DPA

German police said March 1 they have temporarily detained two people and searched an Islamic cultural centre amid a weekend terrorism alert in the northern city of Bremen.
      
Police stood guard at key locations, including the town hall, main church and a synagogue, for a second day following a federal police warning issued Friday about possible Islamist terrorist activity.

More than 17,000 anti-racism demonstrators took to the streets in several German cities on Jan. 19 to voice opposition to the PEGIDA anti-Islamic movement, whose own weekly rally was cancelled over a terrorism threat.
      
The counter-protests drew smaller crowds than last week, when some 100,000 people called for tolerance nationwide.
      

SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras called for closer ties between the European Left and the Christian Church on Thursday during a landmark meeting at the Vatican with Pope Francis.

BERLIN - Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has said on Wednesday after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that Serbia is a democratic country that wants to guarantee the absolute freedom of the media.

A negative development of the situation in Ukraine could turn the Balkans into the next "destabilized" region, Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev warned in Berlin.

Plevneliev made his comments during a press conference titled "Southeast Europe and Bulgaria in the context of the Crimea crisis".