Cologne

Dusseldorf (dpa) - Dozens of people were injured Tuesday after a blaze in western Germany spread to at least eight homes and knocked out a key railway route, fire and police officials said.

Siegburg city officials initially said they suspected the fire started when sparks were created by a train crossing the tracks and then spread up a slope to the houses.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ on May 27 criticized Germany for allowing a Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) rally in Cologne city, accusing Berlin of taking sides in the upcoming June 24 elections in Turkey.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said on May 26 it condemned as a "double standard" a decision by Germany to allow a rally by the Kurdish issue-focused Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in Cologne, having previously prevented ruling party politicians from campaigning there.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is arriving in Sarajevo on Sunday for the sixth assembly of the Union of European Turkish Democrats, UETD, which recently established a sister lobby organisation in Bosnia, the Union of European Balkan Democrats, UEBD.

The National Ethnographic Museum is launching a campaign to collect objects from the years of socialism. The aim is to be shown in special expositions.

In the Ethnographic Museum you can see how the Bulgarian lifestyle and culture have appeared over the centuries. For example - wedding costumes of the late 19th century. But now you can also help enrich the collection.

Thousands of passengers at four German airports, including the biggest hub Frankfurt, were stranded on Tuesday as ground staff and other public sector workers staged walkouts across the country to increase the pressure in a pay dispute.

More than 40 people were injured in a collision of two trams in Cologne on Thursday night, Lokal said. According to the police, one of the drivers was drunk and this caused the crash.

Five cities in Germany did not approve the idea of ​​providing free public transport to improve air quality, calling it unrealistic, DPA reported.

Berlin is under pressure to meet European air cleanliness standards and to avoid fines.

Germany announced it would set up a new NATO planning and control centre, in the west of the country, as part of the alliance's upgrade plans in Europe, NeEurope.

NATO plans to build a new planning, logistics and command center that will be on German territory, DPA reported.

The initiative is from the German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen. The new center will be located in the Cologne-Bonn region, North Rhine Westphalia.

The place is suitable because there is the headquarters of the Bundeswehr united forces.