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Germany and France must work together to ensure a "balanced" approach in negotiations with Greece that keeps the eurozone intact, French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said after talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel and other German officials on Tuesday.

The election of`Donald Trump as US President is proving to be one of the most controversial and divisive developments on the global political stage in years. The polarisation his rise to power has caused, not only in the US but around the world is unprecedented.

In her first interview following her official announcement to stand for re-election for the German Chancellorship, Angela Merkel told state broadcaster ARD that she was part of the solution of the refugee crisis.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has told German broadcaster ARD that those rebels who lay down their arms can expect "a full amnesty."

When asked what "a moderate rebel could do to be accepted by him as a Syrian civilian again, he replied: "Just to give up your armament, whether you want to join the political process or are not interested about the political process."

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad pledged March 1 to do his part to ensure that a fragile ceasefire holds and offered "full amnesty" to rebels who hand in their weapons.

"We will do our part so that the whole thing works," he told German public broadcaster ARD in an interview, referring to a three-day-old truce drawn up by Russia and the United States.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Feb. 28 said there was no "Plan B" for the European Union regarding a deal reached with Turkey to reduce the flow of migrants, hours after she and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu discussed the issue by phone. 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Feb. 28 said there was no 'Plan B' for the European Union deal reached with Turkey for reducing the flow of migrants, defending her open-door policy for migrants and  rejecting any limit on the number of refugees allowed into her country despite divisions within her government. 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday that the EU cannot allow Greece to plunge into “chaos” by shutting European borders to refugees.

The military force, which Germany plans to send to Syria to fight the Islamic State group, won't  cooperate with Syrian government troops, a German Defence Ministry spokesman has said.

"There will be no cooperation with [Syrian President Bashar] al-Assad and there will be no cooperation with troops loyal to al-Assad," Jens Flosdorff said, according to DPA.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Oct. 7 that Turkey's help was needed to stem the flow of refugees to Europe but that this hadn't changed her view that Ankara should not become a member of the European Union.

"I have always been against EU membership, President (Tayyip) Erdo?an knows this, and I still am," Merkel told a talk show on German public broadcaster ARD.