German Chancellor Angela Merkel will call on the country's parliament to approve a third bailout for debt-mired Greece on Wednesday, but could face a rebellion from lawmakers within her own conservative ranks.

Approval of the latest 86 billion euro ($95 billion) emergency rescue plan for Athens is seen as assured given the 504 seats Merkel's left-right "grand coalition" holds in the 631-seat Bundestag lower house.

Racist crimes surged by almost 40 percent in eastern Germany last year, official data showed Tuesday, as the country prepared to host a record number of refugees.

The data, which includes attacks against migrants as well as violence targeted at German citizens of foreign origin, also underlined the divide in attitudes between the east and west of the country despite its reunification 25 years ago.

The U.N.'s refugee chief warned Tuesday that Germany and Sweden cannot be left to bear most of Europe's asylum burden, as German media reported that the number seeking refuge in the country could surge to 750,000 this year.

In an interview with Die Welt newspaper, Antonio Guterres called for more solidarity among European countries in taking in those fleeing war and persecution.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Monday urged the European Union to negotiate with Switzerland on Bern's plans for new quotas on immigration from the bloc.

"Relations with Switzerland are important to me, and I hope a deal will be found," Steinmeier said while visiting Swiss counterpart Didier Burkhalter in Bern, the ATS news agency reported.

Gunmen abducted a German female aid worker in Kabul in broad daylight Monday, officials said, highlighting the growing risk to humanitarian workers in war-battered Afghanistan.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, which comes amid heightened security in Kabul after a wave of recent devastating bombings that left more than 50 people dead.

Fleeing war and poverty, record numbers of refugees have made it to Germany, only to face another kind of chaos -- desperately overcrowded shelters struggling under the massive influx.

All over Germany, asylum-seekers from as far as Syria and Afghanistan, and as close as Serbia and Albania, now live in cramped shelters, army barracks and tent cities, often traumatized by the past and fearful about the future.

Greece's parliament on Friday approved the country's third international bailout after an all-night debate, hours ahead of a critical meeting by European finance ministers.

A majority of 222 lawmakers approved the 400-page document over 64 who voted against and 11 abstentions.

Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State (IS) jihadists in northern Iraq have reported being attacked with chemical weapons in recent days, the German defense ministry said Thursday.

The allegations, deemed "plausible" by a U.S. official, follow claims in March by the autonomous Kurdish government in northern Iraq which said it had evidence that the jihadist group used chlorine in a car bomb attack on January 23.

Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State (IS) jihadists in northern Iraq have reported being attacked with chemical weapons, the German defense ministry said Thursday.

"We have indications that there was an attack with chemical weapons" against the peshmerga fighters that left many suffering from "respiratory irritation," a ministry spokesman told AFP.

Police arrested a Syrian in Germany on Wednesday suspected of helping to set a freighter packed with migrants on a collision course with the Italian coastline.

Italian and German forces, working in collaboration, handcuffed the 26-year-old alleged trafficker in Soest in the country's northwest and were hunting for his brother, 22, also believed to have played a role in the major maritime drama.