Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas has said that Lebanon will ask the international community for 2.1 billion dollars in assistance at the Kuwait donors conference this month.

Derbas, who on Wednesday attended a ministerial meeting for the refugee crisis cell under Prime Minister Tammam Salam, told al-Liwaa newspaper that Lebanon aims to urge the assistance to help it resolve problems linked to the displaced Syrians on the course of two years.

U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke by telephone Wednesday on Ukraine, stressing they would keep up sanctions on Russia over its role in the crisis.

"There will be no easing of sanctions imposed on Russia until it has fulfilled all of its Minsk commitments," the White House said, referring to a recent deal to defuse tensions in eastern Ukraine.

Violent clashes between anti-capitalist activists and German police left dozens injured and a trail of destruction in Germany's financial capital as the European Central Bank opened its new headquarters on Wednesday.

In fierce street battles that began in the early hours of Wednesday in the well-heeled western city, 14 German police and 21 anti-capitalist protesters were injured, police and rally organizers said.

Germany's federal prosecutor says investigations into suspected fighters with the Islamic State group who have returned to the country have sharply increased within a year, to number nearly 70.

Some 106 returnees suspected of having fought alongside IS jihadists are being investigated in Germany in 68 preliminary or criminal inquiries, chief federal prosecutor Harald Range told reporters late Monday.

Berlin will send over 500 troops to Lithuania for military exercises this year to underscore its NATO commitments amid tensions with Russia, the Baltic state's defense ministry said Tuesday.

A company of soldiers will be deployed to the formerly Soviet-ruled Baltic state from April to July, and separate units will arrive for exercises in July and November, the ministry said in a statement.

A video showing Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis making the middle-finger gesture to Germany does not appear to be fake, a German talk show said Monday after the Greek politician contested its authenticity.

The footage shown during the Guenther Jauch weekly talk show on Germany's ARD channel late Sunday prompted an immediate and vehement rebuttal by the maverick Greek minister who was a guest on the program.

German conglomerate Siemens has signed a "four billion euro" power deal with Egypt, a company spokesperson said on Saturday.

Under a number of accords agreed between the parties, Siemens will build a "4.4 gigawatt combined cycle power plant and install wind power capacity of 2 gigawatt", the company added in a statement.

EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker has warned of an alarming lack of progress in talks on Greece's bailout, as Germany raised the spectre of a tumultuous Greek exit from the euro.

Juncker was meeting Alexis Tsipras, the leader of the hard-left Syriza party who came to power in January, on Friday just days after Tsipras renewed a demand that powerful Germany repay debts from its Nazi past.

A Berlin court has fined three Lebanese men on allegations they seized a 15-year-old relative against his will in what he says was an attempt to force him into marriage because he's gay.

State Court spokesman Tobias Kaehne said Thursday the boy's father and two uncles were each fined 1,350 euros ($1,430), or 90 days in jail, if they don't pay.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Thursday criticized Republican senators for sending a letter to Iran over the nuclear talks, fearing that the political stunt could undermine Tehran's confidence in the ongoing negotiations.

"This is not just an issue of American domestic politics, but it affects the negotiations we are holding in Geneva," Steinmeier told journalists in Washington before meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.