Angela Merkel

The quiet intervention of two Thessaloniki-born men recently ended up in Europe's favor, with 300 million additional vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech being earmarked for the Old Continent.

With three candidates vying on Friday and Saturday to take over the leadership of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) and succeed Angela Merkel as German chancellor, Greece is weighing who could best serve its interest - Armin Laschet, premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, Norbert Rottgen, chairman of the Bundestag's foreign affairs committee, and Friedrich Merz, a corporate lawyer and former MP.

As Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday left open the possibility of meeting with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, his Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu insisted that the agenda of the upcoming exploratory contacts between Athens and Ankara must include "all disagreements" and not just maritime areas of responsibility as Greece wants.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right party has elected Armin Laschet, the pragmatic governor of Germany's most populous state, as its new leader- sending a signal of continuity months before an election in which voters will decide who becomes the new chancellor.

On Saturday, 1,001 delegates of the Christian Democratic Union will elect their new leader.

This was announced by experts the day after Chancellor Angela Merkel requested a quick reaction in order to curb the spread of the virus.
According to the Robert Koch Institute, the number of new cases increased by 22.368 to 2.000.958, Reuters reports.

Germany's total coronavirus cases topped two million on Jan. 15, as Chancellor Angela Merkel pushed for a "significant" tightening of restrictions to slow the infection rate.

High-level Polish officials have jumped on the bandwagon of criticism over US President Donald Trump's social media bans to promote a recent draft law officially aimed at combatting online "censorship", but which digital rights groups warn must be scrutinised carefully.

Germany prepares to extend its nationwide lockdown until the end of the month and introduce new tougher restrictions in a bid to get control of surging coronavirus infections.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin has discussed possibilites for closer cooperation in the coronavirus pandemic situation. The two leaders are said to have discussed possible ways of jointly producing vaccines during a phone call.

The health ministries of thw two countries will continue the talks on the matter together with exeprts.