Germany is preparing legislation that would require military reservists to take part in training exercises during peacetime. The move is part of plans to expand reserve forces and strengthen military readiness.
The German cabinet approved a bill for setting up a National Security Council and introducing voluntary military service, which could turn into conscription in the absence of sufficient volunteers, of which an initial 15,000 are required with a target of 80,000, whom the government plans to entice with high salaries.
Germany’s top court on Tuesday rejected a constitutional complaint over the government’s legal responsibility for U.S. drone attacks carried out in Yemen with the assistance of facilities at a U.S. air base in Ramstein. The Constitutional Court, based in the south-western city of Karlsruhe, denied the suit brought by two Yemeni nationals whose relatives were killed in a U.S. drone attack in Yemen in 2012.
