Greece has railed against what it sees as German dominance since the 2010 start of the eurozone financial crisis, but antagonism between the two countries can be traced back to the 19th century.

Historians point to the mid-1800s for spurring resentment in a newly-independent Greece, when a king from the southern German region of Bavaria ascended to the Greek throne.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel won't attend a May 9 Victory Day parade in Moscow but will visit the Russian capital a day later, her office said Wednesday, amid tensions over the Ukraine conflict.

Merkel has declined an invitation to attend the Red Square commemoration marking 70 years since the capitulation of Nazi Germany to Soviet forces, a government spokesman said.

A Singapore court on Thursday sentenced two young German men to nine months in prison and three strokes of the cane for spray-painting a metro train in the city-state, which enforces hardline rules on vandalism.

Andreas Von Knorre, 22, and Elton Hinz, 21, were sentenced after pleading guilty to vandalism and trespassing. Both asked for mercy before sentencing and called their acts a "stupid mistake".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Russia Wednesday of new sanctions if the Ukraine ceasefire accord is not fully implemented, insisting that Kiev be allowed to regain full control of its eastern border.

"One thing is absolutely clear, if the Minsk ceasefire accord does not work then (EU) member states and the European Commission are quite prepared to move to new sanctions," Merkel said.

Leaders of France, Germany and Russia have agreed with Ukraine on the dispatch of OSCE monitors to 10 flashpoint sites on the country's eastern frontline to shore up a shaky truce, Ukraine said Tuesday.

In a readout of a four-way telephone conversation published by the Ukrainian presidency, President Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, and Russian President Vladimir Putin "supported Ukraine's suggestion to put monitors to all locations of ceasefire violations."

German police said Sunday they have temporarily detained two people and searched an Islamic cultural center amid a weekend terrorism alert in the northern city of Bremen.

Police stood guard at key locations, including the town hall, main church and a synagogue, for a second day following a federal police warning issued Friday about possible Islamist terrorist activity.

German lawmakers approved a hard-won bailout extension for Greece's new anti-austerity government in a move Berlin's finance chief called "not easy" but necessary, keeping a crucial lifeline open to Athens.

Greece's left-wing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras welcomed the German vote Friday as "a political act of common sense and democracy", saying there would be no third bailout for his country and pledging to get to work on reforms.

A German hospital nurse was sentenced to life in prison Thursday for murdering two patients who were victims of a suspected wider killing spree that he says claimed 30 lives.

The 38-year-old man, identified only as Niels H., has admitted to injecting his patients with lethal drug doses in a bid to try to revive them and shine as a savior before his medical peers.

Consumer confidence in Germany is at its highest since late 2001, as rising optimism about the economy and income expectations persuade German shoppers to open their wallets, a poll found on Thursday.

"The escalation of the situation in east Ukraine, the ongoing tensions between the West and Russia and events in Greece are not leaving much of an impression on German consumers, who are increasingly optimistic," market research company GfK said in a statement.

France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine called Tuesday for a total ceasefire in eastern Ukraine as London announced it was sending troops to train government forces fighting pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said his country would send up to 75 military personnel to advise and train Kiev forces, but ruled out sending lethal equipment as "there needs to be a diplomatic solution" to the conflict.