Munich

Russia said Feb. 11 it was ready to discuss a ceasefire in Syria as foreign ministers gathered in Munich in a bid to kick-start peace talks derailed by the regime onslaught on the besieged city of Aleppo.  

NATO Defence Ministers have agreed on an enhanced forward presence on the eastern part of the Alliance, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday.

Outgoing French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Feb. 10 criticized the U.S. role in Syria, saying he did not see "a very strong commitment" from Washington.

"There are ambiguities ... You don't get the feeling that there is a very strong commitment," Fabius told reporters shortly before announcing that he was stepping down after nearly four years as foreign minister.

The collision of two trains in the area of Munich in Bavaria, Germany has killed at least eight people, German police say.

"Dozens" of others are injured, German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung quotes officials as saying.

Reportedly, one of the trains was derailed and a "head-on" collision followed. The reason for the incident has not yet been established.

Two commuter trains crashed head-on in southern Germany on Feb. 9, killing at least nine people and injuring more than 100, in one of the country's deadliest rail accidents in years.

Hundreds of rescuers were scouring for more passengers trapped in the wreckage in a wooded area near Bad Aibling, a spa town about 60 kilometers southeast of Munich.

NATO head Jens Stoltenberg said Feb. 5 that Russia's air strikes in Syria targeting rebel forces are "undermining" efforts to find a peaceful solution to the five-year war.

Syrian peace talks in Geneva earlier this week broke up acrimoniously as Moscow's long-time ally President Bashar al-Assad launched a fresh offensive against rebel forces in Aleppo with massive Russian backing.

Shutting down smuggling across the Turkish-Syrian border is a condition for halting Russia's bombing campaign in Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said as peace talks in Geneva began to encounter more difficulty.

It will be difficult to impose a cease-fire unless Syria's border with Turkey is secured to prevent smuggling and the movement of fighters, he said.

Russia will not stop its air strikes on Syria until armed groups, such as al-Qaeda's wing there, are defeated, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Feb. 3. 

On Feb. 2, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that Russia should stop bombing opposition forces in Syria now that U.N.-led peace talks have started. 

A cartoon “etiquette guide” which is supposedly created for migrants who use swimming pools in Germany was in fact written in 2013 and predates the current refugee crisis, a Munich city spokeswoman said.

Turkey was the site of yet another terrorist attack by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on Jan. 12, in Istanbul's highly touristic historical area Sultanahmet. The attack killed 11, including the suicide bomber, and wounded 15.