German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Pope Francis for private talks at the Vatican Saturday which addressed the state of Europe and its role in the world, the Vatican said in a statement. Merkel flew in especially to meet the new pontiff, an encounter that lasted 45 minutes -- unusually long for a private papal audience. "These discussions covered the long relationship between the Vatican and Germany as well as common concerns including the social, political, economic and religious situation in Europe and the world," the Vatican said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Monday that in the quest for binding international emissions targets to fight global warming, doing nothing is "not an option". "I'm under no illusion that there is a long road ahead," Merkel said about efforts to reverse global warming, melting ice caps and rising seas. But she warned at a climate conference in Berlin that "doing nothing only means that it will get a whole lot more expensive."

Two of Chancellor Angela Merkel's most prominent opponents have urged France's ruling Socialists to call a halt to the "German bashing" that has soured the two countries' partnership. Ties between the nations, whose post-war reconciliation has driven European integration, sunk to a new low this weekend after France's Socialists accused Merkel of "selfish intransigence" in her response to the eurozone debt crisis, in a leaked party document.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was not seeking to sway the European Central Bank on interest rate decisions when she -- in a rare move -- waded into a debate on the issue, her spokesman said Friday. "There's absolutely no reason to suppose that the chancellor, in any way, wanted to address advice or suggestions to the ECB in her speech," Steffen Seibert told a regular government news briefing. Merkel fully respects the ECB's independence and will continue to do so in the future, he said, a day after her comments to a savings bank conference in the eastern city of Dresden.