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Russian President Vladimir Putin sees Germany as a 'leading partner'. Last year, trade between the two countries grew by 22 percent to 43 billion euros, Putin said Saturday for his meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel. The two had to defend an uncomfortable but strong bond in Schloss Meseberg in Berlin that was created by a gas pipeline that is increasingly sensitive in the rest of the EU, and for which Merkel has to justify itself. She started a small charm offensive to Ukraine, of which Putin is not a fan.

Russian President Putin speaks Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday evening in her official residence, the castle of Meseberg north of Berlin. This dialogue is the first they hold in Germany since relations cooled in 2014 after the Russian annexation of Crimea and the uprising in eastern Ukraine. Merkel began her fourth reign in March and Putin was re-elected in the same month. In May, Merkel visited Putin in Sochi.

A bus from the Flixbus company was hit on Friday morning in the north of Germany. This involved at least sixteen injured. Six of them are in serious distress, the police say.

President Vladimir Putin is going to a wedding in Austria this weekend. The Kremlin has confirmed, according to Russian media, that Putin is attending the wedding ceremony of Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl for his talk with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in southeastern Austria.

The Turkish court has released two Greek soldiers on Tuesday, pending their trial. The two were held in the country since March. That reports the Turkish news agency Anadolu.

A thunderstorm that drew over Germany on Thursday caused considerable disruption in traffic, both on the road, by air and on the railway. In addition to abundant rainfall, fallen trees in particular caused the necessary problems. The fire brigade had to take action hundreds of times.

Nearly eight thousand migrants have voluntarily returned from Greece to their homeland since the beginning of this year. The Greek police announced this in Athens on Tuesday.

Greece will demolish thousands of illegal buildings. That's what Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Tuesday. In buildings without a permit, dozens of people were killed during a devastating forest fire on 23 July.

The head of the Greek civil protection service GSCP has submitted his resignation on Monday. The government had already replaced the chiefs of the fire brigade and police a day earlier. That happened in the aftermath of the deadly natural fire in the vicinity of Athens.

Without warning him, the Chinese authorities started to demolish a studio in Beijing by the activist and artist Ai Weiwei. The sixty-year-old dissident put on Instagram a video showing how his studio with a heavy machine is destroyed.

The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan will make a state visit to Germany, probably at the end of September, reported the German newspaper Bild in Saturday editions, referring to government sources in Berlin and Ankara.

The German political party Die Linke considers the German government partly responsible for the devastating forest fires in Greece, which killed more than eighty people. Germany was one of the countries that put Greece on the throat during the crisis and forced Athens to drastically cut back.

Hundreds of firefighters, soldiers and volunteers search in Greece for people who went missing during the great natural fire near Athens. Attempts are also being made to identify the bodies of victims.

The former Catalan Prime Minister Carles Puigdemont wants to return to Belgium on Saturday. He said at a press conference in Berlin on Wednesday that he wants to continue his political activities in Belgium.

The situation in Greece after two days of heavy natural fires has improved slightly. The fire brigade could get almost all fires under control until early Wednesday morning. Only in a region about 70 kilometers west of Athens there was still a fire on a hill, said the Greek minister of Security, Nikos Toskas.

Dutch tourists in and around Athens seem safe after the devastating fires in this part of Greece. 'As far as we know, the Dutch are not affected. We have not received any reports of injuries or missing persons. However, a number of people have been evacuated from hotels ', says the Eurocross coordinating emergency center.

A large fire in the vicinity of the Greek tourist town of Kineta causes up to 40 kilometers to the east in Athens, about 40 kilometers to the east. Because of the strong wind, clouds of smoke hang over the Greek capital that obscure the sun. Photo's show the famous ancient temple the Parthenon with a dark, golden-yellow sky in the background.

In the German capital Berlin, two homeless people were set on fire by an unknown person. The two men, Germans aged 47 and 62, were doused on a square in front of the Berlin-Schöneweide railway station with a combustible substance that was then lit.

Macedonia is invited to become a member of NATO once the name issue has been definitively resolved. The leaders of the 29 member states have given their green light at their summit in Brussels.

Greece rejects two Russian diplomats and refuses two others access to the country. The reason is according to local media that they would have tried to undermine the agreement that Athens recently concluded with neighboring Macedonia on the official name of that country.

China finally let her go. Liu Xia (57), the widow of Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, arrived in Berlin on Tuesday evening after she was not allowed to leave her house for almost eight years.

China has let the widow of the late Nobel laureate and activist Liu Xiaobo. Liu Xia (57) was under house arrest for eight years. She boarded a Finnish plane on Tuesday and arrived at the end of the afternoon (local time) in Germany.

Germany has banned motor club Osmanen Germania and related organizations. The Minister of the Interior in Berlin announced that on Tuesday.

The leaders of the German government parties have agreed a new package of measures against illegal migration and for a stricter asylum policy. The parties announced this after consultation in Berlin on Thursday evening.

The German police are hunting a man who would have assisted the perpetrator of the attack on the Christmas market in Berlin, Anis Amri. According to German media, it is Meher D., a 32-year-old Tunisian, who has been identified by the police. Thursday, an arrest warrant was issued against him.

'Oh nein!' Sounds baffled after the German elimination. 'Die Mannschaft ist raus!' Says the commentator full of horror. All those present in the beer cellar Franziskaner in Munich collectively put their hands in the face.

Berlin and Kiel are prepared to receive migrants from the Lifeline ship. That is what political leaders of these German cities have said to German media.

Activists of the environmentalist Greenpeace who oppose the use of coal have painted the road surface of a prominent square in Berlin as a protest. The roundabout around the Siegesäule (Victory Column), to the west of the Bundestag, has been treated with 3500 liters of yellow paint which, according to Greenpeace, is washable and environmentally friendly.

A few hundred Greeks were hit with the police on Monday when they tried to disrupt a presentation by the government party Syriza in the city of Thessaloniki. Syriza wanted to explain the agreement reached by Athens with Macedonia on the name change of the former Yugoslav Republic.

The 19-year-old Syrian who attacked an Israeli with a yarmulke on the street in Berlin was sentenced to four weeks in prison. The judge considered the Syrian guilty of mistreatment and insult.