Free Republic

Germany is to offer Israeli citizens consular assistance in states such as Indonesia or Malaysia where Israel has no official diplomatic representation, under a new deal to be signed by Angela Merkel when she visits Jerusalem next week.

The fight for Ukraine has now become a contest between the Russian president and the German chancellor. Putin won the first round. But Merkel and her fellow Europeans are grooming professional heavyweight boxer Vitali Klitschko to be their new strongman. [...] While "regime change" is too strong a term for what Germany is seeking, it's not entirely off base. Merkel's center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the European People's Party (EPP), a family of European conservative parties, have chosen Klitschko as their de facto representative in Ukraine. His job is to unite and lead the opposition -- on the street,...

A spoof advertisement, which shows a young Adolf Hitler being knocked down and killed by a Mercedes-Benz, has outraged bosses at the auto firm. They say the unauthorized spot — where a C-Class' collision-prevention technology avoids hitting two girls before hitting Hitler as his mom screams his name — is "inappropriate."

There have been lots of arguments about this case: A muslim boy wanted to attend a catholic primary school, but skip religious education. The principal refused, the parents sued. Now an appeals court has reached a verdict. Does a muslim boy have to attend religious education at a catholic school? And if he refuses: Does the school have to accept him anyway? Those questions caused great controversy in Paderborn. Now the OVG (Oberverwaltungsgericht) court in Muenster has decided: The catholic Bonifazius school in Paderborn, Northrine-Westfalia is allowed to refuse the student. No further appeals are possible. When the parents wanted...

European plane maker Airbus intends to build its first U.S. plant in Mobile, Ala., a person with knowledge of the plans told The Associated Press on Wednesday. Airbus will assemble its A320 jet there, according to the person, who requested anonymity because a public announcement has not been made. The A320 is a widely used plane flown by U.S. airlines including Delta and US Airways. An Alabama plant would enable Airbus to produce planes squarely in the territory of archrival Boeing Co. It would likely mean lower production costs compared with Airbus' European A320 production lines in Toulouse, France, and...

BERLIN (AP) – Germany's government and the two major opposition parties said Sunday they would jointly nominate former East German human rights activist Joachim Gauck to be the country's next president. Chancellor Angela Merkel said her center-right coalition government, and the center-left opposition rallied behind the Gauck, who was initially proposed by the opposition Social Democrats and Greens.

Following the announcement by prosecutors that they would seek to lift his immunity, German President Christian Wulff announced Friday morning he would resign as the country's head of state. The development follows weeks of reporting on allegations the president accepted favors during his tenure as governor of the state of Lower-Saxony. Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed her "deep regret" over the resignation. German President Christian Wulff resigned from office on Friday after prosecutors stated a day earlier they would seek to have parliament lift his immunity. Prosecutors wanted his immunity revoked so they could formally investigate allegations a film producer...

An Airbus A310 formerly used by the German Chancellor has started a new life as an airliner…in Iran. Just days after the publication of a report detailing Iran’s nuclear ambitions and subsequent calls from nations around the world—including Germany—for stricter trade sanctions, the former Luftwaffe Airbus A310-304 designated “Theodor Heuss” (10-22) was flown from Kiev to Tehran for use by Mahan Air, Spiegel has confirmed. Several months earlier, in May, the German government announced it was selling the 22-year-old aircraft, as it had been made redundant by a former Lufthansa Airbus A340-300 specially refurbished for Chancellor Angela Merkel and her...

Generating electricity by nuclear fusion has long looked like a chimera. A reactor being built in Germany may change that. AS THE old joke has it, fusion is the power of the future—and always will be. The sales pitch is irresistible: the principal fuel, a heavy isotope of hydrogen called deuterium, can be extracted from water. In effect, therefore, it is in limitless supply. Nor, unlike fusion’s cousin, nuclear fission, does the process produce much in the way of radioactive waste. It does not release carbon dioxide, either. Which all sounds too good to be true. And it is....

The U.S. Air Force will announce the winner of the $35 billion KC-X tanker contract on Thursday, February 24 after financial markets close. Judging from the frequency with which Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter has been talking up the notion of a "globalized" defense market recently, European aerospace giant EADS is the winner. [...] From http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110223/NEWS01/702239828: Sen. Murray says Air Force tanker decision may come Thursday Sen. Patty Murray says she "won't tolerate" the Air Force choosing EADS over Boeing for the contract. U.S. Sen. Patty Murray expects the Pentagon to announce Thursday its choice between the Boeing Co. and...

Inside: - How the 787 backlog was built - Predicable costs at 787's foundation - Scott Carson's ascent - Can the 787-9 undo the damage? - Looking at 17 787's per month - The revival of the 787-10 - Redrawing the supply chain lines Data obtained by FlightBlogger show Boeing's historic order backlog for the 787 was based partly on steep discounts driven by now-discarded design and manufacturing assumptions. Cost overruns, penalty payments and supply chain changes adopted in the last two years will force Boeing to achieve unprecedented cost-savings for the widebody to turn a profit even after delivering...

Video @ link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvJEJEGzeU8

Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne says the tradition-laden Italian automaker would be better off without Italy and its balky unions, provoking an angry reaction Monday from some labor and government officials. Fiat has been in tense negotiations with unions over its plan to shut down a factory in Sicily next year. The company has also said it wanted to move back production of one of its models from Poland to Italy, but in exchange for labor concessions that one union rejected. Fiat, which controls U.S.-based Chrysler LLC, has recently raised its 2010 forecasts, and Marchionne said that trading profit would be...

PARIS — In an effort to prepare for competition on cross-Channel rail traffic, Eurostar said Thursday that it had awarded a hotly sought contract to upgrade its aging fleet of fast trains to a Germany company, Siemens. The announcement did not sit well in Paris, which had been backing a French champion, and officials sharply criticized the decision. The £700 million, or $1.1 billion, contract will provide Eurostar — which is majority owned by the French state through its ownership of the national railway S.N.C.F. — with 10 of Siemens’ sleek new Velaro e320 trains. Siemens beat out the A.G.V....

We're still a few days away from being able to share driving impressions of the 2011 Ford F-150 pickup and, more specifically, the Blue Oval's four new heavy-hauling powerplants for the '11 season. What we can share, however, are some pictures we snapped while Ford showed off what its truck was capable of. We're especially impressed with the latest application of Ford's EcoBoost technology. As you're already aware, the 3.5-liter twin-turbo powerplant puts down 365 horsepower and a more-than-ample 420 pound-feet of torque. What those black-and-white figures don't tell you, though, is how smartly the EcoBoost engine moves the full-size...

BRUSSELS—The World Trade Organization is likely to rule Wednesday that Boeing Co. received some illegal subsidies from the U.S. government, said people familiar with the case, fueling the debate with European rival Airbus and opening the door to negotiations on state support to plane makers. The preliminary, confidential WTO finding will come more than one year after the WTO ruled in a similar case that Airbus had benefited from illegal European subsidies. The European Union alleges that Boeing benefited from some $24 billion in tax breaks, research aid and export rebates from U.S. federal and state governments. Boeing officials say...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's speech Wednesday at a ceremony honoring Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard has led to some breathless media coverage: for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung it was her "most explosive appointment" while the Bild called it "most courageous." The fact that both may well be right underlines just how controversial it has become to defend Western values in the face of Islamist extremism. The 75-year-old Mr. Westergaard has been living under police protection for the past five years for drawing Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban in one of the 12 cartoons the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published in 2005. The...

Germany largely has China to thank for its current economic upswing, given the Asian powerhouse's demand for German machine tools and other such products. But many German industrialists are asking themselves how long the symbiotic relationship can go on, given Beijing's ambition to become a high-tech economy itself. Germany, more than most other Western industrialized countries, is currently tying its economic well-being to China's recovery. Trade with Beijing is the most important driving force behind the current German upswing. It also explains why economists also foresee a bright future for the German economy in the medium term. With its luxury...

Theo Albrecht and his brother Karl introduced the world to discount shopping when they founded Aldi half a century ago. The two intensely secretive men were considered some of the richest people in Germany. On Saturday, Theo died at the age of 88. He was one of the richest men in Germany, and also one of the most secretive. Theo Albrecht, who co-founded the immensely successful discount grocery chain Aldi, died on Saturday according to a statement released by the company. Eighty-eight years old at the time of his death, he was laid to rest on Wednesday in a small...

Berlin - Business confidence in Germany, Europe's largest economy, has jumped by the largest amount since reunification 20 years ago, a key survey by the Munich-based ifo Institute said Friday. On the back of positive export data, consistently falling unemployment and reports that the euro debt crisis may be easing, the ifo business climate index jumped 4.4 points to 106.2 points, the institute said. The euro rose almost a cent against the dollar on the news, to 1.2966 after the report. "The German economy is back in party mood," ifo President Hans Werner Sinn said. [...] The German economy however...