Germany

More lockdowns are in the offing, as Germany and Austria shatter daily case counts and Russia has become become the world leader in new COVID-19 deaths.

The German language is full of male and female nouns. Officials and businesses are tweaking words, including adding asterisks, to make them inclusive.

Witnesses have detailed Syrian prison abuse in a crimes against humanity trial in Germany for over a year. Some withdrew over threats, while many have persevered to bring to justice an ex-official.

It will likely take three parties to form a government. Two smaller parties — an environmentalist, progressive party and a libertarian party — appear to be banding together to call the shots.

Germany's center-left Social Democrats won the biggest share of the vote in national elections in a closely fought race that will determine who succeeds the long-time leader.

After 16 years in office, the German chancellor is stepping down. Early results show a razor-thin margin in what is expected to be one of the closest outcomes in years.

Sunday's federal election will determine who will follow Merkel, who has served as Germany's chancellor for 16 years. The country's next government is expected to be a coalition of three parties.

On Sunday, German voters will choose a successor to Angela Merkel, who is stepping down as chancellor after 16 years. Some of her earliest supporters recall the day in 1990 when they first met her.

Social Democratic Party leader Olaf Scholz, the front-runner in the polls to succeed German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is credited for transforming Hamburg when he was the city's mayor.

Here's what it's like at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where many of the tens of thousands of Afghans evacuated from Kabul over the past few weeks are awaiting travel to the United States.