The region of Bremen in northern Germany on Friday said it would be the second of the country's 16 states to recognize Muslim holidays.

"I am delighted because Islam and Muslims are part of our city and part of our life," said the mayor of the city state, Jens Boehrnsen, after signing the deal with representatives of the local Muslim community.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to Germany next week for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel notably about the situation in the Middle East, Berlin said on Friday.

The visit to Berlin by Netanyahu on Wednesday and Thursday is part of a further round of German-Israeli government consultations, Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said.

Unemployment in Germany increased slightly in November, amid signs that the labor market is increasingly feeling the pinch from the eurozone debt crisis, official data showed on Thursday.

The jobless rate, both in raw and seasonally adjusted terms, was unchanged in November from October, but the adjusted jobless total increased slightly, the Federal Labor Agency said in a statement.

German police detained 11 people after a demonstration outside the Iranian embassy in Berlin during which paint and stones were lobbed at the building, police said on Thursday.

The protest late on Wednesday was organized by activists, including Iranian refugees, against "repression by the fascist government of the Islamic Republic of Iran against its opponents inside the country", the protesters said in a written statement.

Germany will abstain in Thursday's vote at the United Nations on whether to grant upgraded diplomatic status to the Palestinians, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said.

"Germany will abstain at today's vote in the General Assembly of the United Nations on the non-member observer status for the Palestinian Authority," Westerwelle said in a statement.

Britain said Wednesday it will abstain on a vote for upgraded Palestinian diplomatic status at the United Nations unless the Palestinians commit to an unconditional return to talks with Israel, as Germany said it would not vote in favor of the resolution.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain would only support Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Thursday's vote at U.N. headquarters if Abbas agreed to negotiations over a lasting two-state deal with Israel.

Another person has died of a mysterious respiratory virus and three more cases have been discovered in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the World Health Organization said Friday.

"This brings the total of laboratory-confirmed cases to six," the Geneva-based U.N. agency said in a statement.

German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere said on Wednesday that he would seek parliamentary approval for a military operation in Turkey by mid-December, after Ankara requested NATO help.

He was addressing the lower Bundestag house of parliament shortly after NATO announced it had received a request from member Turkey for a deployment of Patriot missiles to protect its troubled border with Syria.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle will travel to the Middle East on Monday for talks aimed at encouraging a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza militants, his spokesman said.

Westerwelle will meet his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman in Jerusalem late Monday before seeing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday.

Germany is prepared to contribute Patriot missiles to a NATO mission to help Turkey at the border with Syria, the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported Saturday.

The German army would contribute up to 170 soldiers as well as Patriot anti-aircraft missiles to such a NATO mission, the newspaper said.