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(It) is not much what exports the ailing Greek economy still abroad. But an export from Greece still exist: SPOTT, BESCHIMPFUNGEN, VERLETZENDE PÖBELEIEN! Germany has pledged over EUR 20 billion in aid the Greeks since 2010, about another 30 billion is to be decided on Monday.

ERLIN (Reuters) - Angela Merkel's hand-picked choice for the ceremonial post of president resigned Friday in a scandal over political favors, dealing a blow to the German chancellor in the midst of the euro zone debt crisis. In a curt five-minute statement at the Bellevue presidential palace, Christian Wulff acknowledged that he had lost the trust of the German people, making it impossible to continue in a role that is meant to serve as a moral compass for the nation. "For this reason it is no longer possible for me to exercise the office of president at home and abroad...

The German economy has been one of the wonders of the world over the last couple of years. While the rest of Europe staggered, German unemployment fell to the lowest level in decades. This week the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the club of developed economies around the world, issued a new “Economic Survey of Germany.” The biggest challenge it could find facing the country was finding enough workers. It recommended steps to encourage more women to work. “Please accept our sincere congratulations for a well-managed economy,” said Angel Gurría, the O.E.C.D.’s secretary general, in a speech in Berlin....

BERLIN: Angela Merkel's hand-picked choice for the ceremonial post of president was expected to resign on Friday in a scandal over political favours, dealing a blow to the German chancellor in the midst of the euro zone crisis. Christian Wulff, who has been under fire for months, was to give a statement at 1000 GMT. Merkel abruptly postponed a trip to Rome where she was to hold talks with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, and scheduled a news conference for after Wulff speaks.

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...

The Troika went to bail out Europe's banks (for the nth time) and all we got was this postcard of night time Athens...

Legislation will allow country to cut debt; protesters set fire to 34 buildings; deputies expelled for opposing vote The Greek parliament approved on Monday a deeply unpopular austerity bill to secure a second bailout from the European Union and International Monetary Fund and avoid a messy default. The vote occurred after 100,000 demonstrators marched to the parliament and buildings were burned down in central Athens. Following the vote, black-masked protesters created a wall of fire with petrol bombs and set fire to cinemas, cafes, shops and banks. Fifty police officers and at least 55 protesters were hospitalized. Forty-five suspected rioters...

ATHENS (Reuters) - Historic cinemas, cafes and shops went up in flames in central Athens on Sunday as black-masked protesters fought Greek police outside parliament, while inside lawmakers looked set to defy the public rage by endorsing a new EU/IMF austerity deal. As parliament prepared to vote on a new 130 billion euro bailout to save Greece from a messy bankruptcy, a Reuters photographer saw the buildings engulfed in flames and huge plumes of smoke rose in the night sky. The air over Syntagma Square outside parliament was thick with tear gas as riot police fought running battles with youths...

Athens, Greece (CNN) -- Police turned tear gas and stun grenades on protesters outside Greece's parliament Sunday as lawmakers inside debated another round of austerity measures. Riot police dispersed many of the demonstrators, who were protesting plans for new cuts in government spending, wages and pensions in return for a new eurozone bailout of the debt-stricken country. Prime Minister Lucas Papademos has urged approval of the deal, warning in a speech to the Cabinet Saturday evening of "social explosion, chaos" if it fails. "The state will not be able to pay salaries and pensions or import basic goods" such as...

On MSNBC’s Jansing and Co. author Eric Metaxas compared the Obama's administration's encroachment on religious freedoms to Nazi Germany. “I met the president. I gave him a copy of my book on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, which he said he’s going to read,” Metaxas said during the interview. “In that book, you read about what happened to an amazingly great country called Germany…” “In the beginning, it always starts really, really small. We need to understand as Americans — if we do not see this as a bright line in the sand — if you’re not a Catholic, if you use contraception...

France and Germany has controversially told Greece it should place state revenues into a separate fund so it can pay off its crushing debt - to avoid bankruptcy and prevent the crash of the single currency. French President Nicolas Sarkozy told a Paris news conference, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, that Greece's new leaders must also 'take their responsibility'.

The half-century habits of Franco-German condominium die hard. It is a painful process for French elites to admit that monetary union is asphyxiating their economy and must inevitably trap France in mercantilist subordination to Germany. The Carolingian union is all that anybody in French public life can really remember. It worked marvellously for two generations, levering French power on the global stage, and the euro was of course their own creation, intended to tie down a reunited Germany with “silken cords”. How can they now face the awful truth that this elegant strategy has blown up in their faces, enthroning...

Germans bury Prussia taboo to fete Frederick (Reuters) - Portraits of Frederick the Great line the streets, bookshops are bursting with new biographies, talk shows debate his legacy and toymaker Steiff has made a limited edition teddy bear of the Prussian ruler in his blue uniform coat and tricorn hat. Germans gearing up for a year of celebrations to mark Frederick's 300th birthday are showing a new, relaxed pride in the much-disputed figure and in Prussia itself, long considered a byword for the militarism glorified by the Nazis. Between 1740 and 1786, Frederick the Great transformed Prussia from a small,...

J’lem and Berlin sign contract for sixth submarine By YAAKOV KATZ 02/05/2012 02:38 Exclusive: German defense official dismisses reports that Merkel considered canceling deal in response to Gilo construction. Israel and Germany signed a contract a few weeks ago finalizing the sale of a sixth Dolphinclass submarine to the Israel Navy, The Jerusalem Post has learned. The Defense Ministry initiated talks with Germany last year about buying a sixth submarine but Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government initially balked when Israel asked that it underwrite part of the cost. In late November, though, Germany announced that it had approved the deal and...

SNIPPET: "But the solicitor helped to nab a major international dealer to the Iranian missile programme since he came to the job two years ago. He said: "One of our first cases started with a suspected heroin trafficker, so the National Drugs Enforcement Agency got this information that this guy Dugash was heading out to Kenya to buy heroin and they met him at the airport and seized his cash, which was something in the order of $10,000 which was a huge sum for this jurisdiction. "As part of the explanation he said it was cash belonging to himself and...

In Athens, the war of nerves over the debt haircut is nearing a finale. The negotiations between private creditors and the government, however, are taking some dangerous stumbles. Before Greece gets €130 billion in aid, it must show some success with its reforms. And that, with all the good will in the world, cannot be achieved. Every day we see the same images. Men and women in suits and with serious expressions step briskly up to a revolving door, wind their way into an unfamiliar building and disappear into the darkness. The scenes are playing out in Athens, and they...

No, I’m not suggesting she buy more Greek debt, I’m talking about buying the country of Greece. Buy it lock, stock and barrel, just like the Americans bought Alaska from the Russians in 1867. Russia was hurting financially from the Crimean war and Czar Nicolas needed to replenish his coffers. Alaska was a drag. Russian hunters had pretty well wiped out the fur seals and nothing would grow in the far north soils because of smelly black stuff that oozed out it. So he dumped it for $7.2 million on those gullible Americans. What would Germany and Greece get out...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has signalled that Greece will have to give up autonomy over its budget if it is to receive the full backing of the international community for its second €130bn (£109bn) bail-out. With the country on the brink of a default, Christine Lagarde, the director general of the IMF, said that a new "fiscal compact" was set to be signed by European Union members at the vital leaders' summit on Monday that would centralise budgetary powers. Greece is under increasing pressure to give up control of its budget. A document released over the weekend revealed German...

'The young airman was desperate to be back with his family and friends at the end of the war. He had done his bit to see off Hitler and make the world a safer place. His one wish now was to be home with ‘my people’. But, instead of a hero’s welcome, what Irishman Martin Walsh feared was being arrested and locked up. ‘Sir,’ he wrote plaintively from England to the authorities in Dublin in 1946, ‘I wish to return as a free Irish citizen once more, without detention or punishment. I would like to have my freedom in Eire...

'Ireland has admitted for the first time that its 'morally bankrupt' regime of the 1930s denied visas to desperate Jews trying to escape from Nazi persecution. Justice Minister Alan Shatter said that, following Adolf Hitler's rise to power, Ireland's anti-semitic Berlin ambassador Charles Bewley ensured 'the doors to this state were kept firmly closed to German Jewish families trying to flee'. The admission came as he apologised for the way brave soldiers who 'deserted' the Irish Army to fight with the Allies during the Second World War were treated. He suggested the 4,983 servicemen, who were barred from jobs and...

'Five thousand Irish soldiers who swapped uniforms to fight for the British against Hitler went on to suffer years of persecution. One of them, 92-year-old Phil Farrington, took part in the D-Day landings and helped liberate the German death camp at Bergen-Belsen - but he wears his medals in secret. Even to this day, he has nightmares that he will be arrested by the authorities and imprisoned for his wartime service. "They would come and get me, yes they would," he said in a frail voice at his home in the docks area of Dublin. And his 25-year-old grandson, Patrick,...

'Far-right' Vienna ball condemned on Holocaust Day Protesters voiced their outrage over the timing of the ball Continue reading the main story Related Stories Hitler's hometown revokes honour Vienna to honour WWII deserters Austria still haunted by Nazi past Protesters in Austria marking Holocaust Remembrance Day have condemned organisers of a ball which was expected to be attended by far-right leaders. Greens' Party head Eva Glavischnig said guests at Vienna's WKR event would be "dancing on the graves of Auschwitz" - a reference to the Nazi death camp. But the organisers rejected the accusations, saying the ball was always held...

Germany is pushing for Greece to relinquish control over its budget policy to European institutions as part of discussions over a second rescue package, a European source told Reuters on Friday. "There are internal discussions within the Euro group and proposals, one of which comes from Germany, on how to constructively treat country aid programs that are continuously off track, whether this can simply be ignored or whether we say that's enough," the source said. The source added that under the proposals European institutions already operating in Greece should be given "certain decision-making powers" over fiscal policy.

-excerpt- "We Germans fought for the Russians to go, now we are fighting for the Americans to stay," jokes Brunner, chairman of the German-American contact club in Grafenwoehr, whose lifeblood is its U.S. military base. -excerpt- News that the 172nd infantry brigade, with its 3,500 soldiers and 8,000 family members, is being pulled from Grafenwoehr to return to the United States has hit this town hard. After 67 years of living together, locals in Bavaria say the Americans are not just their employers and customers, but also close friends. -excerpt- Under the new strategy, two combat brigades, one in Grafenwoehr,...

Duqu, Stuxnet malware developed by same groupPosted on 20 Jan 2012 at 2:29pm The infamous Trojan software Duqu and Stuxnet were developed by only one group of malware developers, according to Internet security firm Kaspersky Lab. In fact, Kaspersky said the malware development team could already have developed other malwares using the same platform that was flexibly adaptable to specific targets. Kaspersky released a report stating that Duqu and Stuxnet, as well as a number of malware discovered in 2011 were using a development platform called “Tilded,” citing the use of the tilde symbol (“~”) in many of these malware....

What on Earth does the Jewish community in Germany make of the flurry of headlines this week that described substantial anti-Semitism, and how have they reacted to plans to publish extracts from Mein Kampf? Here, they live in the land that produced the Holocaust, and a rigorous academic study indicates that one in five Germans has at least a "latent" antipathy towards Jews. Separately, a British publisher planned to put extracts from Hitler's manifesto on news stands and only held back as a court in Bavaria got involved. You would expect loud and righteous outrage - but you would be...

BRUSSELS—A six-point plan drafted by France and Germany has suggested corporate tax "coordination," an EU financial transactions tax and the redeployment of EU funds in troubled countries as ways to spur growth and jobs. Following Standard & Poor's recent downgrade of nine euro-countries, including France, in which the ratings agency warned that austerity and budget cuts are not the way out of recession, Paris and Berlin have teamed up once more and drafted a six-page paper called "Ways out of the crisis—strengthen growth now!" The paper—seen by EUobserver—is supposed to be discussed at the EU summits on 30 January and...

The Rheine district court sentenced 21-year-old Ahmad Sherzai to prison for two years and nine months for interruption of a pregnancy in an especially severe case according to German Penal Code § 218 StGB. The chamber exceeded the request of the district attorney who had asked for two years and six months incarceration. Sherzai had boxed his erstwhile girlfriend forcefully in the belly, according to the belief of the court, because he disapproved of treatment by a male gynecologist. The unborn child of the pregnant mother in the seventh month suffered massive cranial hemorrhages from this and died two days...

While Germany appeared to offer Britain alternative proposals to the controversial Europe-wide levy on financial transactions today, a draft Franco-German paper, seen by The Daily Telegraph, reveals that the financial transaction tax is seen in Berlin and Paris as the first step to giving the EU a new power to "coordinate" taxation. The text also links existing European Commission proposals on energy taxation and a common method for calculating corporate tax to the push for new EU powers, heralding a major battle over sovereignty this spring. "European institutions and member states should accelerate the process of tax co-ordination," the Franco-German...

Who is to blame for the eurozone crisis? The governments that ran up the debts? The officials who fudged the criteria so that Italy and Greece could join? The dolts who dreamed up the single currency in the first place? Nope: it's those wicked Anglo-Saxons again. In Die Welt, the EPP's Elmar Brok claims that the US has launched an economic war against Europe. For those who can't read German, here is a rough summary of his argument. The US ratings agencies, he says, had no conceivable reason to downgrade nine eurozone states last week. What this is really about...

<p>BERLIN (AP) — Germany's Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich is honoring two Americans for helping apprehend an Islamic extremist who attacked a U.S. Air Force bus last year and killed two airmen.</p> <p>Friedrich was to present the Federal Cross of Merit on Monday to Staff Sgt. Trevor Brewer and a civilian airport employee, both of whom chased the suspect after the March 2nd shooting, helping police arrest him at the scene.</p>

Recently, Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki did an advertisement with Ing-Diba bank in his native home of Germany. The commercial shows Dirk entering a butcher’s shop and being offered some wurst sausage from behind the counter. At first glance, it appears that the advertisement is harmless enough but for some reason, German vegetarians were not pleased with Dirk chowing down on meat: In the shop an elderly lady behind the counter gives Nowitzki a slice of wurst to sample. A propos of wurst-eating she asks him: “What did we always used to say?” she asks the 2.13 meter (7-foot) basketball...

While it will hardly come as a surprise to many that after making it abundantly clear that Germany is in total disagreement with ECB monetary policies, culminating in the departure of Jurgen Stark from the European central printing authority, Germany will not permit irresponsible, Bernanke-esque monetary policies, it probably should be noted that even following the most recent escalation of adverse developments in Europe, which are now on the verge of unwinding the entire Eurozone and with it the affiliated fake currency, that the German central bank just said that any European QE could only come over its dead body....

As Greece and its lenders prepare for another week of tense negotiations, European officials now say that the task is less to help the country through its troubles than to avoid the sort of uncontrolled default that many experts fear could threaten the global financial system. Officials from the so-called troika of foreign lenders to Greece — the European Central Bank, European Union and International Monetary Fund — have come to believe that the country has neither the ability nor the will to carry out the broad economic reforms it has promised in exchange for aid, people familiar with the...

(BERLIN) - Germany's government Monday categorically ruled out any hike in bailout fund guarantees following the ratings downgrade of nine countries by Standard and Poor's. "The guarantees for the EFSF (European Financial Stability Facility) are largely enough for what it has to do in the coming months," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told Deutschlandfunk public radio. He said the EFSF had already had to pay higher rates to borrow on the markets in the past, meaning "that it does not therefore only depend on the rating". Germany, Europe's top economy, is already the EFSF's main guarantor, which began with 440...

Global markets are set for a rocky day of trading after German leader Angela Merkel warned that it could take many months to rebuild confidence in the eurozone and schisms over financing the bloc's bail-out fund re-emerged. The German chancellor warned that Standard & Poor's decision to downgrade nine eurozone countries on Friday evening demonstrated that politicians needed to step up their efforts to resolve the crisis, warning that it was a "longer process" that would take more than a few months. "The decision confirms my conviction that we have a long way ahead of us before investor confidence returns,"...

When back in August, Europe declared a short selling ban of any financials (here we are willing to channel Romney, and make a $10,000 bet with anyone that said ban will never be lifted), and which as we predicted has had no favorable impact on bank stocks which have since tumbled, we suggested that the next step will also be the final one: the passage of laws prohibiting sales of any kind. As usual we were partially joking. And as so often happens, we are about to be proven right again. As the FT reports in its headline article today,...

German authorities have officially confirmed that they are monitoring German-language Internet websites that are critical of Muslim immigration and the Islamization of Europe. According to Manfred Murck, director of the Hamburg branch of the German domestic intelligence agency, the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), his organization is studying whether German citizens who criticize Muslims and Islam on the Internet are fomenting hate and are thus criminally guilty of "breaching" the German constitution. The BfV's move marks a significant setback for the exercise of free speech in Germany and comes amid a months-long smear campaign led by a triple alliance of leftwing...

Silence settles over the auditorium of the Ottmar Gerster municipal music school in Weimar, Germany. From a corner of the hall, a group of elderly women begin to sing, timidly, in German, “A boy saw a little rose, little rose upon the fields.” Schubert’s melody rises, graceful and solemn; the audience, some 70 people from various age groups and nationalities listens intently. Soon, the voices fade away, and a middle-aged man with a beard, glasses and curly hair sits down at the piano to lead the audience in the next song. But this time, the words are in Yiddish. “If...

In June 1942, Thomas Mann, who was living in exile in California, delivered a commentary on a German-language BBC radio program that decried the sanguinary actions of the Third Reich in avenging the assassination of the leading SS official Reinhard Heydrich in Prague. After Heydrich’s elaborate funeral ceremony at the new Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Hitler screamed at the Czech president, Emil Hacha, “Nothing can prevent me from deporting millions of Czechs if they do not wish for peaceful coexistence.” It wasn’t an idle threat. “Since the violent death of Heydrich,” Mann lamented, “terror is raging everywhere, in a more...

FRANKFURT—Germany paid a negative yield to investors at a debt auction for the first time in its history Monday, underscoring the haven appeal of German debt as the European debt crisis continues. In contrast, yields on French Treasury bills climbed from the previous sale, indicating that investors have more unease over French debt, with concerns rising that the euro zone's second-largest economy may soon lose its cherished triple-A rating. Germany joins Switzerland and the Netherlands in having negative yields at auctions. The pile of assets deemed to be safe is shrinking and investors are so nervous about the potential loss...

GM challenges German brands with small CadillacBy Deepa Seetharaman and Ben Klayman DETROIT | Mon Jan 9, 2012 7:55am EST (Reuters) - General Motors Co proved with the Chevrolet Cruze it can build a top-selling compact car, cracking a market long dominated by Japanese brands. Now the No.1 U.S. automaker is targeting the entrenched German luxury brands with a more nimble compact Cadillac. The 2013 ATS is central to GM chief executive Dan Akerson's mission to refashion Cadillac into a global luxury brand by winning over younger buyers with a sportier image. From the start, GM took aim at BMW's...

German Foreign Orders Plunge...Again by Robert Brusca January 6, 2012 German orders are losing momentum again and rapidly after a false signal of a pause in the unraveling as of October. Orders in October had surged by 5% (M-o-M) and a surge of that degree blunted a lot of downward momentum that had seemed to be in train as October posted a very powerful one-month gain. Yet, now, in the light of the 4.8% drop in November and the September drop of 4.6%, we are left instead with a legacy of extreme volatility and of clearly waning momentum in what...

Revealed: The priest who changed the course of history ... by rescuing a drowning four-year-old Hitler from death in an icy river * Future Fuhrer was plucked from certain death by boy who grew up to join the church * German newspaper from 1894 reveals incident It may be the most devastating act of mercy in history. A newspaper report chronicling how a boy of four was saved from drowning has surfaced in a German archive. The child – who historians believe could have been Adolf Hitler – was plucked from the icy waters of the River Inn in Passau,...

Strong exports of German cars are helping drive employment figures The adjusted jobless rate fell to 6.8% from 6.9% in November, the Federal Labour Office said. This marked a new record low since figures for unified Germany were first published. The seasonally-adjusted total for the number of people out of work in Germany fell 22,000 to 2.88 million in December. The agency said the number of people out of work averaged 2.976 million over the course of last year. News of the figures saw the German Dax stock exchange rise almost 1% by noon on Tuesday. This was equal to...

BERLIN (JTA) -- German-Jewish author Rafael Seligmann has launched a Jewish quarterly magazine. Jewish Voice From Germany, a private initiative started last week, is aiming to convince English-speaking Jews around the world that there is a future for Jewish life in Germany. Seligmann, 64, a native of Israel who came to Germany with his parents in 1957, told JTA that it pains him that many Jews outside Germany associate his country only with the Holocaust. “The fact is, we are a small but a very fast-growing Jewish community in Germany,” Seligmann said in a telephone interview. “We have a vivid...

___________________________________________________________________________________ This is pretty comical:  (blue language warning, kiddies) More at Reaganite Republican

A Syrian man has been killed 'execution-style' in Germany as fears grow that the Damascus regime is actively hunting down its critics in Europe. The 35-year-old man was killed after he stopped in his Volkswagen car at a set of traffic lights in Sarstedt, near Hanover, and two men opened the doors and fired inside. The two assassins then fled the scene. The victim died from head wounds and a special murder squad has been formed at Hildesheim, where he lived. Police made no speculation whether his murder was linked to the unrest in Syria that has been continuing since...

So we enter Year IV of the Long Slump, the cruellest yet though not the most acute. Since the purpose of New Year predictions is to stick one's neck out. It will be a global downturn on all fronts, aborting what remains of recovery even before industrial output in the OECD bloc has regained its pre-Lehman peak. The second wave will hit with youth unemployment already at 45pc in Greece and 49pc in Spain; and with the US labour participation rate already at depression levels of 64pc. We will hear more about Italy's Red Brigades, Greece's Sect of Revolutionaries, and...

A sleeping super-volcano in Germany is showing worrying signs of waking up. It's lurking just 390 miles away underneath the tranquil Laacher See lake near Bonn and is capable of ejecting billions of tons of magma. This monster erupts every 10 to 12,000 years and last went off 12,900 years ago. ... Volcanologists believe that the Laacher See volcano is still active as carbon dioxide is bubbling up to the lake’s surface, which indicates that the magma chamber below is 'degassing'.