Merkel

President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have condemned what they called the "barbarous" strikes of Russia and Syria in Aleppo.

Obama and Merkel spoke on the phone, and the following statement was later posted on the White House website:

Athens on Thursday reacted to reports saying that Berlin has criticized Greece for making poor progress in processing the asylum applications of thousands of refugees stranded on its Aegean islands and foot-dragging in returning rejected asylum-seekers to Turkey.

The tensions that have returned to the Western Balkans are at the most dangerous level since the end of the wars of the 1990s.

Serbian PM Aleksandar Vucic has told this to Italy's La Repubblica, noting that he had been warning German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian PM Matteo Renzi and other European officials of this for months.

The ruling German parties - the German Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union - are close to taking a decision on introducing a limit on refugee admission, reported TASS.

CDU, whose leader is Angela Merkel, is ready to discuss a concrete number which would "correspond to the interests of the country".

Greek PM Alexis Tsipras and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday discussed issues relating to the European Union leaders' summit taking place in Bratislava, Slovakia, on Friday.

The two leaders, who spoke over the phone, focused on the challenges facing Europe today, including issues regarding the economy, security and the ongoing migration crisis.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Larvov has invited Bulgaria's Ambassador to Moscow, Boyko Kotsev, to discuss certain "aspects of the activity of the UN," Lavrov's institution says.

The development follows reports in Bulgarian-language media that Germany and Russia had discussed and agreed that Moscow could back a new possible candidate for the UN Secretary General office.

Ms Merkel’s coalition partners ,as well as Germany’s press, are putting the blame on the Chancellor after her unprecedented defeat in Sunday’s elections.
After the CDU’s electoral defeat in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, tensions in the CDU-CSU union have intensified. Bavarian State Premier Horst Seehofer has blamed Merkel’s refugee policy for the AfD’s success.

The success of the xenophobic and far-right Alliance for Democracy party in Sunday's election for the state legislature in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in east Germany is hardly good news to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Christian Democrats, nor to Europe and the Greek government.

The Greek debt crisis issue was conspicuously absent from the agenda of talks at the ‘informal summit meeting’ under way in Hannover, Germany.

 A German newspaper says a Greek photographer who was working for it has been turned back by Turkish authorities at Istanbul's main airport.

The Bild daily reported that Giorgos Moutafis was prevented from continuing to Libya on Saturday evening. He had to take the next plane back to the Greek capital, Athens, on Sunday morning.