GERMANY: Rail union GDL announced yesterday it would end its train drivers’ strike early at 6pm today.

Leader Claus Weselsky said that the current action — aimed at securing a 5 per cent pay rise and the right to negotiate for workers currently represented by another union — would end more than a day earlier than planned after a Frankfurt court ruled it was legal.

It is believed that the decision aims to prevent disruption of tomorrow’s events marking the fall of the Berlin Wall.