Gunmen killed one German national and abducted another after opening fire on two vehicles in southwest Nigeria, police said Monday. 

The attack happened Friday morning near the town of Sagamu in Ogun state, with details of the shooting emerging as German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited the Nigerian capital Abuja. 

Forty-four German riot police were injured in clashes with far-right hooligans rallying against "Islamist extremism" in the western city of Cologne overnight, police said Monday.

Police used batons, pepper spray and water cannon against the protesters, who hurled rocks, bottles and firecrackers at them, a spokesman said.

The Hungarian consulate in Istanbul on Monday became the sixth diplomatic mission in Turkey's largest city to receive a suspicious powder through the post but the authorities said there was no indication the substance was dangerous.

The consulates of Belgium, Canada, Germany, France and the United States -- all countries involved in the international coalition against Islamic State (IS) jihadists -- had reported receiving the yellow powder on Friday.

French President Francois Hollande hosts leaders from Armenia and Azerbaijan Monday as Europe makes a fresh push to end the festering conflict over Nagorny Karabakh.

Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited both countries last week after a sharp escalation in violence over the disputed region in recent months as war raged in Ukraine.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Russian President Vladimir Putin in a telephone call Friday to throw his weight behind a quick resolution of an ongoing gas dispute with Ukraine as winter looms.

In the latest talks between the two leaders on the crisis in Ukraine, Merkel also underlined that upcoming elections in areas of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed separatists must respect national law.

Germany's foreign minister on Thursday offered Berlin's experience in post-war reconciliation to Armenia and Turkey to help them forge peace a century after a World War I-era massacre.

On a visit to Yerevan, Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Germany's long road to partnership with France after two world wars could serve as an example following the 1915 slaughter of Armenians during World War I.

Three teenage American girls who were suspected of wanting to join Islamic State jihadists were sent home after they were intercepted in Germany, U.S. media reports said Wednesday.

The three Colorado girls, of Sudanese and Somali origin, were heading for Turkey when they were stopped by German authorities at Frankfurt airport, CNN said.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam is expected to tackle the lingering crisis of Syrian refugees on Lebanese soil during a visit to Germany on October 27 and 28.

According to al-Liwaa newspaper published on Monday, Salam will discuss during a meeting for the International Support Group for Lebanon in the German capital Berlin the exerted efforts to limit the Syrian influx into Lebanon.

German intelligence has accused pro-Russian rebels of shooting down a Malaysian passenger jet over Ukraine using missiles captured from government forces, a media report said Sunday.

Kiev and the West have previously charged that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was blown out of the sky in July by separatist fighters using a BUK surface-to-air system supplied by Russia, charges denied by Moscow.

Germany on Friday announced new measures to prevent its citizens from travelling to join the jihadist cause in Iraq and Syria, including confiscating their identity papers.

Under a deal struck by interior ministers from the federal level and Germany's 16 states, authorities will be able to take away ID cards from alleged Islamic militants to stop them from leaving the country.