German Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg on Thursday said an air strike responsible for the deaths of scores of Afghan civilians in September was ‘not militarily appropriate’ and acknowledged it had been a mistake.
Germany's parliament voted Thursday to extend the mandate of troops serving in Afghanistan for one year but did not lift the upper limit of soldiers, currently set at 4,500.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Thursday they did not expect a perfect agreement at the Copenhagen climate summit but foresaw a major step forward.
German child custody laws discriminate against single fathers and should be changed, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on Thursday.
National rail provider Deutsche Bahn will soon have competition from cheaper, faster bus coaches if the new government coalition’s plans to remove a long-haul bus ban go through, daily Berliner Zeitung reported on Thursday.
Jost Müller-Neuhof from Der Tagesspiegel wonders how Germans can criticise Switzerland’s vote to ban minarets on mosques as an attack on religious freedom yet they blithely accept being told by Christian churches whether they can shop on Sundays or not.
Organisers of a petition for a referendum to strengthen Bavaria’s porous smoking ban are celebrating on Thursday, as preliminary results show they exceeded the amount of necessary signatures by several hundred thousand.
German industrial giant Siemens said Thursday it suffered a net loss of €1 billion in the last quarter of its 2008/09 fiscal year, and expected the current year to be worse.
This Week's Highlights: Tattoos in Berlin, The Pet Shop Boys play Hamburg and Munich gets mediaeval for Christmas.
Following a controversial Swiss referendum to ban mosques with minarets, Christian Democratic state interior ministers in Germany on Thursday recommended Muslims show restraint when building houses of worship.
Paul McCartney kicked off his first European tour in five years Wednesday night in Hamburg, the German city where he first exploded on to the pop scene with the Beatles nearly five decades ago.
Eight students were injured in a chemical laboratory accident on Wednesday night at the University of Karlsruhe, police reported.
