Kassel

The number of expatriate votes cast in Türkiye's upcoming elections has reached nearly 1.2 million, prompting the government to set up additional ballot boxes abroad.

More than 3.4 million Turkish citizens living abroad are eligible to vote for the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for May 14 at home, around 277,000 of whom are first-time voters.

Break-ins and vandalism, accusations of racism and anti-Semitism and a giant compost heap: Documenta, one of the world's biggest art fairs, opened under a cloud of controversy.

The exhibition, which turns the sleepy German city of Kassel into the center of the art world once every five years, kicked off on June 18 after months of bitter rows.

Thousands of people protested in Stuttgart on April 3 against virus restrictions amid a heated debate throughout Germany on tightening the measures in the face of a third wave of COVID-19.

The protesters, few of whom were wearing face masks, marched from the city center to a main square in northeastern Stuttgart.

Thousands of protesters angry at COVID-19 restrictions rallied in cities across Europe on March 20 as several nations reimposed partial lockdowns to fight new surges in infections.

The coronavirus, which has killed more than 2.7 million people, has been spreading faster recently, with the number of new infections up globally by 14 percent in the last week, according to AFP data.

A third of France's population was under a new partial lockdown on March 20 to stop the spread of Covid-19, as some European countries resumed AstraZeneca vaccinations following an all-clear from EU regulators and the WHO.

Greek sculptor Theodoros Papadimitriou, who signed his work with his first name, died in Athens on Friday at the age of 87.

Theodoros is best known to the general public for his sculpture "Metro Clock," which graces the main concourse of the Syntagma metro station in central Athens, but also a stainless steel and bronze piece he did for the Athens Exchange called "Rising Index."

German police have arrested six Syrians suspected of terrorism in an operation in several cities across the country. This is reported by the national newspaper Die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Documenta 14's 100 days in Athens come to an end on Sunday. The international art event, which is based in Kassel and crossed German borders for the first time in his lengthy history to be cohosted by another European city, provoked waves of antipathy, despair from ideologically diverse camps and ridiculous amounts of criticism, but also praise and acceptance - albeit to a lesser extent.

Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos was greeted by residents of Kassel, Germany on Saturday with signs saying "Never Again" in honor of the victims of the Distomo massacre, which was carried out by the Nazis on June 10, 1944, during their occupation of Greece.

Athens Mayor Giorgos Kaminis will attend Saturday's launch of documenta 14 in the German city of Kassel, the traditional home of the art exhibition, where it is to run until September 17.

For the first time in the exhibition's 60-year history, documenta was held outside its traditional home, premiering in Athens on April 8, where it is to continue until July 16.