More than a million refugees will come to Germany this year, Chancellor Angela Merkel's deputy said on Sunday, as a poll showed almost half of Germans believe she is handling the influx of asylum seekers badly.
Germany's police union and women's rights groups accused the authorities on Tuesday of playing down reports of harassment, sexual assault and even rape at refugee shelters because they feared a backlash against asylum seekers.
Germany needs to limit the number of refugees it takes in or even close its borders, conservative allies of German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at the weekend, as the country deals with record inflows of people fleeing from war and poverty.
Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn faced a reckoning with his board on Wednesday, summoned to explain how the company falsified U.S. emissions tests in the biggest scandal in the 78-year history of the world's largest car maker.
Croatia threatened to close its border with Serbia on Thursday as migrants fled from overwhelmed police, trekked through fields and tried to steal into Slovenia by train in a desperate march westwards that is sowing discord and recrimination in Europe.
Refugees will continue to arrive in Germany despite the government's introduction of temporary border controls and the new measures do not affect the right to asylum for people who are being persecuted, a government spokesman said on Monday.
At least 850,000 people are expected to cross the Mediterranean seeking refuge in Europe this year and next, the United Nations said on Tuesday, giving estimates that already look conservative.
Austria said on Sunday it planned to end emergency measures that have allowed thousands of refugees stranded in Hungary into Austria and Germany since Saturday and move step by step "towards normality".
Europe should not respond to the inflow of immigrants from the Middle East and Africa with nationalism, because caring about human rights is part of the European identity, Europe's Economic Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said on Friday.
Hungary said on Friday it would send thousands of migrants by bus to the border with Austria, appearing to capitulate to crowds who broke away from riot police and struck out on foot for western Europe in a day of chaos.
Hundreds of angry migrants demonstrated outside Budapest's Eastern Railway Terminus on Tuesday demanding they be allowed to travel on to Germany, as European Union asylum rules came close to collapse under the strain of unprecedented migration.
European Union ministers were summoned on Sunday to meet in two weeks' time to seek urgent solutions to a migration crisis unprecedented in the bloc's history, as the mounting death toll on land and sea forced governments to respond.
Dozens of protesters shouted at Chancellor Angela Merkel and waved placards with the slogan "traitor" on Wednesday when she visited an eastern German town where anti-refugee protests erupted into violence at the weekend.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called on all political forces in the country on Sunday to rally behind his plans for constitutional change aimed at ending a separatist conflict in the east and defeating what he termed the "Russian aggressor".
Greece's leftwing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras faces a showdown with rebels in his own party on Tuesday furious at his capitulation to German demands for one of the most sweeping austerity packages ever demanded of a euro zone government.
The U.S. National Security Agency tapped phone calls involving German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her closest advisers for years and spied on the staff of her predecessors, WikiLeaks said on Wednesday.
The United States National Security Agency spied on French presidents Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande, WikiLeaks said in a press statement published on Tuesday, citing top secret intelligence reports and technical documents.
Germany's top public prosecutor closed a year-long investigation into the suspected tapping of Chancellor Angela Merkel's cell phone by U.S. spies, saying there was a lack of evidence that would stand up in court.
A cyber attack on the German Bundestag lower house of parliament reported last month is still stealing data and could force officials to spend millions of euros replacing the entire computer system, German media reported on Wednesday.
An ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday it would be unrealistic for British Prime Minister David Cameron to expect to achieve changes to European Union treaties before the country holds a referendum on its membership of the bloc.
