Germany

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In Legal Gray Zone, Europeans Harvest Body Parts for US

Ukrainian company accused of gutting bodies illegally

(Newser) - A billion-dollar business of shipping body parts from Germany to the US is booming and may be illegal, Der Spiegel reports. The body harvesting is done in the Ukraine, where authorities are investigating allegations that a company has used coercion and fraud to obtain family permission to harvest bodies. The...

Germany Probes 100 Profs Over PhD Bribes

(Newser) - About a hundred professors across Germany are under investigation for allegedly accepting bribes for doctoral degrees, the Local reports. Prosecutors say professors may have taken bribes as high as $28,000 through an intermediary firm to give PhDs to undeserving students. "It involves teaching professors from all subjects, from...

Pensioner Rides Wheelchair 125 Miles to Propose

(Newser) - Lovestruck in northern Germany, a 67-year-old pensioner traveled more than 125 miles in an arm-powered wheelchair to propose to the woman he loved, Der Spiegel reports. When she turned him down, he turned around for the 4-day journey home and stopped in a cornfield for food. But he couldn't get...

Terror Docudrama Baader-Meinhof Impresses Critics

(Newser) - Critics are largely impressed with Germany's blood-drenched epic The Baader-Meinhof Complex, following the group of young, sexy radicals who terrorized the country for years. A selection of reviews:
  • It's a "taut, unnerving, forcefully unromantic film," writes New York Times critic Manohla Dargis, who praises director Uli Edel for
...

France, Germany Pull Out of Recession

(Newser) - The two largest economies in Europe pulled out of the recession last quarter, with Germany and France both posting 0.3% growth between April and June, reports the Wall Street Journal. The figures were far better than expected, and the French finance minister described the result as "very surprising....

Right Wing Stokes Hatred of 'Euroweenies'

(Newser) - Europeans may have longer lives and longer vacations, but red-blooded Americans don't want their socialist ways on this side of the ocean, right wing media mouths are eager to remind everyone, MIchael Freedman writes in Newsweek. Underlying much of the opposition to health care reform is the fear that it's...

Killer Nazi, 90, Jailed for Life

(Newser) - A former commander in Adolf  Hitler's army has been sentenced to life imprisonment for a massacre in Italy he ordered 65 years ago, the BBC reports. In what is expected to be one of the very last Nazi trials, a Munich court found Joseph Scheungraber guilty of murder in the...

Reprint Mein Kampf, Urge German Jews

(Newser) - Hitler's autobiography-manifesto Mein Kampf has been strictly banned in Germany since the end of World War II, but a proposal to reprint it has the endorsement of the country's leading Jewish organization, among other groups, reports the Independent. "A historically critical edition needs to be prepared today to prevent...

German Hands Phelps Rare Loss; Breaks Record, Too

Stunning reversal raises questions about role of high-performance bodysuits

(Newser) - Germany's Paul Biedermann handed Michael Phelps his first major individual loss in 4 years—and snatched away his world record, too—with a stunning win in the 200-meter freestyle at the world swimming championships today in Rome. Virtually unknown outside his country before this meet, Biedermann has now erased Ian...

World Thinks Better of US With Obama at Helm: Poll

(Newser) - President Obama’s election has increased America’s standing in the world, new polling shows. Global attitudes toward the US have been bolstered by Obama’s election to levels not seen since the Clinton administration, the New York Times reports. In Indonesia, for instance, where the president spent part of...

German Court OKs Nazi Gnome
 German Court 
 OKs Nazi Gnome 

German Court OKs Nazi Gnome

(Newser) - German prosecutors have decided a Seig-Heiling garden gnome doesn't violate the country's tough laws against Nazi imagery, the BBC reports. Artist Ottmar Hörl's creation, on display in a Nuremberg gallery, is intended to mock the Nazis rather than glorify them, officials decided. Prosecutors warned, however, that the stiuation has...

German Thief Caught With 1,000 Pairs of Underwear

Police suspect man may be behind string of undie thefts

(Newser) - A German man arrested for shoplifting may be the culprit behind a string of recent underwear thefts, der Speigel reports. The 56-year-old resident of Gelnhausen, near Frankfurt, escaped after staff noticed him trying to steal three pairs of men’s underwear from a sports shop. Police identified him and collared...

20 Years Later, Berlin Starts Saving Wall

(Newser) - After many years of indifference, Berliners have started getting serious about saving what's left of the most famous symbol of the Cold War, Der Spiegel reports. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, locals viewed it as merely an unfortunate reminder of  a bad past and little thought was given...

Demjanjuk Charged With 27,900 Holocaust Deaths

(Newser) - German prosecutors formally charged John Demjanjuk today with 27,900 counts of being an accessory to murder at a Nazi death camp during World War II, reports the AP. The 89-year-old retired auto worker, who was deported from the US in May, faces 15 years for every count. Prosecutors accuse...

Knut Will Stay in Berlin
 Knut Will Stay in Berlin 

Knut Will Stay in Berlin

(Newser) - The Berlin Zoo’s prized polar bear, Knut, isn’t going anywhere, Der Spiegel reports. Officials there will pay $600,000 to a rival zoo to settle an ownership dispute. Given Knut's bankability as a bona fide world star, it's a bargain. The bear, not yet 3 years old, is...

EU Slaps Gas Firms With $1.5B Fine for Price-Fixing

(Newser) - The European Union's powerful competition commissioner slapped two energy companies with record fines of $1.53 billion today for cartel misbehavior. GDF Suez and E.ON, two of the world's biggest gas producers, colluded to avoid competition in French and German energy markets and drive up prices. It's the first...

Thousands in Egypt Mourn 'Headscarf Martyr'

Woman stabbed in German courtroom during hearing on religious insult

(Newser) - Thousands gathered in Alexandria today for the funeral of Marwa Sherbini, a pregnant Egyptian woman killed in a German courtroom last week by a man convicted of insulting her religion, the AP reports. Sherbini, 32, was stabbed 18 times by a man identified only as Axel W, 28. They were...

Poll: Half of East Germans Positive on Communism

Nostalgic Germans believe life was better before the Berlin Wall came down

(Newser) - They may not be pining for the Stasi or the Trabant, but half of people recently polled in the former East Germany are thinking, in hindsight, that Communism wasn't so bad after all, Der Speigel reports. Nearly 20 years after the Berlin Wall came down, the poll finds  that 49% ...

Demjanjuk Fit to Stand Trial, Germany Rules

Accused Nazi death-camp guard, 89, is officially stateless

(Newser) - John Demjanjuk is physically able to stand trial for his alleged role as an accessory to murder in a Nazi death camp, German officials ruled today. The family of the retired Ohio autoworker, 89, had said ill health made him unfit, but the only condition doctors imposed was a limit...

A Frosty Merkel Arrives in DC
 A Frosty Merkel Arrives in DC 

A Frosty Merkel Arrives in DC

Economy, Afghanistan cloud chancellor's talks with Obama

(Newser) - Angela Merkel arrives in Washington today for a two-day visit, where the German chancellor will hold talks with President Obama before a rare joint press conference in the Rose Garden. Yet despite the smiles, the two leaders have a strained if not frosty relationship, with both sides carping about economic...

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