A large "Welcome" sign still hangs outside Berlin's Tegel airport, which was closed in November. But thousands of people are soon expected to start walking through its doors again every day, once its Terminal C building has been refitted as a vaccination centre against the novel coronavirus from mid-December, AFP reported.

Austria is stepping up security at churches in case of copycat attacks after an Islamist gunman killed four people in a rampage earlier this month in which he may have intended to target houses of worship, the interior minister said on Thursday.

Germany announced on Wednesday that it will push for Europe to ban ski holidays in a bid to curb coronavirus infections, as cases of Covid-19 reached a new peak of more than 60m globally, news wires reported. Germany will extend its virus curbs until 2021 and plans to seek a deal with European partners to close ski slopes until 10 January.

A car with slogans scrawled on its sides crashed into the gate of the office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Wednesday, a Reuters witness said. Reuters pictures from the scene showed police inspecting the estate car at the gate with the words “Stop Globalisation Politics” written in white on its right side and “You damn killers of children and old people” on the other.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is scheduled to discuss the nation's pandemic response with regional leaders on Wednesday, with sweeping closures and restrictions broadly expected to be extended or even tightened, dpa reports.

France will begin easing its Covid-19 lockdown this weekend so that by Christmas, shops, theatres and cinemas will re-open and people will be able to spend the holiday with the rest of their family, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday evening. In a televised address to the nation, he said the worst of the second wave of the pandemic in France was over, but the country must avoid a third wave and a third lockdown.

The German government expects to fork out €17bn in financial aid during the month of December for businesses if a coronavirus shutdown is extended as expected, sources told dpa on Tuesday.

French police late Monday used tear gas as they dismantled a new migrant camp in the centre of Paris set up to house hundreds of refugees evacuated from makeshift suburban shelters without being relocated, AFP reported.

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford on Monday said that their Covid-19 vaccine - with pre-orders of over a billion doses worldwide - is on average about 70% efficacious against the coronavirus, based on two different dosing regimes. A 90% efficacy rate was achieved when a half dose was given first, followed by a full dose of the vaccine at least a month later. A lower 62% figure came from patients given two full doses, at least a month apart.

In power so long she has been dubbed Germany's "eternal chancellor", Angela Merkel marked 15 years at the helm of Europe's top economic power on Sunday with her popularity intact and public trust in her leadership reaching new heights.