Donna Summer, a platinum recording artist and queen of the disco era, who started her career in Germany, has passed away at the age of 63 after a long battle with cancer, her publicist confirmed.

Chancellor Merkel has fired environment minister Norbert Röttgen, blamimg him for Sunday's loss in Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia.

Germany’s financial center was in lock-down on Wednesday, as police moved in to clear a protest camp in the centre of the city.

French President François Hollande has named Jean-Marc Ayrault as his primeminister. The 62-year-old teacher of German succeeds François Fillon.

French President François Hollande and Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed during their first meeting on Tuesday evening to find a new basis for cooperation.

Plans for the Charlie Chaplin heritage site near Vevey, Switzerland, are back on track after receiving an interest-free loan of $10.75 million from Canton Vaud, swissinfo reports.

Hannelore Kraft, 50, has won the closely-watched vote in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and be re-elected premier of Germany's most populous state.

Germany is ready to consider other measures to promote growth in Greece but the struggling economy must still carry out agreed reforms, German Finance Minister Schaeuble said.

German celebrities signed an open letter protesting a new political culture that they believe sanctions the "theft of intellectual property" on the internet.

Germany warned Greece there will be no more bailout funds unless it enacts the agreed reforms, while a minister says the EU would survive a Greek exit.

Francois Hollande will fly to Berlin next Tuesday following strains between him and Chanceller Angela Merkel  over the Europen debt crisis.

A German court has refused to allow a family to shed their "foreign-sounding" names for new German ones they said would protect them from discrimination and aid integration into.

Minnesota congresswoman and former Republican presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann was granted Swiss citizenship, Bachmann's office confirmed Tuesday night.

German politicians have called for Greece to leave the eurozone and return to the Drachma, as the country fails to form a government after Sunday’s election.

Francois Hollande, France’s first Socialist president since 1995, will consider party stalwarts including parliamentary leader Jean-Marc Ayrault, a teacher of German in Nantes, and Martine Aubry, as top ministers.

American artist Spencer Tunick, famed for his mass nude photoshoots is calling for Bavarians to take their clothes off for him.

Production of Opel's Astra model is to cease at the struggling German carmaker's Rüsselsheim plant, a newspaper reported - in favor of cheaper labour in Poland and the UK.

Both of Germany's largest parties are courting a Danish minority party to help them form a coalition government in Schleswig-Holstein after Sunday's tight election.

The German airships Hindenburg flew the rich around the world. But when catastrophe struck in Lakehurst, N.J., 75 years ago Sunday, 35 perished and the era of luxurious travel by dirigible was over.

The Netherlands marked its day of liberation from the Nazis by inviting President Gauck to be the first German to speak at their remembrance ceremony.

Authorities in the city of Frankfurt, Germany's financial capital, have banned a series of protests against banks and European austerity measures planned for later this month.

Leaders across Germany's political spectrum are preparing for Socialist candidate Francois Hollande's likely victory in the French presidential run-off election Sunday.

German doctors who traveled to Ukraine to examine the jailed ex-Prime Minister Tymoshenko say she agreed to treat her back condition at a local hospital.

Hungarian lawmakers have confirmed the appointment of European Parliament deputy, Janos Ader, an ally of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, as the country's new president.

Luxembourg's Prime Minister says Wolfgang Schaeuble would be an "ideal candidate" to succeed him as chairman of the "eurogroup" -- the regular meetings of finance ministers.

A policy barring foreign tourists from buying marijuana took effect in three southern provinces, with attention focused on the city of Maastricht, which borders Belgium and is near Germany. 

Germany has Europe’s most efficient workers, but their productivity has risen largely because wages have not kept up, the Federal Statistics Office says.

Furniture maker Ikea has denied claims to be made by a Swedish television documentary that it used East German political prisoners as forced laborers at its factories in the former Communist state in the 1970s and 1980s.

Some officials threatened to boycott the Euro 2012 Championships amid fears for the health of imprisoned former ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Germany's powerful IG Metall labor union began industrial action Sunday ahead of planned country-wide strikes in the pivotal engineering and metalworking sectors in a dispute over pay.