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JERUSALEM: Angela Merkel on Tuesday became the first German chancellor to address the Israeli Parliament, crowning a three-day visit intended to upgrade ties between the two countries. The Merkel visit was seen as highly symbolic by both sides, as the Jewish state prepares to celebrate the 60th anniversary of its establishment against the background of the Holocaust. Paying tribute to the "special relationship" between Israel and Germany, Merkel said that the Nazi genocide filled Germans "with shame." High on the agenda was what Israel sees as Germany's crucial role in the international campaign against the development of an Iranian nuclear...

BERLIN (AFP) — China has summoned Germany's ambassador in Beijing to discuss Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to grant the Dalai Lama an unprecedented meeting this month, the German foreign ministry said Friday. A spokesman confirmed a report due to appear in Monday's edition of the Handelsblatt business daily that ambassador Michael Schaefer has been called to a meeting with Chinese authorities. The German government's chief spokesman, Ulrich Wilhelm, announced earlier on Friday that Merkel will receive Tibet's exiled spiritual leader at the chancellery in Berlin on September 23. It will mark the first time that the Dalai Lama has been...

BERLIN — Three militant Islamic terror suspects had acquired vans that might have been intended for use in bomb attacks on U.S. and other targets in Germany, a spokeswoman for prosecutors said Saturday. Estimates of the size of the plot ranged as high as 50 people, and prosecutors were looking the possibility of a wider terrorist network. German authorities think the two German converts and a Turk arrested Tuesday were only the leading tip of the planning, said Petra Kneuer, spokeswoman for the Federal Prosecutor's Office. She said authorities were investigating seven more suspects inside and outside Germany as part...

For the second year in a row, Angela Merkel, the first woman to become chancellor of Germany, ranks No. 1 on our list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women. She continued to impress the world with her cool leadership at two back-to-back summits. First, she stuck to her principles, getting G-8 leaders to agree to significant cuts in carbon emissions, among other things. Merkel later corralled European Union countries into an agreement on a treaty to replace the E.U. constitution. Meanwhile, China's vice premier, Wu Yi (No. 2), continues to help lead a government that oversees an economy whose...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Photographs of Angela Merkel on a recent trip to a supermarket were published in German daily Bild on Thursday -- earning the German Chancellor lavish praise from the paper for her modesty and common touch. Merkel visited the supermarket, inside Berlin's Friedrichstrasse train station a few minutes walk from the chancellery, at the end of July and bought oranges and lemons, according to a Bild reader who took the photos. Having queued with other shoppers, she paid with cash from her own purse, the reader said. "It all seemed ridiculously normal, except for the three bodyguards watching...

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday she was pleased to hang Gerhard Schroeder at last -- even if it was only a portrait of her former rival. Merkel and her predecessor as chancellor traded light-hearted barbs at a ceremony in the chancellery in Berlin, where Schroeder was on his first visit since losing an acrimonious election to Merkel in 2005. Portraits of all postwar chancellors now hang there. "Visitors won't have to ask me any more: 'Why hasn't Schroeder been hung up?'" Merkel said. Schroeder then pointed to the space next to his portrait -- reserved...

French President Sarkozy with President Bush at the G8 summit in Heiligendamm/Germany.

The G8 summit in Heiligendamm/Germany (at the Baltic Sea) has begun. Yesterday, the heads of governments/states of the US, France, Britain, Italy, Canada, Germany, Russia, Japan, and the chief of the EU commission have met for dinner, today, the consultations started. Main topics will be the aid for Africa, global climate change and the missile shield. Tens of thousands radical Leftists are also nearby, but kept away from Heiligendamm by 16000 police officers. Earlier today, a Greenpeace boat entered the security zone. Continuously, police forces are clearing the roads by using tear gas and/or water cannons. A Greenpeace boat enters...

A German company is today expected to offer Poland a way to become less dependent on Russian gas, in a move that is reportedly supported by the German government which is trying to ease the hostility between Warsaw and Moscow. German daily Handelsblatt reports that Wintershall - a daughter company of energy giant BASF - is to propose that Poland gets access to Western gas. This would be possible using the planned new north-south pipeline 'opal' which for almost 500 km will run parallel to the Polish border. „In this way it would be possible at several points to connect...

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed three German soldiers and four civilians on Saturday in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz, Afghan security officials said. To the south, militants in Kapisa province engaged Afghan and foreign forces overnight in a battle in which several dozen Taliban fighters were believed to have been killed, the U.S.-led coalition said. And in the Shinwar district near Jalalabad, a remote-controlled bomb killed a police chief and another officer and wounded three others on Saturday, a local official said. Insurgents have stepped up attacks in Afghanistan in recent weeks following the traditional winter...

BERLIN: : In a summit already strained by weeks of discord over trade, security and energy issues, Russian and European Union leaders ended their two-day meeting exchanging barbs over human rights and failing to start talks aimed at bringing the two economies closer together. During an unusually long and acrimonious news conference in Volshsky Utyos, near the southern Russian city of Samara, the differences between the two sides were stark, with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and European Commission President Jose Maria Barossa clashing with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

European Union (EU) transport ministers have unanimously backed an "open skies" aviation deal with the US aimed at liberalising transatlantic air travel. The deal, which has been criticised by airlines in the UK, eases restrictions on travel between Europe and the US. Supporters say open skies reform will boost competition between airlines and lead to lower air fares. The deal will also challenge British Airways' dominance at Heathrow airport, Europe's busiest hub. EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot described the deal as one of "great political and economic importance." "The fact that everyone in the Council (of transport ministers) has been...

Oslo - A German naval minesweeper ran aground off the Norwegian coast in the early hours of Wednesday, reported rescue services authorities in the city of Stavanger on Norway's south- western coast. According to the report, none of the vessel's 42 sailors were in danger at any time. The ship was participating in naval exercises when the accident occurred owing to a 'navigational error,' the Norwegian authorities said. The ship was due to be freed during high tide.

Dusseldorf - A Muslim leader in Germany criticized a carnival float in a Monday parade that satirically suggested Islam was not peaceful. The float carried two identical cartoon-style papier-mache figures, each wearing a suicide-bomber's belt and carrying a dagger and a pistol. The first was labelled 'the cliche,', the second was labelled 'the reality.' Both scowling figures were labelled 'mullahs,' a term used in Germany as it is in Pakistan to describe both Shiite and Sunni clergy. The float was part of a carnival parade watched by more than half a million people in the western city of Dusseldorf. 'This...

MUNICH, Germany — German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday that the international community is determined to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. Speaking at a weekend gathering of the world's top security officials, expected to include Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, Merkel said Tehran needed to accept demands made by the U.N. and the International Atomic Energy Agency. "There is no way around this," she told the 250 officials, including more than 40 defense and foreign ministers. "What we are talking about here is a very, very sensitive technology, and for that reason we need a high degree of...

German chancellor says international community must seize 'window of opportunity' to settle Israeli-Palestinian conflict, slams nations 'that do not want success in these efforts' German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday criticized Iran and Syria for their role in the Middle East and urged the international community to seize a vanishing “window of opportunity” to find a settlement for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Merkel, who has made progress toward peace a key goal of her country’s six-month EU presidency, used some of her toughest language during a speech in Abu Dhabi, part of her tour of Arab countries aimed at rallying support...

WASHINGTON: President George W. Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are pledging closer cooperation on combating global warming and in trying to prod a Middle East peace, brushing aside lingering differences between the two countries. Merkel was in Washington for a brief visit Thursday just days after Germany assumed the rotating presidencies of the European Union and the Group of Eight major industrialized nations. She said she intended the visit as a signal that trans-Atlantic relations would be an important item for Germany during its six months as leader of Europe and the G-8. Merkel said her trip to Washington...

A German businessman of Syrian descent who wanted to surprise his daughter with a holiday visit was detained for four days in a Las Vegas holding cell before being sent back home without explanation. ... Shehadeh, 62, flew from Frankfurt to Las Vegas last Thursday, hoping to meet with his wife and drive to Bakersfield, Calif., where his American-born daughter had just gotten news she'd passed the California bar exam. Instead, he wound up shivering in a holding cell without ever being told why he couldn't enter the country, he said. ... She said Shehadeh's visa waiver could have been...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in comments published today the European Union and the United States should more closely harmonise their financial market regulations, patent laws and other economic mechanisms. In an interview with the Financial Timesbefore a trip to Washington this week, Ms Merkel outlined her goals for Germany's six-month rotating presidency of the European Union and its year-long presidency of the Group of Eight nations. Ms Merkel said closer harmony between the 27-nation EU bloc and the United States would boost investment flows and trade. "We have accumulated a certain expertise about single markets in Europe, which we...