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2009

Monday 25 May 2009 BERLIN: DOUBLE AGENT?
The German magazine, Der Spiegel, says that an Iranian-Canadian businessman, codenamed Sinbad, has been convicted of selling missile technology to Iran while working as a spy for Germany's intelligence agency, the BND. The man, whose real name was not disclosed, was sentenced to three years in prison. But German authorities are planning to deport him to serve the sentence abroad. Der Spiegel said Sinbad had received more than one million euros over the years for his services, but was, at the same time, selling high-tech equipment to a company believed to be helping Tehran produce Shahab missiles. He was arrested last October.

Tuesday 12 May 2009 Former Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk was taken from his Ohio home Monday and deported to Germany, where he faces charges of helping murder 29,000 Jews in World War II. Demjanjuk, 89, appeared to be crying as was carried from his house on a stretcher and driven away in a private ambulance. He was loaded onto what sources said was a Munich-bound air ambulance flight, which departed as the sun was setting over Cleveland's Burke Lakefront Airport. A German official said Demjanjuk was expected in Germany on Tuesday.

12 February 2009 Miniatur Wunderland *** official corporate video *** largest model railway / railroad in the world The image video of Miniatur Wunderland Hamburg www.miniatur-wunderland.com , the largest model railway in the world and one of the most successful permanent exhibitions in Germany.
Find more videos an informations on our homepage.

Deutsche Version / german version:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVURtm... thanks Alan P

Friday 08 May 2009 Germany's troubled banks
The financial crisis provides a chance to fix Germany's state banks

Wednesday 29 April 2009 Germany slashes growth forecast
The German government predicts its economy will shrink by 6% this year, dramtically downgrading its previous forecast. German economy 'to shrink by 6%'
The German economy will shrink by 6% this year according to a forecast from the country's leading economic think tanks.

Thursday 12 March 2009 A 17-year-old in the southwestern town of Winnenden shot 16 people to death before dying in a shootout with police in a town 30 kilometres away. Tim Kretschmer killed nine students, eight of them teenage girls, and three women teachers, as well as a bystander across the street from their school. The shooter also killed two persons in a car dealership. Several students, all female, were injured. Chancellor Angela Merkel has called it a day of mourning for all Germany. Germany approves stimulus package
Germany approves a 50bn euro ($63bn) stimulus plan aimed at spurring a recovery in Europe's largest economy

Sunday 15 February 2009 A film from Peru won the Golden Bear award for best picture at the 59th Berlin film festival on Saturday. The Milk of Sorrow (La Teta Asustada) is a Spanish-Peruvian production about the consequences of a rape on a woman during the years of political violence in Peru.

Friday 13 February 2009 Europe hit by economic slowdown
European economies contracted in the fourth quarter of 2008, with some countries registering the worst figures in decades.
Germany is being punished for its heavy dependence on exports

Sunday 08 February 2009 German industrial output plunges
German industrial output sees a record fall in December, after a sharp contraction in manufacturing activity.

Thursday 15 January 2009
Light relief
A belated bail-out for Germany's economy may not provide much of a lift

2008

Friday 14 November 2008 German economy now in recession
Germany officially falls into recession after government figures show the economy has shrunk for two quarters in a row.

Monday 10 November 2008 German police have arrested the chief of protocol of Rwandan President Paul Kagami. Rose Kabuye was arrested in Frankfurt under an arrest warrant issued by France. Ms. Kabuye is suspected of participating in the downing of a plane in 1994 carrying former Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana. His death triggered a genocide. Rwanda calls Ms. Kabuye's arrest improper.

Friday 24 October 2008 Merkel Daimler Chrysler visit (01:13) Report
Oct 24 - German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends event at Beijing Mercedes production line.
Facing a global economic slowdown, Merkel was keen to promote business ties.

Staying at home, not taking off? (01:43)
Oct 24 - European airport operators report falling passenger numbers - another possible sign that economies are being transfixed by recession fears.
Passenger numbers at Frankfurt airport, one of Europe's busiest, have already weakened, says the airport's operator, Fraport. And it's a

Monday 06 October 2008 In an effort to instill confidence in Germany's banks, the government on Sunday said that it will guarantee all private savings accounts in the country. Germany's guarantee was worth more than US$700 billion. Also on Sunday, the finance ministry said that government officials and private banks had agreed to a new US$69 billion deal to bail out the German mortgage lender, Hypo Real Estate. The deal will add as much as US$21 billion in credit to an earlier plan that was rejected on Saturday.

Saturday 27 September 2008 Germany's national railway has announced its timetable for privatization. Deutsche Bahn will offer almost 25 per cent of its stock to investors at the end of next month. It's estimated that the sale could raise between $7 and $12 billion. The sale is considered the last major privatization in Germany, the biggest economy in Europe.

Tuesday Jul 29, 2008 Prices rise in Germany

German inflation may have accelerated unexpectedly in July, boosted by rising energy costs, consumer price data from the country's most populous state suggested. Prices in North Rhine-Westphalia rose in July by 0.6 per cent on the month, pushing the annual inflation rate in the western state to 3.3 per cent from 3.0 per cent in June. Data from German states offer some of the first insights into price trends around the 15-nation euro zone.

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008

Monday 09 June 2008 Robust trade aids German economy
Strong export growth helps Germany boost its trade surplus but analysts warns of weaker prospects ahead.
Its surplus rose to an above-forecast 18.7bn euros ($27.6bn; £14.1bn) in April from 16.6bn euros the month before, according to official figures.

Sunday 25 May 2008 About 4,000 demonstrators protested against a congress of Germany's neo-Nazi National Democratic Party on Saturday. Demonstrators said that there was no place in the Bavarian town of Bamberg for Nazis. Police prevented violent incidents. Ten people were briefly detained. Stores in the historic centre of the ancient town carried signs with slogans that there is no place here for Nazis. Some 300 NPD delegates assembled in a concert hall for their two-day meeting.

Monday 28 April 2008 Opponents of a plan to close historic Tempelhof airport in Berlin failed on Sunday to get enough votes to stop the plan. The vote was held as a non-binding referendum. The airport was the centre of the Berlin Airlift following the Second World War. Built in 1923, the airport can accommodate 1.5 million passengers annually. But traffic has dropped to a tiny fraction of the those who used Berlin's three airports last year. The city government plans to close Tempelhof in October as part of a plan for a large central airport southeast of Berlin.

Monday 11 February 2008 U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates warned NATO on Sunday that failing to stamp out Afghanistan's Taliban militants would boost Islamic extremism worldwide. In a speech to the annual Munich Conference on Security Policy, Mr. Gates said that NATO could not tolerate a two-tier system in which some members send soldiers to combat zones while others do not. International forces and the Afghan army have confronted a Taliban insurgency that has gained strength in the south of the country.

Sunday 10 February 2008 The future of NATO, Afghanistan's conflict, and Iran's nuclear program are among the topics being discussed this weekend at the annual Munich Security Conference. About 60 leading international defence officials are attending, including NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. On Saturday, Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that his troops would continue to attack Kurdish separatist militants in northern Iraq until the militants are defeated. He also promoted Turkey's bid for membership in the European Union, rejecting the notion of privileged membership that is advocated by Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, and other E.U. leaders. Poland's foreign minister, Radek Sikorski, again said that his country needed further discussion with Russia before Poland would agree to base part of a U.S. missile defence system on its territory. Russia has criticized the plan.

Monday 28 January 2008 Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, suffered a major political loss on Sunday when her conservative Christian Democratic Party was defeated in a key state election. Exit polls showed that the Social Democrats won the important state of Hesse. Miss Merkel's party appeared to win with difficulty in another election in the neighbouring state of Lower Saxony. The two elections were seen as a test for Miss Merkel before general elections are held next year. Miss Merkel is governing over a fragile coalition.

7 January 2008 nsnbc Knut to Holliwood

2007

Europe's car industry Collision course

Friday 07 December 2007 French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel say that Iran's nuclear program remains a threat, despite a U.S. intelligence report on Monday which said Iran stopped trying to make nuclear weapons four years ago. Mr. Sarkozy and Mrs. Merkel says the dual track of threatening Iran with further sanctions while remaining willing to negotiate should therefore be continued. The report by 16 American intelligence agencies also said that Iran continues to develop nuclear capabilities that could later be used for nuclear arms. The report seems likely to increase resistance by China and Russia on the UN Security Council to win a vote for a third round of sanctions, a course backed by the U.S., France and Britain.

Sat 17/11/2007 Rail service was again crippled by a strike on Friday, although more workers elected to return to work. The SNCF group says 32.2 per cent of its workers were off the job, compared with 42.8 per cent on Thursday and 61.5 per cent on Wednesday. Nonetheless, intercity, regional and Paris metro lines were all running severely reduced schedules. Labour Minister Xavier Bertrand has said that the strike must end before negotiations can resume. Rail unions are irate about President Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to end "special" pension plans that allow some 500,000 public workers to retire two-and-a-half years before the others.

Fri 16/11/2007 Railway workers in Germany are staging their biggest labour strike in history, disrupting travel for millions of people and costing millions of dollars in lost revenue. Most passenger and freight trains stopped running on Wednesday. Workers went off the job to put pressure on the national railway company, Deutsche Bahn, to grant large salary increases. Rail service will return this weekend, but the main labour union threatens to stage walkouts until its demands are met. Meanwhile, in France, a national railway strike continues for a second day. Labour leaders say it will continue at least until tomorrow. Passengers are increasingly unhappy. Railway workers are protesting President Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to reform generous pension plans.

Tuesday 13 November 2007 French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met in Berlin on Monday and agreed that new UN sanctions against Iran may be needed to force that country to abandon its nuclear program. Mr. Sarkozy said after the talks with his hostess that they both agree that Iran cannot be permitted to have nuclear weapons. The French leader says that they discussed how the EU could reduce trade relations with Iran. Germany is one of the latter's biggest trading partners. Mrs. Merkel says she and Mr. Sarkozy also agreed on the importance of persuading China and Russia, permanent members of the UN Security Council, to support sanctions against Iran. Russia is building a nuclear facility for Iran at Bushehr.

Thursday 01 November 2007 The German Institute for Human Rights in Berlin has accused the EU of not doing enough to save the lives of migrants who try to reach Europe by sea. The Institute says EU nations have been unable to agree on their human rights obligations toward such people or how to share the burden of receiving among themselves. The Institute also says that migrants who are rescued must be taken to EU nations where their requests to become refugees can bee assessed. The rights lobby has condemned the practice of intercepting boats of refugees at sea and escorting them back to their port of departure. Almost 500 illegal migrants have tried to reach Italy in the past week alone. Seventeen migrants drowned during the weekend when two boats broke up while trying to land there.

Friday Oct 26, 2007 German Social Democrats veer left in break with Schröder era

Monday 15 October 2007 ussia's president, Vladimir Putin, began a two-day visit to Germany on Sunday amid intelligence reports of an assassination plot against him when he visits Iran later in the week. Iran dismissed the reports, and Russian officials said that there were no plans to cancel his trip to Tehran. Mr. Putin's talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel in Wiesbaden were expected to focus on Russian objections to the United States' plan to place a missile defence schield in Poland and the Czech Republic as well as on Iran's nuclear program and the Kosovo dispute. They will also discuss a gas pipeline project involving Gazprom and two German firms. Estonia, Poland and Finnland object to the pipeline, which is due to begin delivering gas to Germany from 2010.

Monday 24 September 2007 Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, on Sunday became the first German head of state to welcome the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Meeting for about an hour in Berlin, the chancellor assured the Dalai Lama of her support for his efforts to preserve Tibet's cultural identity, as well as for his peaceful quest for Tibet's religious and cultural autonomy. During the meeting, the Dalai Lamai repeated that he does not seek total independence of Tibet from China's occupation but autonomy. He praised Ms. Merkel for what he called 'her steady engagement on human rights and religious freedom.' China disapproved of his visit, and abruptly cancelled a meeting of its officials with German officials that was scheduled for the same day. China is Germany's biggest trading partner in east Asia.

Saturday 01 September 2007 A symbol of Jewish renaissance in Germany has reopened today in Berlin. About 1,000 people attended a ceremony marking the restoration of Germany's biggest synagogue. The building in East Berlin narrowly avoided destruction in 1938, when Nazis burned Jewish homes and businesses in a night of destruction known as Kristallnacht. Less than 7,000 Jews remained in Berlin after the war, but in the past decade, an influx of Jews from the former Soviet Union had made Germany one of the fastest-growing Jewish communities in the world. The rabbi at the reopened synagogue came from Belarus.

Jan 4th 2007 | FRANKFURT A few reasons to celebrate The economy is running along nicely
GERMANY’S rebounding economy will be the locomotive of Europe again by 2008, if not in 2007. That is the prognosis of several leading economic research institutes at the turn of the year. The government’s slow progress with economic reform seems irrelevant to business and investment growth. Unemployment, though still high at a seasonally-adjusted 9.8%, is sinking.

Saturday 30 December 2006 Nazi Archive Made Public CBS Video
Documents of Nazi atrocities during the Holocaust were kept locked for decades. Now that the archive is being made public, Scott Pelley brought three Holocaust survivors to examine their records

This story was aired on Sunday, Dec. 17 (7PM ET/PT on CBS) on 60 MINUTES about a long-secret German archive that houses a treasure trove of information on 17.5 million victims of the Holocaust. The archive, located in the German town of Bad Arolsen, is massive (there are 16 miles of shelving containing 50 million pages of documents) and until recently, was off-limits to the public. But after the German government agreed earlier this year to open the archives, CBS News? Scott Pelley traveled there with three Jewish survivors who were able to see their own Holocaust records. It's an incredibly moving piece, all the more poignant in the wake of this week's meeting of Holocaust deniers in Iran. We are trying to get word out about the story to people who have a special interest in this subject.

It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended. This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated with the German and Russia peoples looking the other way!

Now, more than ever, with Iran, among others, claiming the Holocaust to be "a myth," it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets.

FRANKFURT, Nov. 24 2006 6 in Germany Settle Landmark Case on Bonuses
Nearly seven years after he and other board members handed out thank-you checks for $73 million to the departing executives of an acquired German telecommunications company, Josef Ackermann has learned the high cost of his generosity.

Sat 04/11/2006 rci A group of Germans who as children were selected by the Nazis for their Aryan qualities gathered for the first time Saturday to discuss the secretive program. The so-called "Lebensborn children" were part of Adolf Hitler's quest to build a master race. While millions of Jews and others deemed "undesirable" were being slaughtered, thousands of children were carefully selected for Aryan physical qualities and given to families of SS members to be raised. Many of the "Lebensborn children" are trying to make peace with pasts they long kept cloaked because of shame. One member of the group was taken from his parents in Ukraine in 1942 at age two and transported back to Germany where he was placed with a wealthy couple. He still refers to them today as his parents but has never been able to locate his biological parents.

Monday 04 September 2006 Europe's first spacecraft to the moon ended its three-year mission on Sunday. The Smart-1 spacecraft deliberately crashed into the lunar surface in a volcanic plain called the Lake of Excellence. The impact of Smart-1 was expected to leave a 3 by 10-metre crater and send dust high above the surface. Observatories watched the event from Earth. Scientists hope that the cloud of dust and debris will provide clues to the geologic composition of the site. The European Space Agency describes the project as a great

Wednesday Apr 19, 2006 nyt After Resisting for Decades, Germany Agrees to Open Archive of Holocaust Documents The Bad Arolsen archive is one of the largest in the world, with up to 50 million documents, some seized by the Allies as they liberated concentration camps.

Saturday Jan 14, 2006 nyt "Our talks with Iran have reached a dead end. "
FRANK-WALTER STEINMEIER, the German foreign minister, on European efforts to halt Iran's nuclear program.

Thursday Jan 5, 2006 THE FP MEMO: CREATING A MERKEL MIRACLE
By William Drozdiak
Germany’s new chancellor has to talk sense to spoiled Germans, put Vladimir Putin in his place, and make nice with George W. Bush—all while holding together a fragile coalition.

2005

From Wed1239 On the surface, Germany appears to have a big problem with high salaries and low consumption, which will be compensated for by a value added tax increase in 2007. As for the high hourly salaries, they have in fact diminished slightly and represent only a superficial measure of productivity which should be considered in terms of numbers and quality of units produced per Euro spent per hour on wages. Germany’s automobile industry appears to have suffered, as has North America’s in competition with Asian manufacturers. However, some manufacturing is being outsourced to Eastern Europe, Slovakia in particular, some brands such as Porsche and B.M.W. have created a secure niche market and investment in China continues. There is some concern about the growing exportation of Chinese automobiles, especially to Europe, but this is mostly in the smaller vehicle market.

Monday Dec 5, 2005 rci Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, says that her government is working around-the-clock to secure the release of a German hostage held by Iraqi insurgents. Miss Merkel urged the kidnappers to release Susanne Osthoff and her Iraqi driver immediately. They were kidnapped late last month. A video message released this past week threatened her with death unless Germany stopped dealing with Iraq's government. There are conflicting reports about whether or not Germany has made direct contact with the kidnappers. Germany has paid ransoms in the past to secure the release of its kidnapped nationals.

1 December 2005 ind
GERMANY: The government is considering raising the retirement age to 67 from 65. Some figures have shown that of that only two of five people between the ages of 55 and 64 are still in the work force these days.

Saturday Nov 26, 2005 nyt Rate Rise Is Opposed in Europe
By MARK LANDLER
A survey of German businesses reported a larger-than-expected decline in confidence in November, suggesting that Europe's biggest economy, while growing, remains fragile.

Wednesday Nov 23, 2005 nyt Merkel Takes Office in Germany and Announces Coalition Cabinet
By RICHARD BERNSTEIN
Angela Merkel is the first woman to lead a postwar German government and the first chancellor to have grown up under the Communist government of East Germany.

Angela Merkel is sworn in as Germany's first female Chancellor

Tuesday Nov 22, 2005 nyt Germany Passes Torch to New Generation
By RICHARD BERNSTEIN
Not only is Angela Merkel the first female chancellor of Germany, but her ascent signals a shift to a new political generation.

Wednesday Nov 16, 2005 ts New German coalition looks grand
After more than a month of doom-laden predictions, brinkmanship and tantrums, Germany almost has a government. Angela Merkel's centre-right alliance and the Social Democrats have finalized the terms of their "grand coalition."

Monday Nov 14, 2005 ec Merkel’s marriage of inconvenience
Almost two months after Germany’s inconclusive election, the proposed “grand coalition”, with Angela Merkel as chancellor, has been approved by the country’s three main parties. But their agreed programme of government is an awkward compromise and may do little to revive Europe’s largest economy

Sunday Nov 13, 2005 nyt German Coalition Is Declared After Delicate Talks
By MARK LANDLER
Germany's two major political parties on Friday sealed an agreement to govern the country together under Angela Merkel.

Sunday Nov 13, 2005 rci The Christian Democratic party led by Angela Merkel has reached an accord to form a coalition government with the Social Democrats of outgoing Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. The two sides had reached an agreement in principle on Oct. 10 to govern together but the working out of the details had proved arduous. Germany's electors almost two months ago gave neither party a majority, although Mrs. Merkel's formation won a plurality. She'll be the first chancellor to come from the former East Germany.

Tuesday Nov 8, 2005 ts Zundel trial begins in Germany
Today, Germany puts on trial a high profile product of its Nazi past. Yet it does so with little sense of drama. Ernst Zundel, a German citizen who was a distasteful fixture in Montreal and Toronto for 40 years, is largely unknown in Germany, writes Sandro Contenta.

Thursday Nov 10, 2005 maisonneuve.org A CASE OF GERMAN WEASELS
The National and the Citizen stuff, while the Globe and the Post brief the start of the German trial of infamous Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel. After living in Montreal and Toronto for the better part of forty-six years and loosing two appeals in Canadian courts last year, the one-time Maclean’s magazine illustrator and author of The Hitler We Loved and Why was deported to his native Germany, where denying the Holocaust is a crime. Zundel faces charges of inciting racial hatred and spreading Nazi and anti-Semitic propaganda. The National and the Citizen take the time to note that the trial got off to a rather inauspicious start for Zundel, now sixty-six. Judge Ulrich Meinerzhagen began the proceedings by dismissing one of Zundel’s lawyers, who had been convicted earlier this year on similar charges. The rest of Zundel’s team seems to cleave to the same world view: the Citizen mentions that another defence lawyer referred in a motion to Jews as an “enemy people.” The trial was adjourned until next Tuesday—the time is needed to rule on a defence motion to dismiss the judge because he “only wants defence lawyers who adopt the views of the prosecution.” MediaScout hopes this will give the Big Six some time to plan better coverage.

Nick Petter is an Ottawa-based MediaScout writer for Maisonneuve Magazine.

Tuesday Nov 8, 2005 nyt German Socialist to Quit; Coalition in Doubt
By MARK LANDLER
The leader of one of Germany's two main parties said he would step down after losing an internal power struggle.

Wed Nov 2nd, 2005

Cracks appear in Germany's grand coalition

Friday Oct 28, 2005 ec

Buoyant burghers

German business sentiment hit a five-year high this month, which spurred hopes for a broad-based recovery in the country's economy. Sentiment in Germany's retail sector showed the strongest improvement, but all sectors surveyed by Ifo, the institute that conducts the business poll, were more optimistic.

Wednesday Oct 12, 2005 nyt Germany's New Chancellor
The new chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, will have to cede some of the more dubious planks in her platform of reforms for which German voters clearly withheld their mandate.

Wednesday Oct 12, 2005 nyt Only Marginal Reforms Are Expected in Germany
By RICHARD BERNSTEIN and MARK LANDLER
With Germany's presumptive new chancellor being forced into a coalition with her political rivals, many feel that sweeping reforms will be impossible

Tuesday Oct 11, 2005 nyt Bertelsmann Is Said tOWN Ouster of Sony BMG Chief
By JEFF LEEDS
Bertelsmann, the German media giant, has notified Sony that it does not want to renew the contract of Andrew R. Lack, who runs Sony BMG.

Tuesday Oct 11, 2005 nyt NEXT STOP | HAMBURG
In a Perfectionist City, a Gritty Neighborhood Beckons
By GISELA WILLIAMS
The neighborhood of St. Pauli, a district that is balancing precariously between prostitutes and squatters and gentrification, is an exhilarating foil to the beauty and almost sterile perfectionism of Hamburg.

October 10, 2005 nyt Merkel to Succeed Schröder as Chancellor of Germany
By JUDY DEMPSEY BR / KATRIN BENNHOLD The agreement will end Gerhard Schröder's leadership, but will apparently give his party a majority of cabinet posts.

Sun 10/9/2005 rci The political stalemate in Germany continues. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his conservative challenger Angela Merkel have scheduled another round of talks Monday to decide who will be the next leader. The two were also scheduled to meet Sunday evening in Berlin. The discussions also involve Social Democrat Chairman Franz Muentefering and Edmund Stoiber, head of the CDU's Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union. Parliamentary elections three weeks ago left neither major German party with a ruling majority, resulting in negotiations over forming a so-called Grand Coalition government.

Thursday, 6 October 2005 bbc German rivals for chancellor meet
Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his conservative rival Angela Merkel have held a meeting over who will lead the country in future.
They left a four-hour meeting on Thursday without commenting. A final decision is not expected before Sunday.

Friday Oct 7, 2005 European Central Bank leaves rate steady
The European Central Bank held its key interest rate steady at 2 percent on Thursday, despite concerns about Europe's sluggish economy.

Stephen S. Poloz VP EDC Economics Weekly Commentary
Germany, Japan and Reform Prospects - October 5, 2005 For years now, analysts have seen Germany and Japan as birds of a feather: ho-hum performers urgently needing reform. But recent political developments suggest that is about to change. Past issues | his WN page

Wednesday Oct 5, 2005 nyt 3 Share Nobel for Work on Behavior and Use of Light
By KENNETH CHANG
A scientist who laid the foundation for quantum optics and two others who built on that work to make precise measurements of light won the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Wednesday Oct 5, 2005 ts Optics work wins physics Nobel
Two Americans and a German won the Nobel Prize in physics yesterday for optics research that is improving the accuracy of such precision instruments as GPS locators, atomic clocks and navigation systems.

Tuesday Oct 4, 2005 nyt Americans and German Win Nobel Physics Prize ap
STOCKHOLM, Americans John L. Hall and Roy J. Glauber and German Theodor W. Haensch won the 2005 Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for work that could lead to better long-distance communication and more precise navigation worldwide and in space.

nyt Schröder Hints at Bowing Out as Chancellor in a Coalition
By RICHARD BERNSTEIN
BERLIN, October 3 - Chancellor Gerhard Schröder seemed Monday to soften his resistance to giving up his post, hinting for the first time that he would not oppose a decision by his party to share power with the opposition conservatives even if it meant accepting somebody else as chancellor.

Monday Oct 3, 2005 nyt On Oct. 3, 1990, West Germany and East Germany ended 45 years of postwar division, declaring the creation of a new unified country. See this front page

Saturday Oct 1, 2005 nyt An Unlikely German Coalition Now Seems to Be More Likely By MARK LANDLER
Germany seems likely to be governed by a coalition of the parties of the chancellor and his conservative challenger.

Thursday Sep 29, 2005 German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder says he is confident that his party and Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats will reach a power-sharing agreement. Germany's electorate voted Schroeder's Social Democrats out of office in a federal election last month but failed to give the centre-right a majority. That forced Germany's two largest parties to discuss the possibility of governing together. The parties are due to meet on Wednesday for a second round of talks. Mr. Schroeder has refused to concede defeat since the election and Angela Merkel won't enter serious coalition talks until he does.

Monday Sep 26, 2005 rci The Social Democrat Party of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has proposed an unprecedented plan to resolve the country's political deadlock. Leading SPD deputies favour a power-sharing plan with the Christian Democrats that would let Chancellor Schroeder hold office for two years before handing power to CDU leader Angela Merkel. Mr. Schroeder's SPD won 34.3 percent of the vote in elections one week ago, while the CDU and its sister party the Christian Social Union won 35.2 percent. It was Germany's most inconclusive post-war election. Chancellor Schroeder insists that he won a mandate to continue governing after coming from far behind in opinion polls.

Friday Sep 23, 2005 ts Face it, our election system no longer works
Even before German voters drove their national government into an impasse last weekend, the notion of electoral change had started to lose some of its shine in Canada. That's too bad.

Tuesday Sep 20, 2005 nyt German Election Is Inconclusive; No Clear Winner
The vote produced the unusual spectacle of both main candidates, Gerhard Schröder and Angela Merkel, claiming a mandate.

INTERNATIONAL
	Germany's Surprising Election Results Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's strong second-place showing leaves open the question of whether challenger Angela Merkel will replace him. In an interactive feature, reporter Mark Landler analyzes Schröder's gamble.

Tuesday Sep 20, 2005 nyt Divided Germany Votes, With Coalition Likely
By RICHARD BERNSTEIN
After a hard-fought and acrimonious campaign, Germany goes to the polls on Sunday to choose a leader.

Tuesday Sep 20, 2005 rci On the eve of a critical election in Germany, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his main rival Angela Merkel made a last-ditch effort to win votes at political rallies on Saturday. The latest opinion polls showed that one-in-four Germans or some ten million voters were still undecided. Mrs. Merkel's center-right alliance has led in opinion surverys throughout the campaign, but in the final days of campaigning, polls showed the two with almost equal support. On Saturday, Mr. Schroeder addressed about ten thousand people in Recklinghausen, emphasizing his foreign policy and his welfare reforms. He criticized his rival's proposed labour reforms. In Bonn, Mrs. Merkel accused the Schroeder government's policies of creating high unemployment. If Mrs. Merkel wins on Sunday, she will become Germany's first woman chancellor and the first to have grown up in formerly communist East Germany.

A surprise that leaves Germany in limbo Sep 19th 2005

Tuesday Aug 23, 2005 ec Germany’s election UPDATED
Gerhard Schröder may still be the loser in next month’s election in Germany—but it is no longer so certain that Angela Merkel, the opposition Christian Democrats’ candidate, will be the winner
Full article

Saturday Aug 20, 2005 rci Jewish leaders are praising Pope Benedict for strongly condemning the death of millions of people in the Holocaust. Speaking during an historic visit to a synagogue in the German city of Cologne, the Pope called the Holocaust an 'unprecedented crime.' It's only the second time in modern history that a Pontiff has entered a synagogue. Pope Benedict's predecessor, Pope John Paul II, visited one in 1986. Pope Benedict also noted that anti-Semitism is on the rise, and he called on people to be vigilant. The synagogue that he visited was destroyed by Nazis in 1938 and rebuilt in 1959. The Pope is on a four-day visit to his native Germany. His trip coincides with the World Youth Day festival established by his predecessor.

Friday Aug 19, 2005 nyt Youthful Throngs Cheer Pope at Cologne Faith By IAN FISHER
Benedict XVI returned Thursday to his "beloved homeland" of Germany, cheered on by tens of thousands of young Catholics for a huge festival of faith.

Dark days for Volkswagen Jul 14th 2005 more

Thursday Jul 7, 2005 ts
A crisis of identity in Germany
Second in a seriesBERLIN — Did you know that Germany is as much of an immigrant nation as America? Germans themselves don`t know. Or they don`t want to.

Friday Jun 10, 2005 ts
New Bach aria comes to light
BERLIN—A previously unknown work by Johann Sebastian Bach has been discovered in a crate of 18th-century birthday cards removed from a German library shortly before it was devastated by fire, researchers said yesterday

Monday May 23, 2005 rci The Social Democrat party of German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder suffered a crushing defeat in a regional poll on Sunday. After 39 years in power in North Rhine-Westphalia, the Social Democrats lost to the Christian Democrats. Voters blamed the Social Democrats for the growing rate of unemployment in the state. As a result of the defeat, Mr. Schroeder is recommending that early national elections be held in the fall.

It's those people, all over again Aug 12th 2004

Tuesday Jul 20, 2004 ts
NEO-NAZIS ARRESTED BEFORE HESS MARCH German police arrested 74 neo-Nazis in the Bavarian town of Wunsiedel before Saturday's march to mark the anniversary of the death of Adolf Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess.

Tuesday Jul 20, 2004 ts
Germans, Swiss pursue merger of exchanges
ZURICH—Germany`s share market Deutsche Boerse plans to merge with Swiss stock exchange SWX, sources familiar with the situation said yesterday

One country, two governments Jul 7th 2005

Wed Jul 7th 2004 [Wed1166]Inflation has rebounded to 2.5% because of the rise in crude oil, which supports the view of the European Central Bank which has steadily resisted easing policy to stimulate the economy. G.D.P. was up 2.3% (year/year) in the first quarter and the outlook for the year has been revised to 1.7% growth after the recession last year. Germany’s unemployment rate has declined to 10.2%. Germany’s G.D.P. outlook is in line with the projection of the Euro as production is rebounding and exports picking up. Nevertheless, consumer spending is still weak. The Euro’s strength will affect their external trade. Monetary policy will remain intact in the foreseeable future.

Wednesday, 24 March, 2004 bbc
Wanted: a cure for weltschmerz
Jun 25th 2004 The Economist Germans are once again losing confidence in their economy; they long since lost it in their government
“I WANT to show them that soft growth, high unemployment and disinvestment are not facts to be fatalistically accepted,” Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s can-do finance minister, told the Financial Times in an interview published this week. “I believe in political will.” Mr Sarkozy was referring to the fatalism of the French, but his missionary faith in political willpower is needed still more in France’s moribund neighbour, Germany. Its economic predicament—annual growth that has averaged just 0.3% for the past three years, around 4.3m unemployed, a budget deficit of almost 4% of GDP last year—is not incurable. But the German public are so weary of the remedies—and so disenchanted with the SPD government prescribing them (see chart)—they seem ready to resign themselves to the malady. Fatalism is the corollary of fatigue.

Wednesday, 24 March, 2004 bbc
Violinists' fury at 'pay fiddle'
Violinists in a German orchestra are suing for a pay rise on the grounds that they play many more notes per concert than their colleagues.
The 16 violinists at the Beethoven Orchestra in Bonn say they work much harder than their fellow musicians.

Mind the gap Mar 10th 2005

Mr Schröder goes to Washington 2004

Wednesday 18 Feb 2004 ts
Economics focus Wirtschaftsblunder
Why has the German economy performed so much worse than the rest of Europe?

Thursday Jan 15, 2004 German economy shrank during 2003
Germany's economy shrank 0.1% in 2003, official figures show, the first year of contraction since 1993.

2003

Thursday Dec 25, 2003 Europe's Mars Express went into orbit around Mars early Thursday, but a NASA spacecraft has so far failed to pick up a signal from the companion "Beagle 2" lander and scientists at a British observatory also failed to determine if the "Beagle 2" has arrived on Mars. The next listening window will be Friday evening. Space scientists said they have several more chances to hear from "Beagle 2" and remained highly optimistic.

Friday Aug 8, 2003 bbc
California eyes SUV ban
German cars 'not reliable' German cars, once famed for their reliability, have been given the thumbs down in a survey by Which? magazine.
Leading brands such as Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz all fared worse in the magazine's annual reliability survey than in recent times.

Deutsche Bank A giant hedge fund Aug 26th 2004

Click for next picture Friendly 'coo' call vs 'Threat'

Humans not alone in linking faces, sounds
Friday Jun 27, 2003 TUEBINGEN, GERMANY - Rhesus monkeys are able to match sounds and facial expressions. Their skill may be an evolutionary forerunner to our ability to interpret the signals, researchers say.
Like many other animals, monkeys communicate through facial and vocal expressions. But scientists hadn't tested whether animals other than humans can put the two together.
Rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) make a variety of calls both in the wild and in captivity. Their two most common are a friendly "coo" and a noisy threat call.

Thursday Jun 19, 2003 Germans have 'too much time off'
Germany's labour minister angers voters and the Catholic Church by criticising the number of public holidays taken by Germans.

Thursday May 15, 2003 bbc Germany on brink of recession
Europe's largest economy is shrinking, pushing Germany yet again close to a recession.

Wednesday May 7, 2003
	German jobless numbers worsen German unemployment rises for a 13th consecutive month as Europe's largest economy stagnates.

Thursday May 1, 2003 ec

Germany's economy From bad to worse
Germany’s chancellor has threatened to resign if he does not win enough support to force through difficult economic reforms. The political struggle comes as the economic outlook is deteriorating rapidly

Still clear as mud Apr 1st 2004

Saturday Mar 22, 2003 ec

Freeing Germany's economy Dreaming of an economic revival
Germany's chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, unveiled a package of reforms that included proposals to cut unemployment benefit, loosen job protection, squeeze non-wage costs and help small companies. He also promised to reform pensions and health care. The trade unions shouted foul. Too timid, said many on the right.

Sunday Mar 16, 2003 cbc
GERMANY ORDERS CITIZENS OUT OF IRAQ Germany said Sunday it had warned all its citizens to leave Iraq "immediately" and would close its embassy in Baghdad.

Sunday Mar 2, 2003 ec
German economy at a standstill Germany's economy stopped growing at the end of 2002, after showing only minimal expansion during the rest of the year

Friday Feb 7, 2003 SEE GERMANY'S WEBSITE ON GREEN TAX REFORM
The environmental organization in Germany called, Green Budget Germany (Förderverein Ökologische Steuerreform e.V.), has built up an experts database on Environmental Fiscal Reform (EFR). It contains a list of high-ranking experts on EFR and other related topics. These experts are available for you to hold lectures and to lead panel discussions about the topic. They also have a new bimonthly English newsletter entitled, "GreenBudgetNews," which provides the latest information about Environmental Fiscal Reform (EFR) in the EU and also worldwide. You can subscribe to the newsletter for free without any obligation. For receiving the newsletter, please send a short mail to foes@foesev.de . For more information contact Christof Sauer, Managing Director, Green Budget Germany - Förderverein Ökologische Steuerreform e.V. (FÖS), Geschäftsstelle des FÖS, Brienner Straße 44, D-80333 München, Germany, ph. 049-89-520 113-13 Fax 049-89-520-113-14, email foes@foes-ev.de . Visit their two websites at www.eco-tax.info/ thanks to THE GALLON ENVIRONMENT LETTER

Wednesday Feb 5, 2003 ec
German politics Humiliation for Schröder
German unemployment has soared to 11.1%, underlining the extent of the country's economic problems. The news comes hard on the heels of the humiliating defeat suffered by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's ruling party in state elections

Monday Feb 3, 2003 cbc

GERMAN CHANCELLOR TASTES DEFEAT IN STATE ELECTIONS The party of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has been defeated in two separate state elections.

Saturday Feb 1, 2003 ec

German politics Schröder the loser?
Germany’s chancellor is hoping that his opposition to war in Iraq will help his Social Democratic Party in crucial state elections. Germany’s economic problems could undermine that hope

Wednesday Jan 22, 2003
	German growth at nine-year low The largest economy in the eurozone reports its slowest growth since the recession of 1993.

Saturday Jan 18, 2003 cbc
GERMANY TO STOCKPILE ENOUGH SMALLPOX VACCINE FOR ENTIRE NATION
Germany plans to stockpile enough smallpox vaccine by the end of the year to protect its entire population of 82 million people from a terrorist attack with the virus.

Friday Jan 17, 2003 nyt
GERMANY UNLIKELY TO BACK WAR WITH IRAQ German Defence Minister Peter Struck says his country is unlikely to back any UN resolution authorizing war against Iraq.

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