A cabinet meeting convened Monday by Prime Minister François Fillon (center) brought an official end to months of public debate on the tricky and divisive issue of French national identity.

German tax investigators are in France for negotiations with an informant to buy stolen Swiss bank data on 1,500 alleged tax evaders. The move comes amid reports of a fresh offer of data on tax cheats.

Our Pennsylvania German Groundhog promises six more weeks of winter, but there are a couple of events on the calendar that point the way towards springtime.

First, there is Fat Tuesday – Fastnacht, which takes places on this year on Tuesday, 16 February. This is the last day before the beginning of Lent and is also another sign that winter is slowly coming to an end.

German Chancellor Merkel and French President Sarkozy have unveiled a plan designed to improve Franco-German over the next ten years. The goal is also to promote European ideas globally.

Germany's state-owned railway company Deutsche Bahn said Thursday it had won a contract to operate a regional train network in the northeast of Britain.

Veteran Viennese playboy Richard Lugner has branded Hollywood star Lindsay Lohan "a nutcase" after the actress told her Opera Ball host he had to arrange a private jet to bring her to Vienna.

Germany is said to buy stolen information on Swiss bank accounts, causing outrage in Bern. Austria, too, wants to have a look at the data to catch tax cheats among their citizens.

German unions started warning strike action Wednesday in the country's public sector in order to underpin demands in the current pay round.

The global economic crisis has reignited interest in Karl Marx's signature work, "Das Kapital," written more than 140 years ago. Sales in Germany soared last year.

The land of beer seems to be hopping on the wagon. Germany's beer sales dropped by 2.8% in 2009, the largest drop in 11 years, the country's statistics office says.

Prince Albert of the house of Thurn und Taxis wants to build what would be the world's largest solar park on his lands. But the plans have angered residents who don't want to live next to a sea of solar panels.

Prince Frederic von Anhalt, the husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor and known for either being stalked or stalking the paparazzi, is announcing a run for California governor.

Günther Oettinger, Germany’s designated EU commissioner, is facing growing ridicule for his atrocious English thanks to a popular video on the internet. 

In spite of negative public opinion, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced Tuesday that Germany's troop contingent for Afghanistan will be increased by 850, including 350 reservists.

Opel workers took to the streets in Antwerp on Tuesday in solidarity with their co-workers idled by the closure of the local Opel plant two weeks earlier..

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle announced his support for a plan to pay Taliban militants to lay down their arms, Bild Am Sonntag newspaper reported.

U.S. military commanders met with German officials are discussing the possibility of moving Landstuhl Regional Medical Center to the site of an old Army depot east of Ramstein Air Base.

The population declined by a quarter of a million people in 2009, the equivalent of the population of a mid-sized city, as births again failed to keep up with deaths.

Veteran Viennese playboy Richard Lugner has defended his decision to invite Lindsay Lohan to the upcoming Opera Ball after the Austrian press branded the actress a "fallen princess".



General Stanley McChrystal
Stanley McChrystal, the US general commanding forces in Afghanistan, has demanded a different approach from Germany in the handling of its Afghan mission.

A former member of German pop group Bro’Sis was arrested in Miami, locked up for 24 hours in a jail cell and then deported. Customs officials said she was trying to work in the US illegally.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Israeli leaders in Berlin on Monday she's willing to back new sanctions on Iran.

Theatergoers packed a concert hall in Frankfurt, Germany, on Sunday for a new musical about President Obama.