A German charity worker in the Philippines has told The Local how some hope is emerging from the devastation of typhoon Haiyan as the aid effort starts to take effect.
The German government has agreed on an €8 billion aid package for victims of this summer's disastrous flooding – with the first payments due in early August.
Grab a bottle of mosquito repellent, a German minister urged on Monday, and head on down to show solidarity with Germany's worst affected flood regions for your holidays this year.
Sandbags as fashion accessories – as the clear-up operation continues all over Germany, an enterprising initiative in Dresden is turning unwanted sandbags into handbags in a bid to raise money for victims of the recent flooding.
Germany confirmed on Thursday it would be setting up a fund worth about €8 billion to help victims of record floods which forced thousands from their homes and left a path of destruction across parts of the country.
As communities in north-eastern Germany hoped soaked dykes would hold back rising floodwaters on Wednesday, one man died in Saxony-Anhalt after being electrocuted in his flooded cellar.
Since the last extreme floods in 2002, a total of €530 million has been invested in flood prevention. Der Tagesspiegel's Robert Ide argues that this money was wasted on containing rivers with concrete, rather than giving them vital space.
German authorities urged over 20,000 people to flee their homes in Magdeburg on the swollen Elbe River, as the worst floods in a decade also began to burst through water-soaked dykes.
As northern Germany continued to battle historic flooding on Monday, people in the south of the country were slowly returning to their homes to survey the devastation and start the massive cleanup.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has praised the "wonderful solidarity" of tens of thousands struggling against central Europe's worst river floods in over a decade and promised more help for the victims on her second visit in three days to disaster-hit areas.
Cities and towns along the Elbe braced for a huge flood wave to roll downriver on Thursday, as German officials estimated the natural disaster would cause billions of euros in damages.
Large sections of Germany remained underwater on Wednesday morning, forcing thousands of people from their homes. But as the waters receded in Passau, the eastern part of country was bracing for a flood wave.
Germany has been hit by dramatic flooding. In some of the worst-hit areas, water levels are surpassing records set over 500 years ago. This week's Local List takes a look at flooded towns, before and after.
Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged €100 million in emergency aid for flood-ravaged areas on Tuesday, as surging waters that have claimed lives and forced tens of thousands of evacuations across Europe bore down on Germany.
Chancellor Angela Merkel will visit flood-devastated parts of Germany, her spokesman said Monday, as authorities grapple with surging rivers and waters that have left at least two people dead.
A zombie apocalypse in Berlin would be dealt with by the book, in a typically orderly and precise fashion, city authorities said in response to a parliamentary inquiry from one cheeky member of the Pirate Party.
So how are the Germans preparing for Friday's Mayan-calendar inspired end of the world? While the hysteria is debunked by scientists and ethnologists, Ben Knight finds that many people really are unprepared for global catastrophe.
The German government is mulling ways to set up a national central disaster warning system, to replace the Cold War era siren network which is no longer functional. One idea is to turn domestic smoke alarms into a national system.
The famous <i>Dresdner Codex</i>, one of the original Mayan books that set the end of the Mayan calendar on December 21, 2012, went on display in Dresden on Friday as part of an exhibition on the apocalyptic prophecy.
Munich Re, the world's biggest reinsurer, said Thursday that profits plummeted last year due to heavy losses from both the eurozone debt crisis and a string of natural catastrophes.
A crack over two kilometres long and up to a metre deep has been discovered on the Baltic island of Hiddensee. Large areas of the German island’s coastline have been blocked off amid fears of a huge landslide.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle expressed sympathy for victims of the Turkish earthquake expected to have killed at least 1,000 people and left many more injured or homeless on Sunday.
An unusually strong earthquake rocked western Germany on Thursday evening, causing alarm but no damages. The quake was especially noticeable around the epicentre near the Lower Rhine region but was also felt through the Ruhr Valley.
