Germany confirmed on Monday that Qatar had expressed interest in a major arms deal after reports the emirate was set to buy 200 Leopard-2 tanks for some two billion euros.

German government spokesman Georg Streiter told a regular news conference: "I know that there has been a statement of interest" although he declined to confirm that negotiations had already taken place.

A man employed at Syria's embassy in Berlin will be tried for allegedly passing on information relating to opponents of Bashar Assad's regime, Germany's federal court told the DPA news agency Sunday.

Confirming previous reports in the weekly news magazine Der Spiegel, the court said the Syrian man -- who has not been named -- was arrested in February and will be tried on 35 counts of espionage.

Qatar is considering buying up to 200 German tanks at a cost of around two billion euros ($2.46 billion), according to a report published on Sunday.

News weekly Spiegel reported that the Qataris were interested in acquiring the Leopard-2 tanks and that a delegation from defense firm Krauss-Maffei Wegmann had already travelled to Qatar to discuss the possible deal.

The German makers of thalidomide were warned of birth defects years before it was withdrawn and Australian distributors used pregnant women as the world's first test subjects, court papers alleged Friday.

Affidavits sworn in the lawsuit of an Australian woman born without limbs after her mother took thalidomide claimed that the drug's maker Grunenthal ignored and covered up claims that it caused birth defects dating back to 1959.

Four men accused of plotting a major attack in Germany on the orders of al-Qaida militants went on trial Wednesday facing charges of belonging to a foreign terrorist organization.

Authorities say the so-called Duesseldorf cell, named for the western German city where some of the accused lived, aimed to plant a home-made bomb against a target they had not yet determined.

Moody's took the first step toward stripping Germany of its coveted AAA credit rating on Monday, cutting the outlook for Europe's largest and most pivotal economy to "negative."

Delivering a stark warning that no one is immune from the Eurozone’s rolling crisis, the ratings agency lowered Germany's credit outlook from "stable" to "negative."

A German pensioner got more than she bargained for when she lifted up her toilet seat to find a meter-long (three-foot-long) python staring up at her, police said on Monday.

The 74-year-old from Schwanstetten in southern Germany immediately called the police, who attempted to flush the serpent from its hiding place.

The first novel in the erotic trilogy series "Fifty Shades" has proved a smash hit in Germany, selling half a million copies in 11 days, publishers said Friday, despite mixed critical reviews.

The German-language version of the steamy best-seller by British author E.L. James has been flying off the shelves, with 500,000 copies of "Geheimes Verlangen", translated as "Secret Desires", sold since it appeared on July 9.

A bitter spat over one of Berlin's best-loved art collections, a clutch of invaluable Old Master paintings, came to a head this week with the German government vowing to find a compromise.

Culture Minister Bernd Neumann said he would help forge a consensus in the row over plans to move the masterpieces currently housed at the world-renowned Gemaeldegalerie to the German capital's UNESCO-listed Museum Island.

As markets and debt-wracked Eurozone countries cry out to Chancellor Angela Merkel for immediate action, a defiant top court and a strengthened role for Germany's parliament are slamming on the brakes.

On Thursday, German MPs will be dragged back from holiday to vote on a rescue package worth up to 100 billion euros ($123 billion) for beleaguered Spanish banks. Germany's parliament has to vote on all Eurozone bailouts.