Putin, Merkel Spar over Pussy Riot in Russia Talks

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday clashed with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the jailing of feminist rock band Pussy Riot in a meeting aimed at soothing tensions over human rights.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday called on Cairo to use its influence on Hamas to ease tensions in the Gaza Strip as Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil visited the violence-wracked area.

"The federal chancellor calls on the Egyptian government to use its influence on Hamas to push it towards a moderation of the violence," Merkel's deputy spokesman Georg Streiter told a regular government news conference.

Germany revealed details of its likely drawdown plan for Afghanistan on Wednesday with the aim of seeing its number of troops fall to 3,300 by February 2014, two ministers said.

Germany currently has around 4,800 troops in Afghanistan, the third largest contingent under NATO's International Security Assistance Force, behind Britain's 9,500 troops and some 68,000 U.S. soldiers.

A German court on Tuesday began hearing the country's first lawsuit over a health scandal surrounding French-made breast implants found to leak silicone into women's bodies.

The regional court in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe opened the case brought by a 40-year-old woman who opted for the implants from French manufacturer Poly Implant Prothese or PIP in 2007 after three pregnancies.

The United States and Germany won a closely contested race Monday among western nations for U.N. Human Rights Council seats, while the likes of Venezuela and Pakistan secured places without a competitive vote.

Rights groups condemned the "pre-cooked" arrangements by most continental groups at the 193-member U.N. General Assembly which gave council seats to countries whose records have been widely questioned.

The leader of Germany's main opposition party expressed bewilderment Monday after the country's Jewish community angrily denounced a joint paper it issued with the Palestinian Fatah party.

The head of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), Sigmar Gabriel, said he was stunned by the criticism of the document pledging strategic dialogue with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas's party.

German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere on Monday arrived in Afghanistan to review the progress of coalition forces handing over security functions to Afghan troops.

He said his 10th visit to the country as defense minister was to focus on examining "how the Afghans are progressively taking responsibility for security in the country."

Germany, which has emerged as the dominant player in the eurozone crisis, has breathed a sigh of relief over reforms unveiled by France owing to fears that a key partner could go the way of Greece.

Berlin has seen the centre of gravity in Europe creep ever more in its direction during three years of eurozone turmoil due to its role as paymaster, and cautiously but clearly welcomed French measures laid out on Tuesday.

Deutsche Bank, Germany's biggest bank, said Tuesday improved market conditions boosted underlying profits in the third quarter, even if net profit was down due to a much bigger tax bill.

Deutsche Bank said in a statement its net profit amounted to 755 million euros ($980 million) in the period from July to September, compared with 777 million euros a year earlier.

Hans Werner Henze, one of Germany's foremost composers, has died at the age of 86, his publisher Schott Music announced on Saturday.

"With the death of Hans Werner Henze we have lost one of the most versatile, important and influential composers of our time," Schott said in a statement on its website, saying the composer died in Dresden on Saturday.