Germany's parliament elected Angela Merkel as chancellor for a third term Tuesday, ending nearly three months of uncertainty since elections that forced her to seek a 'grand coalition' with her rivals.

Merkel, 59, who is now set to govern Europe's top economy for another four years, was re-elected by 462 members of the Bundestag lower house of parliament, with 150 voting against and nine abstentions.

European Union foreign ministers on Monday reiterated the bloc's willingness to strike a historic partnership deal with Ukraine, but said the ball clearly was in Kiev's court.

"We of course want that Ukraine signs the association agreement, there is still some hope for that," said German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle on arriving for talks in Brussels with his 27 EU counterparts.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday that her veteran finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who has managed her response to the eurozone crisis, would stay on in the job during her third term.

Unveiling the full list of her new cabinet with a left-right "grand coalition" government, Merkel said mother-of-seven Ursula von der Leyen would become Germany's first female defense minister.

Germany's center-left Social Democrats overwhelmingly approved the formation of a "grand coalition" government under Chancellor Angela Merkel Saturday, removing the final obstacle to her third term.

Party treasurer Barbara Hendricks said a resounding 76 percent backed a left-right coalition pact after a postal ballot among its 475,000 members.

Germany's center-left Social Democrats will announce the result Saturday of an unprecedented party vote that will determine whether it will form a "grand coalition" to see Chancellor Angela Merkel into her third term.

If the party members give their blessing to a tie-up with Merkel's conservatives, she can be formally re-elected by the Bundestag lower house of parliament Tuesday.

A German court Wednesday rejected a lawsuit by relatives of victims of a deadly air raid in Afghanistan four years ago that was called in by NATO's German command.

In a landmark ruling, the judges found against a father seeking 40,000 euros ($55,000) after the death of two of his children and a widowed mother-of-six whose claim came to 50,000 euros.

One person was killed and five others injured when a crane fell onto a discount supermarket in Bad Homburg, near Frankfurt, on Wednesday, crushing parts of the building, police said.

The cause of the accident was not yet clear, but the crane driver was seriously injured and flown to hospital, police said.

The rate of inflation in Germany, Europe's biggest economy, inched higher this month after hitting a three-year low the previous month, final official data showed on Wednesday.

The cost of living rose by 1.3 percent this month on an annual basis, compared with 1.2 percent in September, the federal statistics office Destatis said in a statement.

Germany's express delivery and mail company Deutsche Post DHL is testing a drone that could be used to deliver urgently needed goods to hard-to-reach places.

The small pilot-less helicopter flew a package of medicine Monday from a pharmacy in the town of Bonn to the company's headquarters on the other side of the Rhine River. The aircraft can carry up to 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds).

Germany said Friday it was temporarily reducing its embassy staff in Yemen and told its aid workers to leave after an attack claimed by al-Qaida killed 52 people, including two Germans.

All German employees of government-funded aid and development organizations must leave Yemen "as quickly as possible", a foreign ministry spokesman told reporters.