FRANKFURT

The European Central Bank took more emergency action Tuesday to keep credit flowing to companies in the 19 countries that use the euro by easing its rules for lending to banks that serve those businesses.

German flag carrier Lufthansa is planning to request state aid. This comes as the airline's CEO Carsten Spohr warned that 2/3rds of the airline Group's 800 odd aircraft will be grounded.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, a stock market index that measures the stock performance of 30 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States, suffered its worst session since 1987 on March 12, plunging 10 percent as emergency measures by central banks failed to douse mounting recession fears due to the coronavirus.

Fear gripped financial markets around the world March 9 as stock prices and bond yields plunge on worries about the effects of a new coronavirus.

Weeks full of political drama. Unexpected twists and turns. Then tragedy. These are not the usual characteristics associated with contemporary politics in Germany.

A car that rammed into a carnival procession in central Germany on Feb. 24 injured 52 people, including 18 children, police said, adding that the perpetrator's motive remains unclear.

"Among the victims are 18 children [while]... at present 35 people are still undergoing treatment in the hospital and 17 were already able to leave," police in Hesse state posted on Twitter on Feb. 25.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Feb. 20 said that Turkey is "keeping a close eye" on developments in Germany, after attacks in two bars in Hanau, Germany that killed nine people, including five Turkish nationals.

"Turkey, and especially the Turkish Embassy in Berlin, is carefully monitoring the process," Erdoğan said.

President Klaus Iohannis strongly condemns the attacks which took place in Hanau. "I strongly condemn the violent attacks against innocent people that took place in Hanau. My condolences to those who have lost family and friends! Romania stands in solidarity with Germany," the head of state wrote on his Twitter page on Thursday.

A gunman suspected of shooting nine people dead at two shisha bars in a southwestern German city has been found dead at his home, police said on Feb. 20.

Another body was discovered at the home of the man in Hanau, a city east of the financial hub of Frankfurt where the shootings happened.

A German student, who temporarily studied in Turkey under the Erasmus+ program, rescued a stray dog in the Black Sea province of Sinop.

Heidi Peltola, who is studying veterinary in Frankfurt, Germany, came to Sinop last July as part of the Erasmus+, a program by the European Union for young people to live, work and train in foreign countries.