A Franco-German letter calling for reform of EU border-free area rules is being seen by diplomats as political support for Nicolas Sarkozy ahead of Sunday’s (22 April) elections. The letter – signed by the French and German interior ministers – reiterates calls made by Sarkozy during the campaign that the 26-member-strong ‘Schengen’ area should be changed so that governments can “as a last resort … reintroduce internal frontiers for a period not greater than 30 days.”

This is already the situation and the safeguard has in the past been triggered, for instance, to stop hooligans going to international football events.

A German court on Friday ordered a leading Berlin museum to return to a Jewish family in the United States a valuable collection of posters stolen in 1938 by Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.

The collection of some 4,300 posters, valued at around 4.4 million euros ($5.7 million), was taken by the Nazi propaganda ministry from Jewish dentist Hans Sachs, the top poster collector in Germany from the early 20th century.

State police have identified a man who was shot by Berlin police when he opened fire at two officers responding to a family fight.

Troopers say 45-year-old Jeffrey Yeaw shot at the officers at a home on Peck Street shortly after 10:30 p.m. Thursday. One of the officers returned fire and wounded Yeaw, who is being treated at Hartford Hospital and is expected to survive. The officers weren’t injured.

Berlin police say 20 people forced their way into Syria’s embassy in the German capital and damaged offices there.

Police say the men — all of them Syrian or of Syrian origin — destroyed furniture in the building Friday afternoon and sprayed slogans on the facade.

They were briefly detained as they left the embassy.