Berlin

Nine people, including five children, were killed in a fire in an apartment building in the western German city of Ludwigshafen, police said on Monday. Adults and children jumped out of windows to escape the flames, officials said. Twenty people were being treated in hospital with injuries.

Gideon Roemer-Hillebrecht dons his skullcap for prayers and on special occasions when he wears his army uniform. But he hides his Jewish headgear under a hat when he takes a walk. For security reasons, he says. Unthinkable for many Jews, Roemer-Hillebrecht serves as a staff officer in the German armed forces.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday defended her attack on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s human rights record at the European Union-Africa summit in Lisbon, which saw her branded a racist by Harare. "Freedom and tolerance, democracy and human rights form the foundation for existing side-by-side in dignity," she said.

Michael Schumacher can add the unofficial title of Germany’s fastest taxi driver to his other achievements after taking over behind the wheel to get his family to the airport on time. The retired Formula One champion drove the cab back to the airport himself after a trip out to the village of Gehuelz.

The German Foreign Ministry on Tuesday summoned Zimbabwe’s chief diplomat in Berlin to protest comments from the country’s information minister, who was reported as calling Chancellor Angela Merkel a ”fascist”. Merkel told a summit on the weekend that the government of Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe was ”damaging the image of Africa”.

Staff at a German butcher’s shop were shocked to discover a customer had hidden two sex toys in their sausages for transport to Dubai, police said Wednesday. ”It was two latex dildos with a natural look,” said a spokesperson for police in the south-western city of Mannheim.