By Alexandra Hudson MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - Wearing an elegant trouser-suit and an air of defiance, the suspected surviving member of a German neo-Nazi cell strode into a Munich court on Monday to stand trial for a series of racist murders that scandalized Germany and led to intense soul-searching about the lack of vigilance towards the far right.

As angry anti-racism protesters rallied outside the courthouse Monday, the woman at the centre of a landmark German neo-Nazi murder trial was the picture of calm. As Beate Zschaepe entered the courtroom, arms casually crossed and looking confident, she briefly glanced toward the television cameras, then turned her back on them. The 38-year-old -- best known to the public looking dishevelled in a 2011 police mugshot -- now sported a black pantsuit, pressed white shirt, earrings and a glossy new hairstyle.

Greek police fired tear gas to break up an event staged by neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn in Athens Thursday and one lawmaker tried to assault the city's mayor for banning the gathering, police said. Golden Dawn MP Giorgos Germenis verbally abused and attempted to hit Athens mayor Giorgos Kaminis inside a municipal building. Local media reported Germenis was also carrying a weapon and that he ended up hitting a young girl instead. "Raw violence in the form that we saw today and coming from an elected lawmaker will not be tolerated," Kaminis told the press after the incident.

The head of a Hungarian minority rights group named after a Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Jews in World War II said Monday that he was assaulted by anti-Semitic football fans. Ferenc Orosz, chairman of the Raoul Wallenberg Association, told MTI news agency that while attending a match in Budapest on Sunday he had asked fans to refrain from chants such as "Sieg Heil". He was physically threatened, called a "Jewish communist" and on leaving the stadium his exit was blocked by two assailants. One said "Sieg Heil" while the other broke his nose, Orosz said.