany's manager training and trade fair programmes in Iran, the ministry said.

German-Iranian trade totalled 1.76 billion euros ($1.87 billion) in 2021.

BERLIN, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Berlin has sent its first batch of BioNTech (22UAy.DE) COVID-19 vaccines to China to be administered initially to German expatriates, a German government spokesperson said on Wednesday, the first foreign coronavirus vaccine to be delivered to the country.

No other details were available on the timing and size of the delivery, although the spokesperson said Berlin is pushing for foreigners other than German citizens to be allowed access to the shot if they want it.