German Islamic leaders may quit integration conference

Cologne - Islamic leaders in Germany debated on Friday whether to suspend their involvement in a government-sponsored forum on German-Islamic integration, after a fundamentalist Islamic group had been excluded. Four leading Islamic organizations, representing religious groups and secular Muslims, threatened to leave the German-Islam Conference after the Interior Ministry excluded the Council of Islam, dominated by the international Milli Gorus movement.

The ministry had ruled that legal investigations into the activities of Milli Gorus, viewed by officials as the largest Islamist organization on German soil, could overshadow the conference, set up to address Muslim integration issues.

In addition, the remaining four groups had complained that a reorganization of the conference, initially established in 2006, failed to address some of their key concerns.

"We are interested in constructive cooperation," said Bekir Alboga, spokesman for an umbrella group representing the four Islamic organizations, ahead of Friday's meeting in Cologne.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said he was happy to take the groups' concerns on board.

"Subjects such as racism and Islamophobia can certainly find a place," Maiziere told German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung in reference to the reorganized German-Islam Conference.

Alongside the four Islamic groups, the 30-member German-Islam Conference also includes 10 individuals who stand for different spectrums of Germany's diverse Muslim community. The remaining 15 members are German communal, state and federal representatives.

Germany's Muslim population dates back to post-war "guest worker" schemes which invited people from mostly poor, rural backgrounds in countries such as Turkey to come to Germany as laborers during the boom years, until 1973.

The German-Islamic Conference was welcomed as an important milestone to address integration issues, although many German Muslims - the majority of whom belong to no organized group - have not felt sufficiently represented by the forum.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/313812,german-islamic-leaders-may-quit-integration-conference.html.

East German message in a bottle washed up 23 years later

Goettingen, Germany - A message in a bottle, written by an 11-year old East German boy in 1987, has been fished out of the river 23 years later by a lad in western Germany, media reported Friday. Youri Maibohm, aged 9, found the bottle and its faded message, in a pile of flotsam drifting down a river in the town of Goettingen. It had been written by a boy in search of a pen-pal, in the former East German state of Thuringia.

The author of the letter, Marko Bode, said he was "very surprised," by the discovery. The electrical engineer, now aged 34, remembered the day that he and his friends had cast their messages into the river.

"It was very exciting," Bode told daily Goettinger Tagblatt, adding that he would still be interested in meeting the pen-pal, 23 years on.

The communist East German state ceased to exist in 1990, when Germany was reunified after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/313744,east-german-message-in-a-bottle-washed-up-23-years-later.html.

Turkish trio on trial for running far-left terror group

Dusseldorf - Three Turkish nationals went on trial in Germany on Thursday, accused of raising money to help finance a series of radical left-wing terrorist attacks in Turkey. The high-security wing of the Dusseldorf court was filled with spectators, who clapped and shouted out rallying cries as the trial opened.

The two men and a woman face sentences of up to 15 years, for alleged membership of the DHKP-C, a radical Marxist-Leninist group that has mounted bomb attacks in pursuit of its goal of overthrowing Turkey's government.

Defense lawyers called for the trial to be postponed until the European Court of Justice had answered legal questions relating to the case.

They also called for the accused to be released from pre-trial custody, after they were apprehended 16 months ago. Hearings at the European court are to start on May 12.

The accused are charged with having collected more than a million euros (1.4 million dollars) over the years to finance the group's "armed conflict" in Turkey.

State prosecutors allege that the woman, aged 34, is the head of DHKP-C's German and European operations. She could face additional sentencing as the group's ringleader.

The DHKP-C, or Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, has mounted a series of bomb attacks in Turkey and also used suicide bombers in a bid to overthrow the state and establish a communist system.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/313636,turkish-trio-on-trial-for-running-far-left-terror-group.html.

Germany calls for eurozone stability fund

With Greece under more pressure to cut costs in dealing with its crippling debt crisis, Germany has called for the creation of a European equivalent to the International Monetary Fund.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that an organization modeled on the IMF could help eurozone countries like Greece, as well as safeguarding and stabilizing the monetary union.

This is while some politicians from German Chancellor Angela Merkel's camp said last week that one solution to Greece's financial woes would be to consider selling some of its uninhabited islands to cut its debt.

Josef Schlarmann and Frank Schaeffler told Germany's Bild daily that the Greek state should sell stakes in all its assets to raise more cash.

Schlarmann, who is a senior member of Merkel's Christian Democrats Union, insisted that when on the brink of insolvency, one must sell everything one has to pay the creditors.

He also advised Ms. Merkel not to promise any financial aid to the country, ahead of a planned meeting with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou in Berlin.

Greece has recently unveiled its third savings package in the past few months which outlines a sweeping new 4.8 billion euro ($6.52 billion) austerity program.

Greece has about 6,000 islands, 227 of which are inhabited and many are a private home to the world's wealthy.

An average Greek island would cost about $2m (£1.3m), the BBC cited a specialized real-estate website, noting that the website said it would be affordable to everyone but the Greek.

Germany's attitude towards the crisis in Greece contrasts sharply with neighboring France where President Nicolas Sarkozy has vowed not to let Greece “fall.”

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=120275§ionid=351020604.

German diplomat blasts Serbia, Great Britain over Ganic's arrest

Belgrade - The arrest of Bosnia's former president and Muslim leader on a war crimes warrant by Serbia is an "international scandal" and "outrage," German politician and diplomat Christian Schwarz-Schilling said Friday. Schwarz-Schilling blasted Serbia for "refusing to come to terms with its recent past," but also Great Britain, for taking "part in the kidnapping of a distinguished Bosnian academic and participated in Serbia's political ploy."

Ganic, 64, was arrested Monday by British authorities on a Serbian warrant. Serbian prosecutors allege that Ganic commanded an ambush on a Yugoslav army convoy in May 1992 and was responsible for the death of 42 soldiers.

The High Court in London on Friday adjourned a decision on a bail application for Ganic following a Serbian extradition warrant.

Schwarz-Schilling, who served as the international administrator in Bosnia in 2006-07, said charges against Ganic were "an attempt to manipulate history" and pointed out that the attack occurred a day after an all-out offensive of Serbs on Sarajevo.

"Ganic was defending his country from a Serb attack," Schwarz-Schilling told the German Press Agency dpa.

He warned that Serbia's persistence to pursue Ganic even though the United Nations' war crimes tribunal found no evidence against him, "reflects Serbia's refusal to fully come to terms with its own role in wars in former Yugoslavia."

"It also reflects Serbia's continuous attempt to avert the blame for atrocities committed during the war and allocate some of the responsibility to other former Yugoslav republics," he said.

By ordering Ganic's arrest, Serbia will prevent the free travel of people in the region and may provoke countermeasures by other Balkan countries, Schwarz-Schilling warned.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/312690,german-diplomat-blasts-serbia-great-britain-over-ganics-arrest.html.

Greece should sell islands to cut debt - Merkel allies

By Oana Lungescu
BBC News, Berlin

Greece should consider selling some of its uninhabited islands to cut its debt, according to political allies of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Josef Schlarmann and Frank Schaeffler told Germany's Bild daily that the Greek state should sell stakes in all its assets to raise more cash.

Greek PM George Papandreou is due to meet Mrs Merkel in Berlin later this week for talks about the crisis.

Mr Papandreou has already announced a strict austerity program.

'Affordable' islands

"Sell your islands, you bankrupt Greeks - and the Acropolis too!" says the headline in the Bild newspaper.

It sounds like the sort of daydream induced by too much ouzo, but the idea comes from two senior politicians in Europe's biggest economy.

Mr Schlarmann is a senior member of Mrs Merkel's Christian Democrats and Mr Schaeffler is an MP for the Free Democrats - the junior partner in the center-right coalition.

Both confirmed to the BBC that they wanted to start a debate about what Greece could do to help itself and bolster the battered euro.

Those who face insolvency, Mr Schlarmann said, must sell everything they have to pay their creditors.

He advised Mrs Merkel not to promise any financial aid when she met Mr Papandreou in Berlin.

According to a poll published on Thursday, 84% of Germans think that the EU should not help Greece out of its debt crisis.

It is true that dotted in the blue waters of the Aegean are some of the country's most valuable assets - about 6,000 islands, of which only 227 are inhabited. Many of them are privately owned by the world's super-rich.

According to a specialized real-estate website, Greek islands evoke images of sunglass-sporting shipping magnates sipping champagne on enormous yachts, but cost as little as $2m (£1.3m).

Relatively affordable, the website says - unless, of course, you're a Greek.

Source: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8549793.stm.

German cabinet approves cuts in solar power tariffs

Berlin - The German government has agreed to slash subsidies for electricity-generating solar panels, sources said after Wednesday's cabinet meeting. For the last 10 years, German utilities have been legally obliged to pay above-market prices for electricity from solar panels on roofs and in fields.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet agreed to reduce feed-in tariffs by 16 per cent for rooftop panels commissioned after July 1 this year, in a deal previously struck amongst the coalition partners.

Those rates of return were already cut by 9 per cent for photovoltaic systems commissioned after January 1 this year, so the final reduction will amount to 25 per cent compared to 2009 prices.

The July 1 price reduction - which still awaits parliamentary approval - means utilities will pay 0.33 euros (0.45 dollars) per kilowatt-hour.

The cost of solar panels has dropped significantly since the subsidies were introduced 10 years ago. However, government moves to unwind start-up assistance were bitterly opposed by a solar-power lobby.

Under the agreement, solar panels set up on military land and rubbish dumps will see rates reduced by a further 11 per cent, while units on farmland will only be subsidized in exceptional circumstances.

Farm groups, angered by big city investors buying up farm land to "harvest the sunshine," had sought the change in law.

The silicon collectors on photovoltaic panels can convert the sun's heat into electricity. Conversion devices alongside then transform the current into the form of electricity used in homes and offices.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/312262,german-cabinet-approves-cuts-in-solar-power-tariffs.html.

China defends ban of author's trip to German literature festival

Beijing - China's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday defended its refusal to allow author Liao Yiwu to travel to German for the Cologne literature festival, saying it was only applying national law. Asked why the ministry rejected Liao's application, spokesman Qin Gang said, "Chinese relevant departments censor the Chinese citizens' applications of entering and leaving the territory according to the exit and entry laws of the People's Republic of China."

The comments came one day after German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle criticized the refusal to let Liao travel. Chinese authorities gave no further explanation for the decision.

Qin stressed that Chinese citizens enjoyed freedom to travel.

"We hope that relevant countries respect China's acting according to its laws," he said.

Liao was on his way to the festival, set to run from March 10 to 20, when he was removed from the plane before takeoff in the south-western town of Chengdu on Monday. He is reportedly under house arrest.

Last autumn, he was refused permission to travel to the Frankfurt book fair, at which China was guest of honor.

His book The Corpse Walker: Real Life Stories: China From the Bottom Up was published in the West last year after being banned in China. He wrote it from interviews with toilet cleaners, prostitutes, older monks, political prisoners and street artists.

The writer was imprisoned for four years beginning in 1990 after he published the poem Massacre in 1989 about the bloody crackdown that year on pro-democracy demonstrations, which were centered in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

Since then, Liao has been on a blacklist and not allowed to publish in China.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/312074,china-defends-ban-of-authors-trip-to-german-literature-festival.html.

Indian court stops sale of Montblanc's luxury Gandhi pen

New Delhi - German pen manufacturer Montblanc International GmbH has apologized and assured a court in southern India that it will not sell its luxury pen with images of the country's freedom icon Mahatma Gandhi, news reports said Thursday. The high court in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala, asked the Hamburg, Germany-based company to suspend sales of its limited-edition pen costing 1.4 million rupees (30,200 dollars), the Times of India newspaper said,

The judges ruled in favor of a local consumer rights organization which said the pens were an attempt to degrade Gandhi, known for his austerity, and to mock the country.

The Center for Consumer Education in Kerala argued that the pen is in breach of an Indian law prohibiting improper use of emblems and names.

The court gave only an interim order while it considers the case, the report said.

"Mahatma Gandhi is ... considered the epitome of simplicity. Making him a symbol of a 1.4-million-rupee pen is nothing but an attempt to degrade everything that he symbolized," the petition said.

Several Indian groups have criticized the pen, saying it was an inappropriate way to honor Gandhi, father of India's independence and a global spiritual leader.

In an affidavit filed earlier, the pen manufacturer Montblanc and its distributor tendered an unconditional apology for hurting sentiments in the country, the Hindu newspaper reported.

It said they had no intention to exploit the name of Mahatma Gandhi or to bring any disrepute on him.

Montblanc launched the gold-and-silver pen series Mahatma Gandhi Limited Edition-241 in September.

The 241 pens in the series were made to signify the 241 miles traveled by Gandhi during his famous Dandi March against British rule. The nibs show an image of Gandhi walking with a stick.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/311196,indian-court-stops-sale-of-montblancs-luxury-gandhi-pen.html.

Kurdish satellite TV channel overturns German ban

Leipzig, Germany - A Kurdish satellite television channel won its court case Thursday against the German government, which had tried to close down the channel, Roj TV, after a request from the Turkish government. A tribunal in Leipzig effectively suspended the ban, asking the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg to rule on the case instead. Roj TV is based in Denmark, but its main audience comprises immigrants in Germany.

Germany's Interior Ministry had earlier warned Roj TV it had no legal right to beam its satellite broadcasts down into the country because it backs the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), a group defined as terrorist under both Turkish and German law.

The tribunal said those allegations were valid - but it transpired Germany had no power under European Union law to interfere in operations of a broadcasting enterprise incorporated in Denmark.

Judges said EU broadcasting law meant that it was up to Denmark to supervise Roj, which means "day" in the Kurdish language. Germany could only have shut down the channel if it had issued the broadcast license in the first place.

The interior ministry had argued that legislation outlawing associations of terrorists made it possible for Berlin to seize the channel's German assets and prevent its camera teams filming ethnic Kurdish rallies in Germany.

Authorities charged that Roj regularly gave blanket coverage to cultural festivals organized by PKK front organizations.

Turkey, which fought a long and bloody war against Kurdish separatists in the 1990s, has been urging EU nations to crack down harder on offshoots of the PKK, which draws a significant part of its funding from Kurdish migrants working in rich nations.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/311223,kurdish-satellite-tv-channel-overturns-german-ban.html.

German Islamist vows to renounce terrorism as trial ends

Dusseldorf - A German man who admits training in terrorism and buying nearly a ton of explosives to attack his homeland declared in a speech from the dock Tuesday that he would never rejoin a group affiliated to al-Qaeda. Fritz Gelowicz, 30, said as his trial in Dusseldorf concluded that he was "shocked and surprised" at the arrest three days earlier of his wife, 28, for raising funds for the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU).

The court is now recessed and set to hand down a verdict on March 4.

"I want to say I will not participate in terrorist activities in future in any way whatever, and will not be rejoining any terrorist organization," Gelowicz told the court. "That's my firm decision."

Germany has never suffered a successful attack by homegrown Islamist terrorists, but the trial heard evidence of how this nearly happened in 2007.

A defence lawyer, Dirk Uden, said Gelowicz had repeatedly urged his wife during her visits to him in prison to stay away from Islamist forums on the internet. Gelowicz and three other alleged plotters were arrested in 2007, just months after he married.

Police picked up his wife, who is a German national of Turkish extraction, on Saturday in the southern German city of Ulm. She and Gelowicz, who converted to Islam, married in early 2007.

She is accused of remitting thousands of euros to the IJU, a group based in the lawless Pakistan region of Waziristan.

Two other accused, Daniel Schneider, 24, and Atilla Selek, 24, also asked for mercy in their speeches from the dock, saying they had done wrong. A fourth accused, Adem Yilmaz, 31, remained silent.

They have together provided 1,200 pages of evidence about buying 700 kilograms of chemicals to make bombs and about the workings of the IJU. They hope to receive jail terms reduced to about a decade each. The maximum term would otherwise be 15 years.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/310852,german-islamist-vows-to-renounce-terrorism-as-trial-ends.html.

Germany orders tighter security as passenger flees after 'explosive' alert

By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Friday, January 22, 2010

BERLIN: Germany’s interior minister called Thursday for a full inquiry into a major alert at Munich airport when a man fled security personnel after his laptop tested positive for possible explosives.

“I have ordered every single circumstance surrounding this incident to be looked at with all those involved,” Thomas de Maiziere said on Deutschlandfunk radio, adding that he was taking it “very seriously.”

“If necessary, then consequences must be taken at Munich airport,” he said, as well as other airports in Germany if problems “of a structural nature” are detected, he said.

Police said after the incident, which involved parts of Munich airport being sealed off, the traveler was most likely a businessman in a hurry to catch his flight, unaware that security personnel wanted to check his laptop.

“I find it unfathomable that someone can simply disappear with his laptop after security checks,” Harald Schneider from the Bavarian police union said. “Therefore it is necessary that there are more security personnel and police.”

“If you check someone, you should be able to stop him,” German police union chief Josef Scheuring told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily.

He also said that the situation was not helped by airport security firms employing poorly paid and unmotivated staff.

Airports around the world have been on high alert since a Nigerian man allegedly tried to blow up an airliner over the US on December 25 with explosives concealed in his underwear.

US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was to press European Union interior ministers at a meeting in Toledo, Spain, on Thursday to install body scanners at airports in the 27-nation bloc.

De Maiziere said that tests in Germany on body scanners were “very promising” and that the government would make a decision on whether to introduce them later this year.

“Perhaps we could offer them to passengers in order to gain people’s trust, saying in one channel there is a body scanner, which is quick, and that in the other a body search, which takes a bit longer. Then we can see how high the acceptance is,” he said.

Source: The Daily Star.
Link: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=110936.

SCANDAL. German court decided it's a 'war crime' for a Chechen to kill Russian invaders to free his brother

18 February 2010

In Germany, the Federal Administrative Court has found the actions of the Chechen who killed two Russian invaders in an attempt to liberate his brother to be "a war crime".

The claimant in this case was the Federal Authority for Migration and Refugees, which refused to grant political asylum to the Chechen, who had killed two Russian invaders and kidnapped one more in an attempt to liberate his brother. This resident of Chechnya arrived in Germany in 2002 and applied for political asylum arguing that in case of his deportation to Russia he would be politically persecuted, as the Deutsche Welle, Germany's international broadcaster, reports.

On February 16, this German Court ruled that "a murder of a military committed by a civilian even an armed conflict zone can be qualified as a war crime".

He managed to succeed in lower instance: both the administrative court and the supreme administrative court in Magdeburg ruled his actions were beyond the definition of "war crime", as they were undertaken against soldiers, not against civilians, as the Deutsche Welle reported. However, the Federal Authority for Migration and Refugees protested against this decision, the "Gazeta.Ru" writes.

After the scandal verdict of the Federal Administrative Court, the case was returned for repeated consideration to the supreme administrative court of Magdeburg.

Now the German judges must give an answer, if a murder of a military committed by a civilian even an armed conflict zone can be qualified as a "war crime"; then how must we describe the mass murders, bombing of residential areas, abductions, tortures which are committing by Russian occupation forces in Chechnya?

Kavkaz Center + WaYNaKH Online

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2010/02/18/11446.shtml.

Germany mulling burqa ban

Sun, 31 Jan 2010

As France has moved closer to a ban on burqas, German politicians are debating whether a similar measure should be taken in their own country.

After a French parliamentary commission ruled earlier this week that the enveloping garment worn by some Islamic women is unacceptable and recommended a ban in schools and public offices, a former Social Democratic parliamentarian, Turkish-German Lale Akgun, made a case for a similar ban in Germany, RIA Novosti reported on Saturday.

"The burqa is a full-body prison that deeply threatens human rights," she told the daily Frankfurter Rundschau. "It would be an important signal for Germany to ban the burqa."

A burqa ban in Germany would include schools, universities, and high-security zones such as banks and airports, she said.

However, fellow party member Dieter Wiefelsputz rejected the suggestion.

"We have a different understanding of freedom than the French," he told the paper, adding that an enlightened Islam could not be forced.

Green party leader Cem Ozdemir said the debate overlooked the real conflict of integration and pointed out that very few women wear burqas in Germany.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117473§ionid=351020604.

Neo-Nazis rally on Dresden bombing anniversary

By JUERGEN BAETZ, Associated Press Writer – Sat Feb 13

DRESDEN, Germany – Thousands of protesters formed a human chain in Dresden on Saturday, determined to stop neo-Nazis from exploiting the German city's painful history on the 65th anniversary of its deadly Allied bombing in World War II.

Heavy security including riot police was in place to prevent clashes between the two groups, and five police helicopters flew overhead to monitor the crowds.

Neo-Nazis have caused outrage in the past by comparing the 1945 bombing of Dresden to the Holocaust. Organizers of a far-right protest Saturday characterized it as a "mourning march."

Some 5,000 far-right supporters poured into the city, according to police, who limited them to a rally near a railway station rather than a march for security reasons after opponents staged sit-down blockades in streets nearby.

When that decision was announced, far-right demonstrators chanted "open the streets to the German youth."

Across the Elbe River, some 10,000 people joined hands to create a human chain symbolically protecting the restored city center from neo-Nazis, after the city mounted an unsuccessful legal challenge to block the far-right march.

"Dresden doesn't want them, and this gang doesn't belong here," Mayor Helma Orosz said.

The human chain helps to "make Dresden a fortress against intolerance and stupidity," and the anniversary provided a reminder of who started the war, she said.

There were some minor skirmishes, with a car flipped over and some barricades set ablaze but quickly extinguished. A busload of far-right supporters was turned back after its headlights and windows were smashed.

Police said some people sustained minor injuries, including people hit by rocks, but said the opposing sides were largely kept separated. There were up to 30 arrests in all, including demonstrators from both sides.

Most of the far-right supporters later left Dresden without incident.

Three successive waves of British and U.S. bombers on Feb. 13-14, 1945, set off firestorms and destroyed Dresden's centuries-old baroque city center.

The total number of people killed in the Dresden bombing has long been uncertain. In 2008, a panel commissioned by state officials found that the firebombing killed no more than 25,000 people — far fewer than scholars' previous estimates that ran as high as 135,000.

Dresden has been rebuilt painstakingly over the years. Its landmark domed Frauenkirche, or Church of Our Lady — for decades no more than a mound of rubble — reopened in 2005.

Karolin Hanebuth, 20, came from Hannover in western Germany to counter the far-right protest.

"Fascism is not an opinion, it is a crime," she said.

The far right is marginal in Germany and has no seats in the national parliament. However, Saxony, where Dresden is located, is one of two eastern German states where the far-right National Democratic Party has seats in the regional legislature.

German customs seize military equipment destined for Iran

Frankfurt - Customs officials at Frankfurt airport have seized a consignment of military-related equipment destined for Iran, prosecutors said Friday. The batch of 218 switchboxes designed for use in ventilation systems was on its way from Moscow to the Iranian capital Tehran when customs officers swooped at the end of last year.

Media reports said the switchboxes were steel-clad, well insulated and vibration-proof - a type generally used in the construction of military bunkers.

They consignment was declared as civilian goods intended for a bank in Iran.

Prosecutors said they were investigating whether the equipment violated German export control laws.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/308947,german-customs-seize-military-equipment-destined-for-iran.html.

German foreign minister backs idea of European army

Germany's foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, backed the idea of a permanent European army Saturday. While speaking to the Munich Security Conference, Westerwelle said a parliamentary run army would help the EU in its role as a "global player".

By News Wires

AFP - Germany supports the creation of a European army in the long term so that the EU can be a "global player," Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.

"The long-term goal is the establishment of a European army under full parliamentary control. The European Union must live up to its political role as a global player. It must be able to manage crises independently. It must be able to respond quickly, flexibly and to take a united stand," he said.

"We want strong European crisis management. This is not intended to replace other security structures. More Europe is not a strategy directed against anyone. No one has any reason to fear Europe, but everyone should be able to depend on Europe," he added.

He said however that this would require a pooling of resources and distribution of responsibility "even in times of ever scarcer means."

The concept of a European army was set out in the 27-nation EU's reforming Lisbon Treaty," he said.

"United Europe will only be secure if my generation, which has never experienced war, suffering or hunger, is strongly committed to European integration," Westerwelle said.

"And my generation has a chance to extend this cooperation model far beyond Western Europe, perhaps even to the whole of the European continent."

Source: France24.
Link: http://www.france24.com/en/20100206-german-foreign-minister-guido-westerwelle-backs-long-term-european-union-army.

Germany, India discuss economic and security cooperation

New Delhi - German President Horst Koehler held talks with Indian leaders in New Delhi Tuesday to deepen the partnership between the two countries, including economic and security cooperation. Accompanied by a high-level business delegation, Koehler, 66, arrived in the Indian capital Monday to begin a week-long tour.

Koehler was welcomed with a ceremonial reception on the forecourt of the presidential palace where he was received by his Indian counterpart Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The German president later laid a wreath at the memorial to Mahatma Gandhi, pacifist leader of India's independence movement.

After a brief meeting with India's Foreign Minister SM Krishna, Koehler held key talks with Singh at the Hyderabad House.

The Indian External Affairs Ministry said the agenda included global challenges such as international terrorism, the financial crisis, climate change and poverty reduction.

Four pacts between India and Germany are under discussion including one on security and counter-terrorism measures and another on economic and technological cooperation.

"The key objective of President Köhler's visit is to open up new avenues for Germany and India to work together in developing a 21st-century world policy based on mutual cooperation," the German embassy in Delhi said.

"His first official visit to India underlines the increasing importance of the strategic partnership between Germany and India," it added.

The legislative power of the German president is limited - national government is headed by the chancellor - but the role carries symbolic weight, especially in diplomatic relations.

Koehler's schedule includes a meeting with top business leaders later Tuesday and a visit to the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi on Wednesday.

On Thursday he is to travel to the western state of Maharashtra, to visit the plants of German carmaker Volkswagen and Indian energy company Thermax in the town of Pune, before traveling to Mumbai to meet with Indian industrialists.

On Sunday, Koehler and the German delegation are scheduled to fly on to South Korea, the current chair of the G-20.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/307065,germany-india-discuss-economic-and-security-cooperation.html.

Internet web-cam saves man trapped in German sea ice

St Peter Ording, Germany - A man who became lost while walking on sea ice off the German coast has been rescued after an alert internet user hundreds of miles away noticed him on live web-cam images of a beach, police confirmed Sunday. The man clambered into a 300-meter-wide belt of pack ice off St Peter Ording beach on the North Sea coast of Germany to take photographs of a sunset. After dusk, he could not remember in which direction land and sea were located.

He began flashing SOS signals with a pocket torch. A woman internet user in the Westerwald region of central Germany noticed the intermittent flashing in video images of the beach which tourist authorities provide around the clock.

She telephoned area police, who use the headlights of a patrol car to flash an answer to the man and guide him back to firm ground.

A police spokeswoman said the rescued man, aged about 40, declined to give his name and disappeared into the night. Police did not obtain the name of the internet informant either. The date of the incident was not disclosed.

After sea ice freezes, the wind and waves break it into chunks which wash up on beaches. The chunks off St Peter Ording are up to three meters high.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/306789,internet-web-cam-saves-man-trapped-in-german-sea-ice.html.

Heavy snow shuts roads and railways in Germany

Berlin - Heavy fresh snow temporarily shut main roads and railways in the north of Germany Saturday, prompting rail company Deutsche Bahn to deploy every available snow-plough to clear the drifts. Mecklenburg West Pomerania state on the Baltic coast, which has been covered in snow since mid-December, was worst affected, with main highways closed by jack-knifed trucks and other skidding accidents. Even two snow-clearance vehicles became trapped.

All public bus services in the port city of Rostock ceased while city workers struggled to reopen the streets, and the city football club, Hansa Rostock, called off its second division game Saturday.

"The ground is unplayable: we have had 30 centimeters of new snow and the blizzard hasn't finished," said spokesman Karsten Lehmann.

The railway company said it had called out every available snow-clearance team to re-open its main lines.

In the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, police counted 300 road accidents attributable ice and snow. Many highways were closed for hours on end overnight while tow-trucks hauled away the wrecks.

One man was killed, apparently when he got out of his car after a motorway accident and was then run over by another vehicle.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/306674,heavy-snow-shuts-roads-and-railways-in-germany.html.