- Ethiopians struggle with bitter pill of currency reform
- Sri Lanka votes in first poll since economic collapse
- Feminist author warns of abortion disaster if Trump wins US election
- US city of Flint still reeling from water crisis, 10 years on
- Arsenal's mean defence faces acid test to shut out Man City again
- Late surge lifts Thailand's Jeeno to LPGA Queen City lead
- DeChambeau says PGA's Ryder Cup decision 'just the start'
- Alcaraz defeated on Laver Cup debut
- Postecoglou embraces 'struggle' to make Spurs a success
- Nice hand 'ashamed' Saint-Etienne 8-0 Ligue 1 mauling
- Boeing CEO says ending strike 'a top priority'
- Stock markets mostly fall after Fed-fueled rally
- Harris slams Trump for hypocrisy on abortion as US starts voting
- Academy to host first overseas ceremony to honor young filmmakers
- No doctor necessary: US okays nasal spray flu vaccine for self-use
- Gurbaz, birthday boy Rashid lead Afghanistan to 177-run rout of South Africa
- Former delivery man Baldwin leads star names at PGA Championship
- Trump shooting: Secret Service admits complacency
- Can an ambitious Milei make Argentina an AI giant?
- Haiti, its suffering growing, in 'race against time': UN expert
- Ibrahim Aqil, the Hezbollah elite unit commander wanted by the US
- Chinese forward Cui signs NBA contract with Brooklyn Nets
- US Fed dissenter calls for 'measured' pace of rate cuts
- Guardiola tells players to lead change over workload as Kompany demands cap on games
- Norway limits wild salmon fishing as stocks hit new lows
- Top Hezbollah commander killed in Israeli strike on Beirut
- Rotterdam fatal knife attacker suspected of 'terrorist motive'
- First early votes cast in knife-edge US presidential election
- Top-ranked Swiatek out of Beijing due to 'personal matters'
- Hard-right Reform UK looks to the future after vote success
- Embiid agrees to NBA contract extension with 76ers
- Joshua aims to complete road to redemption in Dubois bout
- World champion Bagnaia sets pace with lap record at Misano
- Biden says 'working' to get people back to homes on Israel-Lebanon border
- Pope criticises Argentina's crackdown on protesters
- Court limits screenings of videos in France mass rape case
- Gurbaz century takes Afghanistan to 311-4 in 2nd ODI
- Central banks face 'difficult balancing act': IMF chief
- McLaren's Norris sets Singapore pace as struggling Verstappen 15th
- Guardiola tells players to lead change over workload fears
- Paris Olympics sports equipment moves to new homes
- 'Happy' Kinghorn relishing life at Toulouse
- Norris sets Singapore pace as Verstappen only 15th
- 8 dead in Israeli strike, source says Hezbollah commander killed
- Germany to bid to host women's Euro 2029
- Portugal brings deadly forest fires under control
- Postecoglou defends Solanke after slow start to Spurs career
- US nuclear plant Three Mile Island to reopen to power Microsoft
- Arteta urges Arsenal to take next step in Man City showdown
- Stock markets fall after Fed-fuelled rally
Away from bombs, Ukrainians make new home in German town
When Katrin Bilger heard about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, her nine-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son found her crying at the breakfast table.
"They understood that it was something very serious," said Bilger, 37, a single mother who lives in the German hillside town of Kronberg, near Frankfurt.
"And then pretty quickly all three of us understood that we were going to help any way we could," she said.
The family opened their home to Tanja Bila, 40, her mother Svetlana and her daughter Anastasia, seven, Ukrainian refugees who had fled Russia's invasion of their country.
"When the bombing started, it was frightening, we didn't sleep all night. We realised we had to leave. Leave everything and go," said Svetlana, 69.
Many of the over three million people who have fled Ukraine have sought refuge in neighbouring Poland.
But some have chosen to head westwards.
And many who have landed up in Germany have found themselves taken in by German families like Bilger's, who have opened their homes to help Europe's biggest economy cope with a huge influx.
Almost 240,000 Ukrainians have registered with the authorities so far, but the real number could be much higher since there are no official controls at Germany's EU borders.
- One million refugees -
The German government is eventually expecting up to a million Ukrainians.
According to the authorities, around two in three of the refugees who have arrived so far are being accommodated in private homes.
Kronberg, a town with a population of around 18,000 located within the Frankfurt commuter belt, has set up accommodation for 400, with around 80 more being housed privately.
On a recent Saturday, Tanja, her mother and daughter prepared a traditional Ukrainian lunch of soup and dumplings for the two families to enjoy together.
After lunch, the mothers and their children played games together around a coffee table before taking the family dog for a walk through the town's cobbled streets.
Little Anastasia has already enrolled in a local school and started German classes.
But Tanja, also a single mother who was a financial specialist for a German company in Kyiv, feels uncertain about what the future holds.
"Will our home be safe? Will it be bombed so we don't have a place to return? Maybe we have to live here and learn the German language and to start a new life in a new place? I don't know. Now we have no idea," she said.
- Donation centre -
Kronberg is holding regular rallies in the town centre to inform residents about the situation and recruit volunteers.
"We will try to create as many additional spaces as possible. I think we will definitely manage 50 to 100 and then we have to see," town mayor Christoph Koenig told AFP.
The town has also set up a donation centre where residents can bring food, clothes and medicines.
In one room, shelves upon shelves are packed with folded clothes and shoes, while a hanging rail in the centre has been reserved for children's jackets.
Tanja has visited the donation centre several times to help with translations and pick up clothes for her own family.
"We went here with winter clothes, and we have nothing to wear when it's getting warmer," she said.
Volunteer Mariana, wearing a blue and yellow ribbon pinned to her coat, was born in Ukraine but has lived in Kronberg for 20 years.
"This terrible war brings people together... It's great that this big disaster brings us together, that's how it should be," she said.
M.Furrer--BTB