Poland's chief rabbi on Friday voiced outrage over a statue of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler kneeling at a Holocaust site in Warsaw, part of an installation by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan.

"When it comes to showing the figure of Hitler, we have an extra special responsibility to be sensitive to those who suffered because of what Hitler created, to Holocaust survivors, to non-Jewish survivors, to those who didn't survive," Rabbi Michael Schudrich told Agence France Presse.

The German government is eyeing 5.0-6.0 billion euros ($6.5-7.8 billion) in additional spending cuts in 2014 in a bid to balance the government budget, a newspaper reported on Friday.

The regional daily Rheinische Post quoted the deputy chief of the conservative CDU party, Michael Meister, as saying: "If we want to reach the so-called structural zero in 2014, we must close a gap of around 5.0 billion euros.

Retail sales in Germany rose more than expected in November, partially making up for the drop seen the previous month, official data showed on Friday.

Retail sales rose by 1.2 percent in November compared with October in price, seasonally and calendar-adjusted terms, according to provisional figures by the federal statistics office Destatis.

The head of the German doctors' lobby and politicians called Thursday for swift action to root out corruption following a scandal over preferential treatment for organ transplants.

The president of the German Medical Association, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, said physicians taking bribes in life-or-death cases would shatter the hard-earned faith that Germans have in them.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's challenger for power in next year's elections stoked controversy on Sunday after saying his rival enjoyed a popularity bonus with women and that the job paid too little.

In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung weekly, the Social Democratic Party's (SPD) candidate for chancellor, Peer Steinbrueck, said: "Angela Merkel is popular because she gets a bonus from women."

Families of victims of an air strike in Afghanistan that killed more than 90 people in 2009 have filed a multimillion-dollar class-action lawsuit against Germany, a lawyer said Friday.

Karim Popal, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said 10 class action lawsuits were claiming 3.3 million euros ($4.4 million) in damages from the German government.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi is to visit Germany on January 30, the official news agency MENA reported on Thursday, quoting a presidential spokesman.

Morsi is to make the trip at the invitation of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the spokesman, Yasser Ali, said.

Germany urged Egypt Sunday to get to the bottom of allegations of fraud leveled by the opposition after the adoption of a new, Islamist-backed constitution in a referendum.

"The reports from Egypt fill me with concern," Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in a statement.

Germany can win the 2014 World Cup, team manager Oliver Bierhoff believes, pointing to the presence of three Bundesliga sides in the Champions League last 16 to support his assertion.

"Naturally we want and we can win the title," he said in an interview in the German weekly Focus on Saturday.

The hunt for the perfect Christmas tree may soon become a lot easier: just pick a nice clone.

That's what German scientists are now working on: They are searching a way to ensure that the sensitive saplings of the popular Nordmann fir species grow into impressive specimens.