Two Western hostages held for three years by the Taliban in Afghanistan landed in Germany Thursday after a prisoner exchange two days earlier, a US diplomat confirmed.

US electric vehicle pioneer Tesla will build its first European factory and design centre near Berlin to produce cars ‘Made in Germany’ as it seeks to burnish its reputation for reliability and sporting prowess.

Germany marks 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall on Saturday with a string of events dedicated to one of the most defining moments in modern European history.

The euro zone will restrain spending under draft budget plans submitted by the bloc's governments, the European Commission forecast on Thursday, despite calls to counter a worsening economic slowdown.

Lufthansa said Wednesday it was scrapping 1,300 flights as German cabin crew pressed ahead with a two-day strike, plunging passengers into travel chaos amid an escalating row over pay and conditions.

German airline Lufthansa is seeking a court injunction to prevent a two-day flight attendants' strike planned by the Ufo trade union later this week, a company spokesman said on Tuesday.

In the corridors of power in East Berlin, inside the opulent villas in the leafy northern suburb of Wandlitz which the apparatchiks called home, the mood has been on a knife-edge for weeks.

"Suddenly they opened the gate!" recalled Berliner Andreas Falge, one of the first to cross the East German border into the West on November 9, 1989.

The German National Tourist Office (GNTO) roadshow, in partnership with Qatar Airways, brought together more than 120 travel trade professionals on Sunday in Doha.

The Qatari Businesswomen Association (QBWA) kicked off its study tour in Germany from October 13 to 19 under the theme ‘Young Women Programme’, it was announced Saturday.

Preparations are ongoing for the arrival of a large trade delegation led by the Prime Minister of the Federal State of Lower Saxony

Greek authorities on Saturday confirmed that they have arrested a 65-year-old man in connection with the hijacking of a TWA airline flight more than 30 years ago.