pressinabroad

'Dr. Death' opens shop selling human cross sections

2010-05-29T07:00:00.001+05:30

Gunther von Hagens, the man behind the controversial anatomical Body Worlds exhibitions, on Friday reopened his Brandenburg plastination plant. The facility comes compete with a shop selling human and animal cross sections.

The provocative 64-year-old, known as “Dr. Death” in

Germany

, is infamous for inventing a process for transforming the bodies of people and animals into plasticised pieces for his Body Worlds shows. Von Hagens, who dresses a bit like an 19th century undertaker, caused a stir last year in Berlin, where his show “The Cycle of Life" featured dissected corpses having sex.

Now, after 15-months of renovations, von Hagens is opening the doors to his “Plastinarium” in the town of Guben in the eastern German state of Brandenburg. He called the facility a “valuable contribution to medical education, enlightenment and the advancement of health” in a statement.

In addition to offering hundreds of jobs to locals in the town of 20,000, the Plastinarium will be a place for doctors, students and healers to conduct research, a spokeswoman said. Von Hagens also plans to offer courses in plastination, in addition to renting out the exhibition space for weddings and parties amid the preserved corpses.

Meanwhile a special shop for medical professionals will sell both human and animal plastinate cross sections. A human lower-leg section will begin at €80, cranial sections will be a steep €1,500, and full-body plastinate cross sections are priced at a whopping €11,000.

Those not willing to pay quite as much can purchase life-sized photographs of the plastinates. Many critics have accused von Hagens of exploiting the dead, though all of his subjects have donated their bodies to the plastinator. But local parish priestMichael Domke said that his church would not protest the Plastinarium’s reopening as it did in 2006 for fear of increasing publicity.

“We’re not saying anything,” he said.

Meanwhile Guben mayor Klaus-Dieter Hübner said the revamped facility was a valuable addition to the town economy. “With 220 employees thPublish Poste Plastinarium is an important employer in the city and has also become an important economic factor,” he said, explaining that thousands of tourists and visitors were expected to descend on Guben following the opening.

Organic food neither healthier nor tastier, watchdog finds

2010-05-28T07:00:00.001+05:30

Organic food, widely assumed to be healthier than conventional groceries, usually have no nutritional advantage at all, according to a comprehensive study released Thursday by German consumerorganisation Stiftung Warentest. In an embarrassing result for the organic food industry, the government-funded but independent foundation drew on 85 investigations over eight years to come up with an overall assessment of what's known as bio food. Only when it comes to use of pesticides does it come out in front.

The foundation concluded that organic products were not necessarily healthier, or even better-tasting, than regular groceries. Despite being on average 30 percent more expensive, there was little overall difference in quality, foundation tester Ina Bockholt told Deutschlandradio.

For example, 15 baby food products tested – 13 of which were organic products – all rated only in the “satisfactory” range, Bockholt said. The reason was that they actually contained too little fat and often too little iron for babies’ nutritional needs.

Some 45 percent of ecological products got a “good” or “very good” nutritional rating, compared with 41 percent for conventional foods. Some 15 percent of organic foods were rated “poor” – slightly higher than the 14 percent of regular products given such a score.

There was considerable variation among products, with organic performing well in some areas but poorly in others. Tee, full-cream milk and spiced cooking oils were better than their conventional counterparts, whereas organic products were worse when it came to rapeseed oils.

Bockholt however defended organic foods on ethical grounds, pointing out that someone who bought such products “invests in an ecological, animal-friendly and sustainable agricultural economy.” Some 75 percent of ecological products were pesticide-free, compared with just 16 percent of conventional groceries, she said. Yet ethical shopping carried a price tag. “Admittedly you have to say, bio products have a price: they are about 30 percent dearer,” Bockholt said.

Sweden sacks aid agency chief in major overhaul

2010-05-27T17:44:00.002+05:30

The Swedish government has sacked the director-general of the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), Anders Nordström, and announced a major overhaul of the sternly criticised public authority.

Development aid minister Gunilla Carlsson on Thursday announced a reorganisation of Sida and appointed Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, former head of Save the Children Sweden, to lead the agency in the interim.

"I am very happy that we have been able to recruit Charlotte Petri Gornitzka as interim general-director," Gunilla Carlsson said in a press conference on Thursday. The leadership of Sida will be soon be further strengthened by the appointment of Bo Metz, who is currently a department secretary and former acting head of treasury's budget division.

The decision to reorganise Sida's leadership was announced by the government earlier on Thursday morning and the minister used the mid-morning press conference to comment on the reasons behind the decision. "In order to ensure that Sida will overcome its high-profile business, economic and organizational shortcomings, the government has today decided on measures to ensure an efficient and effective authority."

The minister penned a deeply critical article on the Newsmill website on Wednesday arguing that Swedish development aid suffers from comprehensive structural problems. "Unfortunately I have misjudged the extent of the development aid agency's challenges. The Alliance government's restructuring of Swedish development aid must therefore be intensified and the control of Sida has to be reinforced. To achieve the ambition of a development aid which optimises its benefits, full-scale changes are required."

According to Carlsson the straw which broke the camel's back was when it emerged that Swedish funds had been involved in corruption and fraud within the Zambian health sector over the course of several years, without the agency drawing attention to the problem.

Swedish National Audit Office (Riksrevisionen) has criticised Sida in both 2008 and 2009 for inadequate control of development aid to, among other countries, Zambia and Tanzania. The office was furthermore critical of the government for its lack of management of the agency and Gunilla Carlsson promised then to address the issue.

Sida has been battling with its finances for several years and in 2009 was obliged to seek the help of the National Financial Management Authority (Ekonomistyrningsverket - ESV) to bring order to its income and expenditure.

Bumbling repo men kidnap wrong woman

2010-05-27T10:14:00.000+05:30

Stuttgart police on Wednesday said they had arrested a band of men working for a collection agency who allegedly kidnapped a woman and held her for more than a day before realising they’d snatched the wrong person.

The three men, aged 25, 36 and 54 were detained on May 21 on suspicion they kidnapped and robbed a 62-year-old woman on May 6, police said in a statement. The bumbling gang apparently thought they were abducting a relative of an indebted bus company owner, but police did not speculate on their intentions.

Investigators have managed to piece together the turn of events, which began when the men grabbed the woman around 9:15 pm on May 6 in a Neugereutdistrict parking garage and forced her into a Volkswagen Golf. There they bound her hands and feet and covered her eyes with a blindfold.

From there they took her to a shed in Calw, some 33 kilometres from Stuttgart, where they tied her to a chair, leaving her overnight, the statement said. The following morning they put the bound woman in a car boot and drove to an old guest house near Böblingen, where they provided food and told her the reason for the kidnapping.

But the woman turned out to be an employee of the bus company owner, and not a relative as the kidnappers thought. “After the suspects had to conclude they had the wrong person in their grip, they let her go the same day around 8:30 pm near Leonberg,” the police said, adding that the repo men took their captive’s cash and forced her to reveal her bank cardPIN number first.

Police followed up with extensive investigation into both the victim's ordeal and her employer before finding and arresting the suspects, who are all Germancitizens.

Ryanair wins appeal on repatriation

2010-05-27T06:12:00.001+05:30

A Swedish court ruled Wednesday that Irish low-cost airline Ryanair had no obligation to compensate a couple stranded in Brussels when one of its flights was cancelled due to heavy fog.

The Svea Appeals Court ruled that Rune and Eva-Marie Brännström were only entitled to the 322 kronor ($38) they had paid for their tickets, which the carrier had already reimbursed. "Ryanair has proven that the flight was cancelled due to extraordinary
circumstances," the court said.

The ruling overturned a lower court verdict ordering Ryanair to pay each of
them 2,325 kronor after a 2006 flight they had been booked on from Brussels toStockholm was cancelled due to heavy fog.

Ryanair had offered them a new flight two days later and reimbursed their
tickets, but they received no other compensation and Ryanair did not offer to pay for their meals or hotel.

The couple said they could not wait two days and made their own way home by taxi, train and rental car, paying for the trip themselves. The appeals court on Wednesday said Ryanair would be compensated around 300,000 kronor in trial expenses.

"I am very disappointed with the appeals court verdict," Rune Brännström
told Swedish public radio. "The consequence will be that it will be considered correct behaviour forairlines to dump their passengers. That's just not right," he said.

He said he and his wife were willing to take the case to Sweden's Supreme
Court and even to the European Union Court of Justice.

32,000 mortgage holders in arrears

2010-05-27T02:30:00.001+05:30

More than 32,000 mortgage holders are in arrears with about two-thirds of them unable to meet payments for more than six months, official figures have revealed. The Central Bank said that since the start of the year there has been a 13% increase in the number of homes falling behind in repayments.

Despite the increase, the amount of court actions taken against borrowers in difficulty dropped by 4.8% over the first three months. Just over 3,000 cases, including moves toward repossession, were before the court at the end of March as banks chased arrears of 90 million euro.

In the first three months of the year, lenders took 161 cases to court - a fall of almost a third compared with the last three months of 2009. The Central Bank said mortgages in arrears are worth a total 6.1 billion euro.

The Irish Banking Federation (IBF) said the figures showed banks which agree to postpone loan repayments are greatly assisting distressed homeowners. Pat Farrell, IBF chief executive, said: "It is very reassuring to note that forbearance is working for a great many homeowners.

"IBF mainstream lenders remain committed to doing everything possible to help people with genuine repayment problems to manage their debts and to stay in their homes; and the increasing level of arrears linked to the general economic situation confirms the desirability and indeed the necessity of this approach."

Lenders had 456 repossessed homes on their books at the end of March. Some 91 homes were taken from borrowers in the first three months of the year and 32 were disposed of by mortgage lenders.

The Central Bank said since the start of the year 26 were repossessed following court orders and 65 were voluntarily surrendered or abandoned.

Curb on online income snoopers moves closer

2010-05-26T19:00:00.002+05:30

The Swedish parliament's Constitutional Committee has approved a law change that will make it harder to find out other people's incomes online.

The proposal aims to place restrictions on the users of services providing online credit reports on individuals. Those who want credit information this way must have a "legitimate need for information" under the government's Council onLegislation's (Lagråd) changes.

In the future, the person whose information is being sought must also be informed about what has been disclosed. According to Ask, the changes will protect individuals privacy better than current means. One consequence of the law is that it would be harder for journalists to investigate the finances of public figures such as politicians, newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported.

Social Democrat Thomas Bodström, a former justice minister, has been very critical of the proposal. He told Expressen that the new law, by extension, implies "a breeding ground for corruption." "The Moderates do not want to disclose contributions to political parties and now they do not want us to investigate individuals," Bodström told Expressen. "To further limit transparency is deeply unfortunate. There is nothing better than transparency against corruption."

The case will now proceed to the finance committee, which also has a centre-right majority. Sweden's parliament, the Riksdag, will debate and vote on the issue in June. The right-wing majority in the constitutional committee would like to delay the change so that it begins at year-end, instead of as scheduled in August.

Biofuel use shows large climate benefit: study

2010-05-26T09:52:00.000+05:30

Ethanol and biogas use in Sweden shows a large climate benefit, resulting in between 65 to 140 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than petrol and diesel, even when so-called direct and indirect soil effects are included, a new research study shows.

The study from Lund University's Faculty of Engineering punctures the controversial argument against biofuels made from food crops, such as ethanol from grain, or biodiesel from rapeseed.

"It is pretty irrelevant to rank various sustainable biofuels, there is room for all fuels, and all are needed to produce alternatives to fossil fuels. The challenge today is to increase the amount of sustainable biofuels in themselves," Pål Börjesson, researcher in environmental and energy systems at the engineering faculty, in a statement.

The Lund study for the first time looks at the scope of Swedish biofuel use and has analyzed its environmental impact, both in relation to each other and as alternatives to fossil fuels such as petrol and diesel.

While initially seen as a major boon for the fight to control climate change, many have come to believe that growing these crops serves no net climate benefit. Arguments such as that the biofuels use up more resources during food production, and force land reclamation for food in other countries instead, have been shown by the new study to be false.

"According to our results, there is nothing to suggest that biofuels produced from Swedish-grown crops under present circumstances would lead to indirect soil effects, such as, for example, land reclamation in South America or Asia," he said. The soil in developing countries is furthermore often assumed to be carbon-rich and thus a significant emitter of carbon dioxide, but the study shows no such link at current production levels.

"Despite this, several national economists insist that it may take 50 years for biofuels to repay their carbon footprint strictly due to the indirect soil impact." Biogas extracted from manure was considered the best alternative in tests which covered biogas, ethanol and biodiesel in different variants. Biogas performed 140 percent better than gasoline and diesel and had a net carbon benefit.

However, even the weakest-performing alternative still attained twice the EU standard that biofuels reduce greenhouse gases by at least 35 percent compared with fossil fuels. Each type of biofuel has different restrictions in production volumes, he added. In order to avoid adverse effects, it is important to know what those limits are.

"In the future, we could have adverse indirect effects on the land if we sharply increase biofuel production from food crops very quickly," said Börjesson. "There is a limit, but we are not there today."

Biogas from sugar beets, grass, maize, including residue in the form of household waste, industrial waste and manure, biodiesel from rapeseed, ethanol from wheat and sugar beets, as well as sugar cane ethanol from Brazil were studied. A co-production of biogas and ethanol from wheat was also analyzed.

In addition to greenhouse gas emissions, environmental impacts such as eutrophication, acidification, tropospheric ozone and particle emissions were also included in the study, as well as emissions from the use of biofuels in light and heavy vehicles. Direct and indirect soil effects were studied.

Currently, biofuels made from Swedish raw materials and sugar-cane ethanol imports account for about five percent of total fuel use in Sweden.

Volkswagen snaps up Italian car designer

2010-05-26T07:26:00.000+05:30

Europe's biggest auto maker, Volkswagen, said Tuesday it would buy theItalian group that designed its first Golf model for an undisclosed amount. "Italdesign becomes a permanent member of the global Volkswagen family," chairman Martin Winterkorn said in a statement.

VW will buy 90.1 percent of the shares in Italdesign Giugiaro, while the Giugiaro family will hold on to the remainder. "The Volkswagen group will be continuing its model initiative over the coming years and will benefit from the capacity and competence of Italdesign," Winterkorn said.

"The company will therefore be making an important contribution to our 2018 global growth strategy," he said. The Italian firm was founded in 1968, posts annual sales of around €100 million ($123 million) and employs some 800 workers, the VW statement said.

VW has worked with the Italian design firm since the 1970s, when it helped develop the Golf 1 model, one of the German group's biggest successes. Italdesign was founded by Giorgetto Giugiaro and Aldo Mantovani, and has worked with car makers worldwide, including Fiat, Renault, Ford, Toyota and theChina Automotive Company.

VW, meanwhile, has worked in the past year on a series of acquisitions, and already owns a broad range of car companies including Audi, Bentley,Lamborghini, Seat, Skoda, and the Swedish heavy truck group Scania. By the end of the year, VW is also expected to finalise a takeover of Porsche, and it has bought almost 20 percent of the Japanese brand Suzuki.

Shares in VW showed a loss of 3.59 percent to 65.71 euros in midday trading, while the DAX index of leading German stocks was off by 2.56 percent overall. Share in rival car makers BMW and Daimler posted losses similar to that of VW.

Wedding party turns into mass fight with restaurant staff

2010-05-26T07:00:00.000+05:30

A wedding party in Bavaria turned into such a nasty fight that police are investigating for a possible attempted murder charge.

The party on Sunday in the upper Bavaria town of Taufkirchen, ended with a mass fight in which six people were seriously hurt, two so badly that they ended up in hospital.

The fight was only broken up when the initial police officers who showed up at the restaurant called for back up to help pull scrapping guests and staff off each other.

The reason why the wedding party turned into a mass fight is not yet clear, but it appears that some of the 300 guests had an argument with some of the restaurant staff, which got completely out of hand.

A group of around 30 guests apparently became physically involved in the fight. Five suspects were arrested. The bride and groom could not be found on Monday.

Swedish unemployment rises in April

2010-05-25T21:48:00.000+05:30

Unemployment in Sweden climbed in April to 9.8 percent of the workforce with 483,000 registered job-seekers, exceeding expectations and up 80,000 on the corresponding month of 2009, a new report shows. The number aged 15-74-years-old and engaged in gainful employment amounted to 4,465,000 in April, showing no statistical change on last April.

In April 2009 unemployment amounted to 8.3 percent of the workforce with the April 2010 monthly change indicating that unemployment has not yet peaked, the report from Statistics Sweden (SCB) shows. "Unemployment, both in the number of unemployed and as a share of the workforce, is still increasing," SCB writes.

For employment indicators the figures are however showing a slight positive trend, especially among men."Unemployment is climbing faster than expected. The employment forecast is broadly in line with what we had expected. This can indicate that the unemployment figure climbed as a result of temporary effects," said SEB analystOlle Holmgren.

Holmgren explained that the unexpectedly high unemployment figure could be as a result of the number of full time students who are looking for work over the summer. "It seems that a large part of the increase in unemployment is due to full-time students, who are looking for summer jobs. This can have a tendency to significantly impact the monthly figures, he added.

The strong stock market reaction in morning trading on Tuesday, with tumbling krona and interest rates, is explained by Olle Holmgren to have deeper lying causes and is not directly related to the unemployment figures. "The market has started to question the global recovery. The release of another figure which further supports this pushes the market down," he said.

The Social Democrat economic affairs spokesperson, Thomas Östros, has called the figures worrying, and argued that it indicates that the government's policies are not working. "It was a major and decisive mistake of the government to present a springbudget without any stimulating measures. This is a government which has abdicated its responsibility," said Östros, who predicted that this would be a key issue in the September general election.

Parties hold firm on euro despite Greek crisis

2010-05-25T19:00:00.000+05:30

In the first of two articles on Sweden and the euro, Peter Vinthagen Simpson and Vivian Tse review party policy as Sweden's backing of a €750 million ($1 trillion) eurozone bailout brings the issue of Sweden's membership back into focus.

Sweden

's backing of the bailout of the eurozone economies has been defended by finance minister Anders Borg as underlining Sweden's interdependence with its EU partners. All the larger political parties came out in favour of Sweden’s membership of the euro in a 2003 referendum and a telephone survey by The Local indicates that political support remains strong for Sweden to eventually join the eurozone, although few are willing to commit to a concrete timeframe.

The Liberal Party (Folkpartiet) is the party which has perhaps gone furthest to establishing its credentials as a staunch advocate of Sweden joining the euro, and the ongoing eurozone debt crisis has done little to dent their resolve. ”We want to join the euro and we want to have a referendum in the coming years, within the next mandate period,” said Mathias Sundin, parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Party in Östergötland, to The Local.

Sundin emphasised that the party’s line has not been affected by the Greece crisis. ”The crisis in Greece is not because of the euro, it’s because of the way Greek politicians have ruined the Greek economy with short-sighted policies. Greece’s membership of the euro forces it to fix the economy, if they had their own currency they wouldn’t have to,” he said.

Despite the Greek problems, Sundin argued that the Liberal Party is in favour of supporting the bailout plan as ”the other option of a bankruptcy would be worse for Sweden, the EU, and the world”. The Social Democrats were in government when the 2003 referendum was held and led the chorus of parties and Swedish business leaders in favour of adopting the euro. While support in the party remains strong for Sweden to, a new referendum is not an immediate priority.

“We haven’t changed our minds because of Greece, but the situation reinforces the need to wait longer. It is too soon to have a referendum in the next four years. It is important to review the situation and look for a referendum in 2014,” said Sven-Erik Österberg, Social Democrat Party member of the parliamentary advisory council on foreign affairs, to The Local on Tuesday.

Österberg underlined the party's position that it is important for Sweden to join EU partners to pull together to help out. "If it's necessary, we should, because it's important for the whole situation in the EU to stabilize Greece. Otherwise it can spread to Ireland, Estonia, Spain, Portugal, and the UK, especially after the election, as we don't know what the new government will do yet."

Österberg argued that while there is unity in the centre-left coalition on their position with regards to the euro and a new referendum, the centre-right government is more split. Left Party spokesperson Britta Kellgren, however indicated to the Local on Tuesday that the centre-left coalition may not be as unified as the Social Democrats claim.

”We are against the euro and Sweden taking part in the euro. We believe the independence of the country and the economy would be destroyed; it is very risky and the developments of the last few weeks demonstrate that,” Kellgren told The Local.

Kellgren also rejected the idea of a new referendum on euro membership. ”There is no need for a referendum, we don’t want another referendum. We had a referendum in 2003 and the Left Party was against it then,” she said.

The Green Party removed the requirement to leave the EU from its party programme in the autumn of 2008 but remains opposed to Swedish membership of the euro and a second referendum. ”Sweden should keep out of the euro and not have a referendum. We are all too different and we should not have the same interest rates across the countries,” said Ulf Holm, the Green Party member parliamentary committee on European affairs, to The Local on Tuesday.

While Holm argued that it is too early to judge the fall out of the Greek debt crisis, he advised that the Green Party has become more sceptical towards the euro than before. ”I think it is necessary to help Greece out because the crisis can affect other countries outside of Europe and it’s necessary to stop that from happening,” he said.

On the issue of a second referendum, Holm stated that the centre-left coalition had agreed not to hold a referendum before the next election (in 2014). The Moderate Party is the largest of the centre-right coalition and while they are principally in favour of joining the single currency, during campaigning for the2009 EU election party leader Fredrik Reinfeldt appeared keen to deflect calls from coalition colleagues for a new referendum in the near future.

”We are in favour of Sweden adopting the euro, however we have also said that we should respect the outcome of the referendum in the meantime. But we want Sweden to adopt the euro eventually,” said Gustav Blix, Moderate Party deputy member of the parliamentary committee on European affairs, to The Local on Tuesday.

”We should have another referendum, adopting the euro would be a good thing for Sweden in the long run, but we need a well functioning monetary policy in Europe and a stable eurozone,” Blix said, adding that Sweden should be prepared to ”take our share of the responsibility” to help troubled EU economies, but should insist on ”high requirements” for reform.

The Christian Democrats amended their position during campaigning for the EU elections and in May 2009 joined their Liberal Party colleagues in calling for a new referendum sooner rather than later, in what many commentators dismissed as an attempt to attract the pro-EU vote.

"We would love to see Sweden in the euro. You can't change your position because of a one-off crisis," said Emma Henriksson, Christian Democrat member of parliament, to The Local on Tuesday, indicating that the party's 2009 shift was a longer term move.

Henriksson also argued that the crisis is not the direct fault of the euro and "would have been worse in many EU countries" without it, while underlining that the Greek bailout was mainly a question for Greece and the euro countries. "But if we are asked to support Greece, we should consider it, regardless of whether we are in the euro. We are dependent on one another, so you need to be prepared to join in," she said.

The Centre Party aligned itself with the no camp in the 2003 election and despite several leading party members in October 2008 voicing a call for the adoption of the euro after a new referendum, the party's position remains the same. "No. Sweden is doing just fine with the krona. It is our position that we should stand outside the euro but we are prepared to support a further analysis of the situation," said Staffan Danielsson, Centre Party member of the parliamentary committee on EU affairs, to The Local on Wednesday.

Danielsson also stated that the main responsibility for helping troubled eurozone countries should lie with the euro countries themselves but emphasised that Sweden benefits from a stable situation in the EU. "Euro countries should take responsibility for their own predicament. If the situation would deteriorate then of course Sweden could be harmed but we are satisfied that the current measures will be sufficient to avert further problems."

The Centre Party sees no immediate need for a new referendum but is supportive of the government's policy that an evaluation of Sweden's position regarding euro membership could be conducted within the next mandate period. "It is always positive with a new analysis. We will have to see how the euro develops and the results of any evaluation before considering whether we need a new referendum," Danielsson said.

Sweden, like the UK and unlike Denmark, holds no formal opt-out from joining the euro and must join the single currency when a series of macroeconomic criteria are met - including national debt, interest rates and exchange rate stability. In practice Sweden holds the right to decide when, and if, to join the euro by simply avoiding to meet all the criteria.

'Traumschiff' cruise ship evacuated after fire

2010-05-24T19:08:00.000+05:30

The famous cruise ship MS Deutschland, the setting for the long-running ZDF television soap opera Traumschiff, has been evacuated after it caught fire while docked in a Norwegian fjord. The fire started in the engine room and was presenting problems to fire crews with the thick smoke that developed, a local rescue spokesman said.

The 364 passengers – mostly Germans – and most of the 241 crew, as well as the two Norwegian pilots, were taken from the ship. The heat developed by the fire was so intense that fire crews were hosing the hull down from outside to try to limit damage to the structure of the ship, which is famous in Germany due to the ZDF TV series.

Fire broke out at around 12:30 pm, while the ship was anchored in the small town of Eidfjord, deep in the picturesque Hardanger Fjord, nor far from Bergen on the Norwegian west coast.

All those on board were evacuated without any reports of injury. It is not yet known what caused the fire, which at times threatened to spread through the 175-metre-long ship, and took four hours to extinguish.

The tourists, who were due to set sail for Hamburg on Sunday evening, were taken to local hotels and are making their way home by bus to Oslo and then ferry Kiel, said a spokesman for Deilmann, the company which owns MS Deutschland. The ship will be taken to Bergen as soon as possible so that a damage evaluation can be undertaken.

Delays expected as Frankfurt Airport custodial workers strike

2009-10-09T16:09:00.000+05:30

Delays are expected at the Frankfurt Airport on Friday during an early morning strike by more than 150 custodial workers, union IG BAU said. “Terminals and equipment remain uncleaned,” regional head of the union of custodial workers Hannes Rosenbaum said in a statement. “The supply of on-board provisions for the airplanes is also severely delayed, as service firm personnel often take on loading the machines in addition to cleaning.”

The strike began at 4:30 am and lasted until 8 am. IG BAU asked affected passengers for their understanding. “The custodial workers do a hard job every day behind the airport scenes – and this for a low wage,” Rosenbaum said. The union staged the strike to encourage employers to complete a wage contract.

“We want 8.7 percent higher wages. There should also be additional supplementary benefits for retirement,” Rosenbaum said, adding that what the “wall” between wages in the east and west of the country must also fall. Friday’s action in Frankfurt could preface nationwide strikes beginning October 16 pending a union vote.

thelocal.de

Sweden to abolish expiry date for murder

2009-10-08T18:59:00.000+05:30

Sweden's government has proposed abolishing the statute of limitations for crimes that can lead to life imprisonment. Under current laws, suspects for crimes that include murder, genocide and major acts of terrorism can not be prosecuted if 25 years have elapsed since the crime was committed.

In its submission to the Council on Legislation (Lagrådet), the government calls for the new law to be retroactive, meaning that murders committed by adult perpetrators in the last quarter century and onwards will no longer have an expiry date for prosecution, Svenska Dagbladet reports.

"I'm convinced that people would find it reprehensible if a murderer was to come along after 25 years and confess to a murder. No matter when the crime as committed, the perpetrator should be held to account," Centre Party justice spokesman Johan Linander told the newspaper.

Citing improvements in DNA technology, the government also wants evidence for crimes covered in the bill to be retained for 70 years, as opposed to the current 30 year limit. With opposition justice experts also welcoming the proposal, the bill is expected to pass into law in mid-2010, a few months before the 25th anniversary of the still unsolved murder of Swedish prime minister Olof Palme.

Palme was gunned down while walking home from the cinema in central Stockholm on the evening of February 28th, 1986. Two years after the shooting, petty thief Christer Pettersson was arrested and convicted for Palme’s killing, but the case was later overturned on appeal. No other suspect has ever been brought to trial in the case.

thelocal.se

CDU and FDP agree to boost child benefits

2009-10-08T18:54:00.001+05:30

Germany's incoming centre-right coalition partners the Christian Democrats (CDU) and Free Democrats (FDP) are planning a big increase in child benefits, daily Frankfurter Rundschau reported on Thursday.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats and the pro-business Free Democrats reportedly agree on boosting direct benefits and tax exemptions, but are negotiating whether FDP campaign plans to raise monthly Kindergeld payments of €164 to €200 per child are appropriate given budgetary concerns.

But a single increase of Germany's tax exemption for dependent children is not enough, CDU family policy spokesperson Johannes Singhammer told the paper. “It’s also essential to increase child benefits,” he said. “We need an integrated increase in family policies.”

According to inside sources, both the CDU and the FDP have already agreed to increase yearly tax exemptions from €6,024 to €8,004 – which will cost the government some €3 billion. If per-child benefits increase to €200 each month, the combined increases will cost some €7 billion, the paper reported.

Special interest groups also warned the paper that raising tax write-offs alone would divide high and low income parents. Only single parents who earn more than €38,800 per year, or couples who together earn €74,700 would benefit from higher tax exemptions, the paper reported.

News magazine Der Spiegel reported on Thursday that the incoming coalition is grappling with how to plug major budgetary shortfalls making both the proposed child benefit increases and the FDP’s promised tax cuts difficult to finance.

thelocal.de

Violence against women tops list of police crimes

2009-10-07T15:18:00.001+05:30

Acts of violence against women accounted for more indictments against off duty police officers than any other crime in the last decade. Almost a third of all indictments faced by officers between 1998 and 2008 related to the alleged assault of wives, ex-girlfriends or former partners, according to a review carried out by newspaper Dagens Nyheter.

In all, 48 cases dealt with either assault or the related crime of gross violation of a woman's integrity (gvov kvinnofridskränkning). The majority of cases in recent years have led to convictions. "We are the first to admit that this is a difficult situation. We must not hide the issue," said Liljemor Melin-Sving, deputy chairperson of the Swedish Police Union, to the newspaper.

In the ten year period covered by the review, 30 police officers have been charged with common assault - the second most common indictment for off duty police officers - followed by drunk driving in third place, shoplifting or theft in fourth and child pornography in fifth place.

Among the population at large, traffic offences accounted for the largest number of indictments from 1998 to 2008. This was followed by shoplifting or theft, and possession of narcotics for personal use. Assault cases in which men were the victims came in ninth on the list, while assault cases in which women were the victims constituted the 13th most common crime.

thelocal.se

Secretary fired over meatball snack after 34 years on the job

2009-10-07T15:17:00.000+05:30

A Dortmund secretary is fighting for her job of 34 years after being fired for snacking on a meatball from a conference buffet on the job, daily Bild reported on Wednesday.

Magdalene H. had worked for the North Rhine-Westphalian building association in Dortmund for more than three decades only to be fired for taking two rolls and a Frikadelle, a German meatball specialty, after setting up a meal for her boss and his guests.

But later a colleague noticed that food was missing and her boss confronted her, the paper said. When she admitted to eating the food, she was sacked. On Tuesday, Magdalene H. faced her employer, building association head Hermann Schulte-Hiltrop, in court to request that he give her a warning instead, saying the incident was not a classic case of theft.

“She believed her behaviour was in order,” her lawyer Wolfgang Pinkepank said. “Bread and Frikadellen that are left over after conferences are allowed to be eaten by workers. If she had been reprimanded she would not have done it again.”

But Schulte-Hiltrop, 51, told the court he would not change his decision. “From the outside it naturally looks like a minor offence,” he said. “But we work on highly sensitive information here. And if you don’t trust someone any longer, it’s not a good feeling.”

Meanwhile lawyer Pinkepank said that at 59, his client would likely not find another position. Official court proceedings will begin in January 2010, the judge said. In a similar case, a Berlin court ruled in February 2009 that a former cashier for the Kaiser’s supermarket chain was rightfully fired after allegedly taking €1.30 in bottle deposits, though she maintains the termination was because of her union activities.

The woman, dubbed “Emmely” by the German media, had worked as a cashier for 30 years, but the company said the incident had destroyed its trust in her. The case has inspired union-related solidarity groups and made national headlines, making Barbara E. and her lawyer Benedikt Hopmann minor celebrities.

thelocal.de

Claudia Schiffer exits the catwalk

2009-10-06T19:20:00.000+05:30

German supermodel Claudia Schiffer will never grace a catwalk again, Italian magazine Donna Moderna reported on Tuesday. “I am finished with the catwalk and I won’t miss it,” 39-year-old Schiffer told the magazine. “I continue to model and it’s a lot of fun – but no more fashion shows

Schiffer, who comes from Rheinberg in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, was in Milan just a few days ago for fashion week to promote a new perfume for Dolce & Gabanna.

The tall German beauty was discovered in a Düsseldorf night club in 1987 and was most popular in the 1990s. She has been featured on the cover of hundreds of fashion magazines and appeared in dozens of films and commercials.

thelocal.de

Swedish burger chain ditches Dole over Bananas!* lawsuit

2009-10-06T19:17:00.000+05:30

Swedish hamburger chain Max has said it will stop selling Dole fruit salad in retaliation for the US food giant’s bid to muzzle a Swedish documentary film about the company. “We don’t like Dole’s actions. Suing a filmmaker instead of having a dialogue is despicable,” said Max CEO Richard Bergfors to the Realtid.se news website.

Bergfors' decision to have his company boycott Dole products comes following reports that the food company continues its legal fight to stop Bananas!*, a film by Swedish documentary filmmaker Fredrik Gertten, from being released.

The film depicts the plight of a group of Nicaraguan workers as they pursue complaints that Dole made them sterile by using banned pesticides on the banana fields in which they worked. Bergfors took the decision after learning from a customer about Dole’s lawsuit against Gertten.

While he hasn’t seen the film, Bergfors said he plans to do so. In the mean time, he is moving ahead with plans to remove Dole products from the Max menu. “It’s important for us to show Dole that this isn’t acceptable,” Bergfors told Realtid.se. “I think Dole risks losing more customers on account of their misguided actions. In Sweden we believe in open dialogue and debate. Everyone can make mistakes, but then you have to admit it.”

thelocal.se

Helicopter heist hits global top ten list

2009-10-05T15:19:00.001+05:30

September's helicopter cash depot heist in Stockholm qualifies as one of the ten most spectacular heists of all time, according to a new list published by Time magazine. The website of the high circulation US weekly likens the audacious chopper-borne smash and grab to a scene from Mission Impossible.

"Just before sunrise on Sept. 23, the burglars arrived on the rooftop of the GS4 cash depot, smashed the glass roof, detonated their way to the building's vault, and hoisted themselves — and the bags of money they made off with — back up to the helicopter," writes Time.

The magazine also notes that the robbers were brazen enough to create a decoy using a bag labeled with the word 'BOMB'. The Västberga cash depot heist comes in at number ten on Time's list, which is topped by the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911 (see below for full list).

Professor of criminology Leif G W Persson does not think the helicopter heist merits its place among history's most spectacular. "It's certainly quite unique for Scandinavia with all the logistics involved and everything. But no, I don't think so," he told newspaper Aftonbladet.

thelocal.se

Publisher shelves honour killing book in fear of Islamist retaliation

2009-10-05T15:14:00.000+05:30

A Düsseldorf publisher has cancelled print of a murder mystery because of fears that its subject matter – an honour killing – would put employees at risk for Islamist retaliation, according to news magazine Der Spiegel.

The Droste Verlag was supposed to begin selling the book, entitled Wem Ehre gebührt, or “To Whom Honour is Due,” in September. But shortly before it went to print, the publisher removed it from its list because author Gabriele Brinkmann (pseudonym W.W. Domsky), refused to censor certain passages, the magazine said.

Owner Felix Droste apparently had the book examined for content that could potentially endanger the security of his family and employees, and asked Brinkmann to change end passages.

Brinkmann told daily Bild am Sonntag on Sunday that she was outraged by the decision. “It’s a scandal for a publisher to tuck its tail between its legs,” she said. But Droste said publisher have to be careful about what they market.

“One knows after the latest Mohammed cartoons that one can’t publish sentences or drawings that defame Islam without assuming a security risk,” he told Der Spiegel.

thelocal.de

Google admits mistake in blocking Pirate Bay

2009-10-04T17:43:00.001+05:30

US search engine giant Google has admitted that an internal error was behind the blocking of Swedish file-sharing site The Pirate Bay on Friday. Google users looking to find the home page of popular bit torrent file-sharing The Pirate Bay were met with a message explaining that the site had been blocked due to a so-called "cease and desist" legal letter from a copyright holder.

Google has now issued a statement declaring that The Pirate Bay should never have been blocked and a spokesperson explained to CNet News that the whole episode was a regrettable mistake. "Google received a letter which erroneously listed Thepiratebay.org and that is why the address was removed from Google's search index," the firm explained.

The search engine giant initially referred to its decision to US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) passed in 1998 but later explained that an internal error was to blame.

The letter was sent from a company making pornographic films, trade magazine Computer Sweden reports. "Cease and desist" letters are a common feature of the US legal system and are sent to private people or companies and include the threat of legal action if action to end a certain operation or behaviour is not taken without delay.

thelocal.se

14-year-old boy arrested for assaulting 9-year-old

2009-10-04T17:39:00.000+05:30

A 14-year-old boy has been arrested for assaulting and seriously harming a 9-year-old-girl last month in North Rhine-Westphalia. The girl had been found critically injured near her home.

According to police on Saturday, the boy was spotted by witnesses in the area of the assault and had traces of fibre from the 9-year-old Kassandra’s clothes on him. The boy attends a school for emotionally disturbed youngsters was friends with the girl’s siblings and knew the girl as well.

The boy came to the attention of the investigators not long after Kassandra was found September 15 in critical condition though with no signs of sexual abuse. The day before she had attended a Catholic youth group meeting but did not return home, prompting a call to the police from her worried parents.

Using search dogs, police found Kassandra in a closed gully 1.5 metres below ground. Police say Kassandra’s condition has improved and that she will not suffer any permanent physical impairment from the assault although she is not yet ready to talk to investigators.

thelocal.de

Wayward elk ‘Knutschi’ found dead

2009-10-03T10:10:00.000+05:30

Germany's only known wild elk was found dead in the sate of Hesse on Friday, only days after officials tranquilised and moved the animal. The Hessian Environment Ministry announced on Friday that people collecting mushrooms in the Reinhardswald region found the elk – known as a moose in North America – which had been dubbed ‘Knutschi’ by the German media. The cause of death has not yet been determined.
“We are very sad. This wandering elk really fascinated people in Hesse,” a ministry spokesman said. Knutschi’s untimely demise come three days after state wildlife officials tranquilised and transported the elk away from the A7 motorway, where rubbernecking drivers had been slowing traffic after catching sight of him.
The young bull, some two metres tall and weighing 400 kilos, is thought to have come to Germany from neighbouring Poland or the Czech Republic. He wandered through Saxony, Thuringia and parts of Lower Saxony before perishing in Hesse.
Germany has a poor record dealing with wild animals returning to the country after they had been hunted to extinction in the last few centuries.
In June 2006, Bavarian officials shot and killed Bruno, a brown bear they deemed “troublesome” for coming over the Alps from Italy. And many German hunters are vehemently opposed to the return of wolves, which have resettled in eastern parts of the country in recent years.

thelocal.de

Swedish pupils speak out on bully teachers

2009-10-03T10:09:00.001+05:30

An annual survey conducted by Sweden’s biggest children’s magazine – Kamratposten - posed the question: ’What do you think of your teacher?” 16 percent of school children thought they were bullies.

The magazine quizzed over 11,000 children between the ages of 8 and 14. The majority of children liked their teacher or liked them most of the time. But it also revealed some negative aspects of classroom behaviour - with one in six students saying they felt they had been bullied by their teacher. "He said that I was slow, like a tortoise," was one comment from an 8-year-old.
”When I said that I wanted to be a vet she said I'd never become one because I was so bad in class, " an 11-year-old added. The figures are worrying but not surprising, Kamratpostens editor-in-chief Ola Lindholm said. ”I would have hoped that the figures would have been lower - maybe 10-11 percent," he added.
"But it is a well known fact that there are teachers out there that violate the integrity of their pupils." Lecturer Mats Olsson from the anti-bullying organisation Friends says it is a common issue in Swedish schools today. "We see and hear about this when we visit schools," he told The Local on Friday.
"The most common problem is when teachers favour certain pupils over others. This can make some of them feel bullied and feel bad about school."
"We always take such matters up with the principle," Olsson added.
The study also revealed that 30 percent of children believe that teachers treat boys and girls differently. Both sexes stated that girls received more positive attention.
"There are different rules in the classroom when it comes to boys and girls, and what is the norm when it comes to their behaviour," Olsson says.

Mats Olsson called for a broader debate to bring focus on the issue.
"We want to see more discussion about it from the teacher organisations to the school board level and among students."Eva-Lis Sirén, chair of the Swedish Teachers' Union that she would welcome the debate.

"We have ethical guidelines for teachers which we will continue to work with as well as education circles for teachers on bullying," she told The Local.

The survey also found 51 percent of kids say their teacher is funny, 16 percent think they are embarrassing and 67 percent believe that their teacher is happy in their work.

thelocal.se

Knut slapped by new girlfriend

2009-09-30T13:54:00.001+05:30

Just a few days after a brown bear suddenly killed its companion before terrified onlookers in Stralsund, Berlin’s favourite polar bear Knut had an altercation with his new female companion Gianna, daily Der Tagesspiegel reported on Tuesday.

Shortly after the two polar bears were put in the same enclosure, Gianna swiped at Knut, but he was unharmed, the paper said. “It happened the way we expected,” Berlin Zoo bear expert Heiner Klös told the paper. “Knut was very shy, the Munich bear clearly has the dirndl on,” he added, referring to the traditional female dress in Bavaria.

After Gianna, who is on loan from Munich’s Hellabrunn Zoo, showed Knut who would be in charge, the two three-year-olds got along peacefully.

Several zookeepers were standing by in case things went awry, and were especially watchful after the Stralsund incident, the paper said.

Knut, hand-raised after his mother Tosca abandoned him and his twin brother, has had more than eight million visitors. His brother died, but Knut went on to inspire countless toys, books, an animated film and even appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair.

The Berlin Zoo has garnered criticism for Knut’s upbringing, with some saying he was fixated on humans. Before meeting Gianna, he had never seen another polar bear. Indeed, bear keeper Klös said he “reacted with total surprise and shock the first time he saw the big female bear in his enclosure.”

The two bears were introduced early in the morning before the zoo opened and were separated after some 90 minutes.

Gianna, who originally came to Germany from Italy, is Knut’s intended mate. If the two Arctic omnivores take a liking to one another, zookeepers hope they will mate upon reaching sexual maturity in another two years.

But Gianna, named after Italian rock singer Gianna Nannini, has a history of romantic antagonism – she spurned her last intended mate, 12-year-old Yoghi, and had to move in with Knut’s grandmother Lisa (32) at the Hellabrunn Zoo.

thelocal.de

Elite Swedish soldiers blow up wrong house

2009-09-30T13:48:00.000+05:30

A group of elite Swedish soldiers made a colossal error during a demolition exercise at the weekend when they blasted their way into the wrong house. The incident took place during what was supposed to be a routine training operation, for a group of soldiers from Sweden's Life Regiment Hussars (K3), an elite cavalry division involved in intelligence and paratrooper training.

On its website, the Life Regiment Hussars characterize themselves as “light, highly mobile units with substantial strike power.” Among other credentials, the Hussars also boast of having “long experience in the area of intelligence.”

But something nevertheless went wrong for the soldiers involved in an exercise which took place in Röjdåfors in northern Värmland in west central Sweden, near the Norwegian border, according to the Nya Wermlands-Tidningen (NWT).

The mission, performed in conjunction with the Swedish home guard (Hemvärnet), called for the soldiers to capture a house.

However, the elite unit somehow managed to hit the wrong target, and instead bombarded a house located about 200 metres from their intended target.

Collateral damage included blown out doors and window frames, before the soldier's discovered their mistake. “I think we've already cleaned up after ourselves. And we have, of course, contacted the owner. There's no hard feeling between us,” K3's public relations officer told the newspaper.

The K3 soldiers are prized as one of Sweden's elite military units and have recently completed training drills in both France and Germany, including exercises performed in collaboration with German paratroopers in Bavaria.

thelocal.se

Russia's 'Hitler skull' belonged to a woman

2009-09-29T15:26:00.001+05:30

A skull fragment thought to come from Adolf Hitler is in fact that of an unidentified woman, according to a US study that has resurrected questions about the Nazi leader's death. The bone, bearing a bullet hole, has been held up to support the theory that Hitler shot himself and took cyanide in his Berlin bunker as Soviet troops approached in April 1945.

Doubts about the chain of events - and even speculation that Hitler got away - have persisted for decades. The debates made the symbolic importance of the skull piece, which went on display for the first time at Moscow's Federal Archive in 2000, all the greater - a unique war trophy which gave the Russians enormous pride.

In addition to the skull, Soviet troops said they exhumed Hitler's jawbone and that the bone's identity was confirmed through his dental assistants. Now, professors at the University of Connecticut say they have debunked the story of the skull, arguing that examinations show it belonged to a woman, probably between the age of 20 and 40.

Archeologist and bone specialist Nick Bellantoni says he immediately suspected the bone belonged to a woman because of its structure. His partner on the project, Professor Linda Strausbaugh, director of the university's applied genetics center, agreed to test for DNA if a good sample could be found.

So Bellantoni made the trip to Moscow, where he was allowed to obtain the DNA sample, and at the end of May the team got to work in the university's laboratory in Storrs, Connecticut. It took them three days, working with two forensic scientists from the office of the New York City chief medical examiner, to complete their tests.

Initially they feared the state of the skull would make it impossible to obtain results.

"All we had exposure to was photographs. What was exposed to us was the side that was charred. Fire is one of the real enemies of getting DNA evidence out," Strausbaugh told AFP.

The skull had been stored at room temperature which had also damaged the DNA. However, the inside of the fragment was not burned and "the amounts we had were well within the range that you would expect to get DNA samples from," she said.

"What the DNA told us is that it was female," Strausbaugh said.

The revelation is featured in a new documentary airing on the History Channel called "Hitler's Escape," which revisits the idea that Hitler may have escaped from Berlin. But Strausbaugh says her testing proves nothing about Hitler's fate – only that the skull purported to be his belonged to someone else.

Holocaust historian Christopher Browning, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said that the results of tests on the skull would not change the consensus that Hitler died in the bunker.

Historians do not rely solely on accounts by Soviet troops, he said. They also have investigations from the period, including one by British intelligence officers who collected corroborating evidence from witnesses about the corpses of Hitler and Eva Braun.

"None of it is depending on the alleged validity of a body or skull in Russian possession," Browning said. "When the History Channel says this throws in doubt everything we've known since 1945, that's false."

The Soviets reported digging up and moving several times remains thought to be those of Hitler, Braun or propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and his wife and children, Brown said.

"From the point of view of archival integrity, (the skull) has no standing whatsoever," he said. In fact, some Russian officials and scientists have also expressed doubts about the skull fragment.

Strausbaugh said the historical value of the bone and other pieces of physical evidence collected by the Soviets was undermined by sloppy procedures. "The problem with many of these samples is they haven't been archived, they haven't been stored properly," she said.

If additional DNA samples from family members of those who died in the bunker could be obtained, the relics might tell their story. But for now, the identity of the skull in the Moscow archives is set to remain an enigma, Strausbaugh said.

thelocal.de

Trial starts for Sweden's largest insider scandal

2009-09-29T15:25:00.001+05:30

District court proceedings kicked off in Stockholm on Monday for what has been called the largest insider trading scandal in Swedish history. Five men stand accused of serious insider trading crimes. The prime suspects are two men referred to in the Swedish press as the Cevian-man, age 36, and the Nordea-man, age 37.

One additional suspect stands accused of being an accessory to serious insider trading crimes.

The accusations are grounded in a number of securities deals made with around 20 companies. According to the prosecution, the deals were conducted on the basis of insider information, generating an estimated profit of 130 million kronor ($18.4 million).

The Cevian-man and the Nordea-man are also charged with serious tax crimes which, like insider trading crimes, carry a possible penalty of several years jail time.

On his passage into the courthouse, the Cevian-man stopped to respond to questions from the media, “I am here to prove that I haven't earned a penny from insider information and I intend to show that,” he told the TT news agency.

When asked how he intended to prove his innocence, the man responded,

“You will have to see during the trial.”

The 36 year-old also denied claims from the prosecution that the accused discussed their illegal affairs in coded language, making reference to a form of terminology used throughout the financial industry in which every project is given a special name. District court proceedings are expected to continue into February of next year.

thelocal.se

Greens vow to oppose U-turn on German nuclear phaseout

2009-09-28T18:37:00.000+05:30

Green groups vowed on Monday to hit the streets if Chancellor Angela Merkel's victorious new coalition keeps its campaign promise to reverse Germany's scheduled exit from nuclear power.

The world's worst nuclear accident at Chernobyl in 1986 turned a large part of German public opinion against atomic nuclear power, and in 2000 the government of Gerhard Schröder decided to mothball all reactors by 2020. Shipments of radioactive waste from nuclear plants to a processing plant in Gorleben in western Germany regularly attract huge protests, and Germany has no permanent storage site.

Currently, Germany's 17 reactors supply almost 30 percent of its electricity, with coal and gas producing more than 50 percent and renewables such as solar and wind power some 12 percent.

Germany is uneasy about volatile gas and oil imports from Russia and the Middle East, and wants to be at the forefront of global efforts to reduce carbon emissions ahead of a crunch UN climate summit in Copenhagen in December. As a result, Berlin has set some ambitious targets. By 2020, the country aims to cut its carbon emissions by 40 percent compared to 1990 levels, and to have renewables produce a third of Germany's power needs in the same timeframe.

But Merkel's CDU/CSU conservatives and their new coalition partners, the Free Democrats (FDP), believe the life of some of the nuclear plants should be extended, forming what she calls a "bridge" until renewables can fill the gap.

And fresh from her victory, Merkel on Monday vowed to press ahead with what her party had promised, telling reporters: "I don't intend today to go back on what was in our election campaign."

It is clear, however, that they will have a struggle on their hands, with a parliamentary head of the Greens, Renate Künast, vowing that the party would oppose a nuclear U-turn both in parliament and with demonstrations.

Künast, whose party was in coalition with Schröder's Social Democrats (SPD) when the nuclear exit was approved by parliament, told the Leipziger Volkszeitung on Monday that opposing any change was her "top priority."

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the SPD's chancellor candidate who wants to become the party's new parliamentary head, said on Sunday night that he also would fight any reversal tooth and nail.

Mathias Edler, a spokesman for ecologist pressure group Greenpeace, said a "clear majority" of voters, and even most CDU voters, oppose extending Germany's dependence on nuclear power.

"If they do it, they will open a whole can of worms in German society again, it is clear," Edler told AFP. "People will go out on the streets, there is no other option." Fellow pressure groups Ausgestrahlt and BUND agreed: "If the new government intends to bow to the demands of the nuclear lobby, then they should expect stiff resistance."

Utility firms, whose stock prices rose on Monday following the election result, were circumspect."We are ready for talks. But for now we are just going to wait and see what happens," a spokesman for ENBW said.

thelocal.de

Details emerge on helicopter heist suspects

2009-09-28T18:25:00.000+05:30

Swedish police have taken six people into custody for their suspected involvement in last week's spectacular helicopter robbery of a Stockholm cash depot.

The suspects include a 34-year-old from Norrtälje, a 38-year-old from Stockholm, a 36-year-old man from Enskede in southern Stockholm, a 31-year-old man from Hägersten and a 29-year-old man from Norsborg, south of Stockholm.

All are suspected of aggravated robbery for their role in the Hollywood-style robbery at the G4S cash depot in Västberga south of Stockholm early Wednesday morning.

A 21-year-old man from Bagarmossen has also been taken into custody on suspicions of being an accessory to grand robbery, according to documents submitted to the Södertorn District Court. The 34-year-old suspect is a former student of Roslagen Helikopterflyg, a Swedish helicopter training academy in Norrtälje, north of Stockholm.

“He completed his education here around fifteen years ago, but he has never worked for us,” said head instructor Christer Öhlund to the TT news agency. According to Öhlund, the 34-year-old only attained a private flying certificate. He does not have certification to fly as a professional pilot.

The man has had regular contact with the training academy, routinely hiring a helicopter for private flights. The last time he did so was in summer of this year.

According to flight instructor, the school was planning to hire the suspect as a photographer for the company, but the plans were never carried out. Öhlund was shocked to discover that the man was being held on suspicions of involvement in the robbery.

“I don't think he's guilty. I can't imagine that he could have done this. He's just too nice and personable to have carried out such a thing,” he said. Attorney Leif Silbersky is defending the 34-year-old and hinted at how his client was feeling following his arrest.

“A person never feels good when they are arrested and consider themselves to be completely innocent,” he said. Interrogations have been held for the suspects, according to the National Police Board (Rikspolisstyrelsen).

The Swedish police remain tight-lipped regarding any additional information, and refuse to reveal whether the suspect knew one another before the robbery was carried out. District prosecutor Leif Görts is due to announce on Wednesday at noon whether he plans to request that the suspects be remanded in custody.

thelocal.se

Islamists make threats ahead of election

2009-09-26T19:19:00.000+05:30

German authorities have uncovered a new video threatening attacks against the country over its military engagement in Afghanistan ahead of this weekend's pivotal elections, according to officials in Berlin.

The new internet video threats are believed to come from the Taliban, an Interior Ministry spokesman said, and demand that Germany withdraw its troops from the war-torn country.

They followed a separate message that emerged earlier Friday from al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden with German subtitles demanding that Europeans leave Afghanistan. Bin Laden's message came hours after a third German-language video in a week surfaced by another al-Qaida militant, Abu Talha al-Almani - or "The German."

In the new video, a man calling himself "Ajjub" and speaking in German said: "Because of your commitment here against Islam, attacking Germany has become an attractive idea for us, the mujahideen," according to the spokesman. The militant said it was only a matter of time "before jihad destroys German walls."

Photos of famous German sites and events then appear, including Brandenburg Gate, Munich's Oktoberfest beer festival and Cologne Cathedral. Politicians, including Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and Defence Minister Franz-Josef Jung, are also shown, the spokesman said.

A German investigator quoted by Der Spiegel magazine's internet site described the threat as "the most concrete" against the country because of the places and people singled out. The magazine said it was the first known German-language video from the Taliban. But the ministry spokesman insisted the recording "does not change our evaluation of the risk of an attack."

Germans have already been shaken by bin Laden's message and other videos. Abu Talha al-Almani's video amounted to an "abstract threat" against the country, the German government said. The recording, posted Thursday, came days after the Al-Qaida operative threatened attacks in Germany over its military mission in Afghanistan.

Germany votes Sunday in an election to choose the coalition that must decide how long to keep the country's more than 4,000 troops deployed as part of NATO's mission in Afghanistan.

thelocal.de

Police in traffic camera scheme talks

2009-09-26T19:18:00.001+05:30

Sweden's National Police Board want to conduct a pilot scheme using traffic cameras with automatic number plate recognition. But the question of integrity for drivers must first be overcome. From the beginning of 2010, the tax stamp on Swedish car registration plates will disappear in a move that is hoped to save 70 milion Swedish crowns in administrative costs.

In order to check quickly whether a vehicle is taxed or not, the National Police Board are discussing the use of traffic cameras linked to a car registration system. "The road traffic register is efficient," superintendent Björn Lidö told the Sydsvenskan newspaper. "We can see if a car is taxed or a driving ban has been issued, among other things."

At the same time the police want to look into what other types of registers can be linked to the system, such as vehicles of interest to criminal investigations. "But we also have to consider the question of integrity and therefore we must have discussions with lawyers," Lidö added.

Traffic police in England, America and Ireland use the ANPR camera system but Germany closed down its system last year. Norway is expected to test the cameras but Denmark has rejected the possibility of an introduction.

thelocal.se

Helicopter heist: millions offered as reward for tips

2009-09-25T17:35:00.001+05:30

Stockholm police have received more than 300 tips from the general public in connection with the helicopter heist in Västberga on Wednesday. Security firm G4S has offered a 7 million kronor ($1 million) reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

According to Ulf Göranzon at Stockholm police an "arrest could be just around the corner but could also occur later." He is however certain that the police will find the perpetrators of the audacious robbery.

"Of course we will (find them), sooner or later," he said. The police have appealed for information from other countries and are continually exchanging details via Interpol and Europol. "This is not exceptional for this case, this is done on a daily basis," Göranzon pointed out.

Despite the wave of information coming in from sources around the city, the police have appealed for more information from the public. Of particular interest is information about the helicopter's movements before and after the robbery. The Swedish police have assigned 100 officers to work with the case.

The main part of the investigation is currently to sort through the wealth of information provided by the public in the hope of finding clues to lead the police to the gang.

Göranzon rejected the implication that the police have not managed to turn up any concrete leads in the case and responded that at this stage of the investigation it is best not to publicise any information gathered. Göranzon was unwilling to comment on media reports that a gang consisting of organized criminals from the former Yugoslavia was behind the attack.

"We do not intend to limit ourselves to these type of allegations so early in the investigation, we plan to work broadly and without presumptions. We have also seen these types of crimes undertaken by people who live in Sweden."

Jerzy Sarnecki, a professor in criminology at Stockholm University, believes that the chances of catching the robbers, who he thinks are Swedish, are decent. "Those that have planned this robbery are very often those that are actually involved, partly because they are capable of it, partly because it is the most rewarding psychologically, and finally because they want to keep control over their investment."

Sarnecki points out that serious robberies are usually solved in 50 percent of cases. "In this case the chances are perhaps slightly higher as there are so many involved. It increases the chances of doing something stupid, like starting to spend the money or to get drunk and talk."

Sarnecki also pointed out that as the case represents such an enormous loss of prestige for the Swedish police, massive resources will be allocated in the hunt for the gang. As for the money swiped in the heist, Sarnecki predicts the chances of recovering any of the funds to be very slight.

thelocal.se

Taxi driver forces man to enter airport naked after fare dispute

2009-09-25T17:27:00.000+05:30

A Leipzig man was forced to traipse through the Munich Airport naked after an enraged taxi driver took all of his possessions when he couldn’t pay his entire fare, daily Bild reported on Friday. The chef Frank E. had been in Munich to visit a nightclub on Monday for business. On his way back to the airport in a taxi, he realised he only had €60 in cash, which did not cover the €64.20 fare the driver demanded.

“He took both my mobile phones, all of my identification and my keys,” he told the paper. “Then I had to strip down naked. He also took my underwear and glasses!” At 2 am Frank E. approached a cleaning crew in Terminal 2 at the airport with only a newspaper to cover himself.

“They made a kind of skirt for me out of a trash bag,” he told the paper. Police at the airport later gave him jogging pants and a t-shirt for his flight home. The taxi driver has not yet been found, but the authorities are investigating the incident as theft.

thelocal.de

Swedish nurse suffers burns after hand gel rub

2009-09-24T18:44:00.001+05:30

A nurse at an eldercare home in Norrbotten in northern Sweden was left with burns to her left hand as residual traces of an alcohol-based hand disinfectant caught fire while pushing a trolley. One theory being entertained for the unfortunate incident is that the static electricity generated by the nurse in touching the metal trolley caused sparks to fly and the disinfectant to burn.

"I have never heard of anything like this," Åsa Sjöström at the Swedish Work Environment Authority (Arbetsmiljöverket) to local newspaper, Norrlänska Socialdemokraten.

The nurse, who is employed at an eldercare home in Vittangi in Kiruna in the far north of Sweden, escaped from her ordeal with only minor burns to her left hand. The nurse was able to extinguish the fire herself with the help of her jeans waistcoat.

Before the alcohol based disinfectant began burning in a blue flame over her hand, the nurse had stroked a dog and received a visit from a patient bearing synthetic trousers.

These are the factors supporting the theory that static electricity caused the disinfectant to set alight. "This is what we think after our layman's assessment of the incident. Our security staff and the nurse in charge of medical issues will continue the investigation," said Per-Erik Baas at Kiruna county council.

The council has reported the matter to the Work Environment Authority and has also contacted the manufacturer of the product, Lehaga Kemi AB in Helsingborg.

The product is on sale at state pharmacy Apoteket and is considered one of the more effective weapons in the fight against the spread of swine flu. Neither Apoteket nor Lehaga Kemi have ever heard of any similar incident involving the disinfectant.

thelocal.se

Germans footing the bill for big pharma's drugs

2009-09-24T18:37:00.000+05:30

German politicians say they’re concerned about the spiralling cost of health care. But as Hannah Cleaver reports, they also appear content to let pharmaceutical firms charge far more for medication that is cheaper elsewhere.

Germans pay considerably more for many of their medicines compared to patients in other industrial nations due to a lack of effective price controls, according to a study released last week. And the co-author of the report, Professor Ulrich Schwabe from the University of Heidelberg’s pharmacology institute, told The Local on Wednesday he feared there might never be a mechanism to regulate the cost of new drugs in Germany – a situation unique in Europe.

“Prices in Germany are higher than in other countries in both the innovative and generic markets,” said Schwabe. He cited the example of vaccines offering protection against the human papilloma virus (HPV), which is a major cause of cervical cancer. The medication, Sanofi Pasteur MSD’s Gardasil and GlaxoSmithKline’s Cervarix, costs €477 in Germany, compared with just €247 in the United States and €314 in Switzerland.

The Swiss price was only reached after the government there slashed the companies’ initial price suggestion of more than €500, he said. The problem in Germany is that a number of mechanisms which can be used by the authorities and statutory insurance companies to reduce drug prices do not apply when a novel drug is brought onto the market.

There have been two attempts to cut the exorbitant costs of drugs in recent years, but on both occasions they were scuppered by the efforts of pharmaceutical firms.

Lobbyists scupper reform

The idea was to introduce a ‘positive list’ of medicines that have been proven to work and would be a cost-effective option for the country’s statutory health insurers. But Schwabe, who was the head of a committee asked by the German Health Ministry in 2003 to look into the matter, said it was defeated by intensive lobbying from the pharmaceutical industry.

“We had meetings for three years,” he told The Local. “The list was brought into the first draft of a bill to be introduced to parliament.” But Schwabe said Health Minister Ulla Schmidt was told by the then-opposition conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) that they would block the initiative in the upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat. It was summarily was dropped.

“That was clearly lobby work by the pharma industry,” he said, adding the idea of a ‘positive list’ had been previously raised and dashed in the 1990s under a CDU-led government.

“Now I think no government will try to do this again,” he said. And Schimdt does indeed appear resigned to doing nothing more than admonish the drug companies against bilking Germans too much. “The irresponsible pricing policies of some producers at the expense of the insured has to end,” she told daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung last week.

But Ulrich Voderwülbecke from the German Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies – which represents the interests of the industry – told The Local there were a number of factors that have to be taken into consideration when looking at the price of a drug.

This includes the manufacturer’s price, the payment made to wholesalers, and the amount paid to pharmacists, plus in Germany a value added tax (VAT) of 19 percent. Drug market expert Voderwülbecke said these contribute to the price paid by patients and the wide variation in cost in different countries.

VAT-free?

The VAT charged on medicines is a sore point, with most players in the system wanting to see Germany follow the example of many other EU countries by reducing or removing it entirely.

Even so, Voderwülbecke said the freedom for producers to set prices in Germany was heavily limited by government policies that were implemented by state health insurers, as well as being limited by competition.

“The producers price their drugs within a range which is already set by the market and national regulations, so that they fit into the different markets,” he said. “A drug is priced so that it fits within the range of competitor drugs already on that market.”

Florian Lenz, spokesman for the GKV-Spitzenverband association representing the state health insurers that cover the vast majority of Germans, said 75 percent of prescriptions are for drugs included in price-limiting arrangements (Festbeträge) whereby drugs will only be paid for by statutory insurers if they fall within the range of other similar drugs on the market.

But this 75 percent of drugs prescribed only accounts for 45 percent of overall costs, he said – showing how the price of medicine soars as soon as they are freed from such restrictions.

Lenz also mentioned the idea of a ‘positive list’ and said that Health Minister Schmidt could not muster a parliamentary majority to pass the relevant legislation, at least partly due to lobby work by the pharma industry.

Creating a market for re-importers

The wide price differences between countries within the European Union has resulted in a re-import industry, where suppliers buy drugs at low prices in countries such as Portugal and Greece, and sell them in places like Germany and Sweden, where prices are higher. The patient gets drugs at a reduced price even after the re-importers have made their profit.

This industry is highly regulated, and those involved are licensed to do so. But it is despised by the pharmaceutical industry, as it eats into their profits.

Thilo Bauroth, chairman of the VAD association representing German re-importers, told The Local: “We deal with around €2 billion a year in Germany, and of course it could be more. I do not see a danger to our industry from any European-wide price harmonisation.”

Presently, it seems only a concerted political effort supported by the public could ever hope to force down drug prices in Germany. But it remains doubtful whether this public pressure will ever materialise, since most Germans covered by state health insurance often aren’t billed for specific medicines.

And Lenz from the state insurers’ association said Germans appear content to buy over-the-counter drugs such as common painkillers from pharmacists at prices far above what they could from mail-order operations importing the same medication from neighbouring countries.

“There has been no fixed pricing for these things for several years, but you can walk down the street and see the pharmacists all with nearly the same high prices,” he said. “Perhaps it is a cultural question.”

thelocal.de

Münster Zoo raising rhino by hand after mother attacks

2009-09-23T00:30:00.000+05:30

Officials at the Münster Zoo have said they will raise the zoo’s latest addition, a baby rhino, by hand after her mother became aggressive just moments after birth.

The 18-year-old mother “Emmi,” who has already killed two of her previous calves, began pushing the yet-unnamed newborn into a corner on Sunday. Just four minutes into her young life, zoo staff intervened and the calf was separated from her mother relatively unharmed.

Münster Zoo director Jörg Adler told daily Süddeutsche Zeitung that the baby rhinoceros has responded well to bottle feeding. “Now she gets a feeding of a special milk formula many times a day,” zoo biologist Dirk Wewers said.

Zoo director Adler has already warned that she will not become another Knut, the famous polar bear raised by his handler, the late Thomas Dörflein, at the Berlin Zoo.

“We will give her as much contact to the rhino world as possible and only as much human contact as is necessary,” he said. For now, the 58-kilogramme calf is living under two heat-lamps and is constantly petted by her handlers.

“Touch is extremely important for these animals,” said Wewers. Only an average of three rhinos are born at European zoos each year.

thelocal.de

Professional Swedish clown accused of tax fraud

2009-09-23T00:25:00.000+05:30

A 55-year-old professional clown from southern Sweden has been accused of committing serious tax crimes totaling around 700,000 kronor ($100,000).

While the man works as a clown during the day, officials with Sweden's National Economic Crimes Bureau Day, are hoping to help tax authorities get the last laugh after finding that the man 'displaced' hundreds of thousands of kronor.

Amongst his alleged infringements, the clown is suspected of accounting violations, obstruction of tax control checks and tax evasion between 2005 to 2007.

According to prosecutor Thomas Elofsson, the professional clown also submitted false information on his income tax filings and completely neglected to keep any books.

“The charges pertain to his business activities within one particular company. That includes his assignments as a clown and other activities,” Elofsson told the Skånska Dagbladet newspaper.

The 55-year-old entertainer also refused to hire an attorney when he was first called to a hearing on his alleged infringements.

On Monday, the prosecution submitted a proposal to the Malmö District Court to have a public defence attorney assigned to the clown.

“We are only in the introductory stages, so it's hard to say how the case will develop,” Elofsson explained. The 55-year-old runs his own business with a stake in a handful of different companies.

He and another individual have also established a partnership to keep animals. That particular collaboration ended in the submission of several police reports of forgery and bankruptcy, among other allegations.

The debts racked up by the pair totaled around half a million kronor. During the forthcoming trial, Elofsson expects that several other related crimes will be added to clown's already hefty list of infringements.

Thelocal.se

Hamm man threatens passersby with sword

2009-09-19T18:34:00.001+05:30

A 25-year-old man in the western German town of Hamm was arrested Saturday after threatening a passerby with a sword, police reported. The man waved the sword toward the head of a 24-year-old man who was passing by. The sword stopped just inches from the passerby’s head, while the man verbally threatened the passerby.

Witnesses identified the sword-wielding man and informed police. The man also had an axe standing next to the door of his apartment and the police also learned that he kept a fighting dog in his apartment.

The police sent a special commando unit to arrest the man. Two other men who were in the man’s apartment were also briefly detained before being released after authorities determined they had not been involved in the threats.

According to police, the 25-year-old was taken to a psychiatric clinic for examination.

Police found a collection of "chopping and stabbing weapons" in the man's apartment, which they secured. Saturday's incident is the latest in a string of bizarre sword attacks in Germany. In June 2008, a drunken man attacked police with a samuarai sword n Berlin, and in October of the same year, a retired man was arrested in Berlin after attacking a neighbour with a samurai sword.

thelocal.de

Sweden wants EU 'snus' tobacco ban to go up in smoke

2009-09-19T18:33:00.001+05:30

As countries across the EU curb smoking in public, Sweden is fighting to get a European-wide ban lifted on 'snus,' a moist tobacco popular across Scandinavia that is sucked rather than chewed or smoked.

The small, teabag-like pouches, also called moist snuff, are used by nearly one million Swedes. Placed under the user's lip, they quickly deliver a nicotine rush to the blood and a strong salt and herbs flavour in the mouth.

While cigarette sales have tumbled by 50 percent in Sweden over the past 30 years, snus is on the up, with sales rising from some 2,500 tonnes a year in the 1970s to almost 7,500 tonnes in 2008.

That equals some 800 sachets a year for the average Swedish snus user. It is also popular in other parts of the Nordic region. In Norway, outside of the EU, some 400,000 people use it on a regular basis while 100,000 Finns have to travel to Sweden to stock up, official data shows.

Sweden is the only EU member state where sales are permitted after it obtained an exemption when the European Union banned snus in 1992. With many member states also banning smoking in public places, tobacco industry giants are looking to tap into this potentially lucrative market. Swedish Match, the number one snus manufacturer in the Nordic country, reported sales of 660 million euros ($965 million) in Sweden in 2008.

The snus ban could be set for review in 2010 and Swedish Match's head of public affairs, Patrick Hildingsson, said that would provide "a window of opportunity" to make their case for legalisation elsewhere.

In February, Philip Morris International set up a joint venture with Swedish Match and last year British American Tobacco snapped up Sweden's second-biggest cigarette maker, Fiedler & Lundgren.

"We want to expand our business and it goes well along with the new smoking regulations," explained Hildingsson. While snus has started to be gradually rolled out in the United States, South Africa and Canada, the ban remains in place across Europe.

In its role at the helm of the EU presidency, Sweden is in prime position to make its case and Stockholm has intensified talks with the European Commission and other member states on the subject.

"As the presidency, you're not supposed to put things on the agenda that can be seen as national priorities ... But on the other hand, we cannot rule out that this issue will come up in some form during other discussions," Swedish Trade Minister Ewa Bjoerling told AFP in a telephone interview.

She argued that other forms of "oral" tobacco are allowed to be sold within the EU and points out that her country has one of the lowest rates of smoking. But Sweden and the snus makers will have to battle Brussels to get their product to market as health experts warn consuming tobacco in this way is dangerous and highly addictive.

"There are strong suspicions that mouth and pancreatic cancers and also cardiovascular disease increase for people that use snus," said Anders Ahlbom, a professor at Sweden's Karolinska Institute.

"We've managed to save 400 million Europeans from snus. Why bring it in just because the tobacco industry wants to?" he asked. Sweden's Institute for Public Health published a report in May arguing there was "strong scientific proof that (snus) has negative effects on health."

thelocal.se

Abandoned Nazi autobahn listed as historic monument in Bavaria

2009-09-18T18:40:00.001+05:30

"Route 46," an abandoned stretch of the Third Reich's planned national motorway has just been placed under a preservation thanks to the lobbying of a Bavarian nature protection official. On a walk through the forests of Gmünden am Main, Dieter Stockmann points out crumbling bridges, overpasses and heavily overgrown road cuts and embankments only vaguely recognisable as human constructions. Scores of relics from the “forgotten motorway” can be found in the area, some of which have just been declared listed monuments due to the perseverance of the regional environmental official.

During the Nazi era, the isolated region was home to one of the most important work sites of the Reichsautobahn, a Weimar Republic infrastructure idea co-opted by the Nazis, who had plans to create a network of high-speed motorways across the country. Between 1936 and 1939, a 30-kilometre stretch of land, known as Route 46, was cleared to serve as part of the intended north-south connection which would have run from Hamburg to Lake Constance. Up to 6,000 workers were employed on the building site.

When the Second World War broke out, work was suspended though sections of the motorway were only lacking a concrete road surface.

After the war, Route 46 was abandoned entirely. Today’s Würzburg-Fulda motorway runs a considerable distance to the east.

Construction never continued due decisions made by the motorway architects, who tried to integrate roads into the landscape in the most harmonious manner possible. They felt motorways should not carve through the landscape as they do today, but add to it and create an enjoyable experience for drivers, Stockmann said.

The consequences of this aesthetic can be seen in audacious stretches of road with narrow curves and steep gradients. The Gräfendorfer Hang section includes repeated 90 degree curves with a gradient of 7.8 percent.

“In the winter no trucks would have been able to make it,” Stockmann said.

In order to succeed in placing Route 46 under a preservation order, Stockmann had to a lot of convincing. Local politicians didn’t want reminders of the Nazi past, and some feared that the section could become a pilgrimage site for neo-Nazis.

Stockmann believes these fears are unfounded.

“Route 46 is rather a symbol of the collapse of (the Nazi) ideology,” he said, adding he has not met a single neo-Nazi on one of his tours, which he advertises online, in the annual Spessart’s Nature Park programme and in a self-published book.

Residents of the economically underdeveloped region have gradually warmed to the idea of the old motorway as a tourist attraction, though. More municipalities are reflecting upon ways to make the motorway more accessible to visitors.

“A great walking path could run along the section, with information boards – a kind of motorway nature trail, if you like,” said Robert Herold, Deputy Mayor of the Markt Burgsinn municipality. The only people unhappy with the turn of events seem to be local hunters, who don’t want the forest to be disturbed.

thelocal.de

Flying logs crush Swedish man's home - again

2009-09-18T18:36:00.000+05:30

Erold Sigurdsson, 65-year-old man from northern Sweden, is once again counting his blessings and picking up the pieces after a truckload of timber slammed into his house on Thursday – for the third time.

By now, Sigurdsson is familiar with the loud rumbling and violent shaking that occurs when a load of timber flies off one of the many trucks that round the bend on route 363 in front of his house in Örträsk, just south of Lycksele in north central Sweden.

On Thursday, Sigurdsson happened to be in his attic as another timber truck came around the turn, prompting a recognizable sound.

“I realized what was happening when things started rumbling and the house started shaking. All the doors were blocked by the logs so I had to wait for help,” Sigurdsson told the local Västerbottens Kuriren newspaper.

“It’s happened three times before. The first time was in 1989 and the second time the house really took a licking was about five years ago.” The driver of the truck was caught off guard by the sharp turn, causing much of the cargo to fly off the trailer and into Sigurdsson’s house.

“Erold could have been killed. I was out near the road myself about 10 minutes before the accident. The Roads Administration (Vägverket) needs to do something about that curve,” neighbour Svante Axelsson told the newspaper.

The wayward timber tore Sigurdsson’s front porch off his house, put a hole through his front door, and broke eight windows. In addition, his car was pushed up against a utility pole, crushing the vehicles roof.

But Sigurdsson didn’t let the mishap dampen his spirits, joking about what might have happened had been outside when the truck came round the bend. “Yeah, I would have probably ended up under the timber, or I would have had to run really fast. But I’m not exactly like that guy Usain Bolt,” he told the TT news agency.

thelocal.se

More freedom proposed for Sami reindeer herders

2009-09-17T15:08:00.000+05:30

Sweden’s indigenous Sami population should be granted more freedom to pursue economic activities other than reindeer herding, according to findings presented on Wednesday by a government appointed working group.

According to current laws, Sami reindeer herders are restricted from engaging in any other activities besides reindeer herding, something the working group finds out of date. Today, fewer and fewer Sami are able to support themselves by tending to reindeer and as a result, the rules governing how Sami organize themselves to manage reindeer herding need to be updated.

Thus, the proposal would also allow Sami not involved in reindeer herding to become members of one of Sweden’s 51 samebys, the administrative and financial collectives which by law have the sole right to conduct reindeer herding in Sweden. Currently, about 10 percent of Sweden’s Sami population belong to a sameby (literally ‘Sami village’ in English). In addition to the right to control reindeer herding, members of a sameby also have hunting and fishing rights within its designated area.

The government would also agree to consult with the Sami Parliament (Sametinget) when preparing legislation and regulations which would affect Sami living conditions, the working group wrote in an article published in the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper.

Sara Larsson, head of the Sami Parliament’s governing board had a mixed reaction to the proposal. “There are some good things there, but we had hoped for greater reforms which take into account the land and water rights of all Sami,” she told the TT news agency. Larsson is worried that the proposal allowing Sami not involved in reindeer herding to become members of samebys may create internal divisions within the collectives.

She is also critical of the working group for not proposing that Sweden sign on to the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, adopted by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 1989. However, Larsson praised suggestions that would allow samebys to pursue activities other than reindeer herding and would ensure that the government consult the Sami Parliament regarding pertinent legislation. An estimated 20,000 Sami live in Sweden, with the population concentrated in the far north of the country.

thelocal.se

German scientists discover a new type of dinosaur in Niger

2009-09-17T15:06:00.000+05:30

German scientists have discovered a new kind of spiny-tailed dinosaur after uncovering its skeleton in the deserts Niger. “At the time we thought we had found another dinosaur of the Jobaria variety,” recalled expedition leader Professor Ulrich Joger of the State Natural History Museum in Braunschweig.

It was more focused study of the knees that revealed the real sensation they had unearthed – a previously unknown type of dinosaur from the Sauropod family. These dinosaurs typically have four thick legs, a large head and a long neck. But this creature was given the name spinophosaurus nigeris on Wednesday because of the spines on its tail.

“Such weapons are very unusual for Sauropods,” said Joger. At an age of around 170 million years, the Spinophosaurus is particularly old, even for a dinosaur.

“The discovery is of particular importance as this dinosaur sits at the top of the Sauropod genealogical tree,” explained Joger. The discovery of the dinosaur in Africa is of particular significance, as most similar discoveries recently have been made in North America, along with some in China and Mongolia.

“With this find, Africa moves to the centre of dinosaur research. But Africa is a politically unstable continent, often making digs there particularly difficult,” added Joger.

“There was a far reaching river complex in the area, so the animals we found there were surrounded by an overwhelming presence of life.”

His project was undertaken between 2005 and 2008, mostly in the Republic of Niger. Local nomadic people from the Tuareg group showed his group where the knee bones could be found. The dig site initially exposed two skeletons, to be taken back to Germany for preparation, before the site was closed.

Unluckily for Joger’s team, however, it was a Spanish group that first got hold of one of the skeletons of this newly discovered long-necked dinosaur variety, after catching wind of the story of the knee bones.

Since then, researchers from the two countries have been working together on the specimen in Bonn and Braunschweig. As consolation for the loss of the knee bones, however, the German team uncovered another significant skeleton just a kilometre away. “We found traces of a raptor,” revealed Joger.

It had been thought that such dinosaurs could only be found in China and North America. Joger now believes there may have been a land connection between the areas, though further research will be necessary to confirm this theory.

As thanks for help in their discovery, the Braunschweig group have worked with an aid organisation to establish a school for Taureg children, including sending 20,000 school books. When the skeleton goes on show on October 21, guests from Niger will also be invited to the “Projekt Dino” exhibition in Braunschweig.

thelocal.de

New internet 'hybrid mail' service to compete with Deutsche Post

2009-09-14T16:58:00.000+05:30

German publisher Georg von Holtzbrinck has teamed up with private logistics companies to create a 'hybrid mail' service using the internet for quicker delivery at a lower cost, according to weekly news magazine WirtschaftsWoche.

According to the magazine, Berlin’s Pin Mail, Freiburg’s Arriva, Main-Post Logistik from Würzburg, and Netherlands service Post TNT are meeting this week to discuss plans to the combination of e-mail with traditional "snail mail" that could revolutionise postal services.

The meeting in Berlin on Thursday will focus on bringing the new product to all of Germany, with a focus on small and medium-sized companies.

These companies can use the online service as an alternative to Deutsche Post to electronically send bills, contract correspondence and insurance memos to letter portals, where they will be printed and delivered regionally.

“This should reduce transport costs and guarantee delivery within 24 hours nationwide,” the magazine said. Pin Mail already formed its first internet portal for uploading letters in July, and more are set to follow soon after the meeting on Thursday.

thelocal.de

Belfast house 'damaged by low-flying jet'

2009-09-14T16:57:00.001+05:30

An investigation is underway amid claims that a low-flying jet smashed roof tiles on a house near Belfast City Airport. A woman who lives under the flight path into the airport says she heard a big bang and saw around 30 tiles come off her roof yesterday afternoon.

The tiles landed in several neighbouring gardens, but nobody was injured. Belfast City Airport has vowed to investigate the matter, saying all aircraft approach the airport in accordance with strict regulations.

independent.ie

Breast cancer rate doubles among pregnant Swedish women

2009-09-14T16:55:00.000+05:30

The occurrence of breast cancer among pregnant women in Sweden has more than doubled since the 1960s, a new study shows. In 1963, 16 out of every 100,000 women in Sweden developed breast cancer during or shortly after their pregnancies. Today, the figure stands at 37 per 100,000.

The researchers attributed the increase in pregnancy-associated breast cancer in part to the postponement of childbearing to an older age. Since the 1970s, the median age of first time mothers has increased by five years, from 24 to 29 years of age.

“The increase we see is a reflection of the fact that many women choose to delay having children,” said Dr. Mats Lambe from the Karolinska Institutet, to the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper. Together with Therese Andersson, Lambe was the lead researcher in the study, the results of which have been published in the latest issue of the journal of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Pregnancy in and of itself doesn’t automatically bring about an increased risk for cancer. Rather, women actually have better protection against cancer with each child they have. However, their breast cancer symptoms can worsen compared to those exhibited by non-pregnant women, because lumps can sometimes be interpreted as pregnancy related, rather than a sign of cancer, according to SvD.

The findings suggest, therefore, that breast cancer is underdiagnosed during pregnancy and lactation.

thelocal.se

Solar panel thieves focus on rural roofs

2009-09-13T18:26:00.001+05:30

Organised gangs of thieves have become so expert in removing solar panels from rural roofs that the police force in Lower Saxony has formed a special task force to fight it. Last year a series of 30 solar panel thefts were registered in the Emsland region, causing losses of several hundred thousand euros, Der Spiegel reported this weekend.

In particular a series of thefts were noted along the A31 motorway, where many chicken production facilities have sublet their roof space for solar panels, sharing in the profit created when electricity is sold to the grid. “The facilities are easy to reach, but at the same time remote enough that the thieves are not disturbed while they work,” Lingen police spokesperson Achim van Remmerden said.

Two officers in the Emsland region are working full-time on the thefts. Up to 30 solar modules are stolen each night. “That is as many as one can fit into a small truck,” said van Remmerden. The thefts are cleverly orchestrated and the panels are always removed with what appears to be expert knowledge, he added.

Three men were arrested early in September, accused of stealing around 250 solar panels worth €200,000 from the Ruhr region. They attempted to sell the stolen modules online. The solar energy promotion association in Germany has recommended that solar panels be stamped with a unique number, and runs a register of numbers and owners. The association recommends that buyers be on the lookout for suspicious products.

“If the modules are, for example, no longer properly packed, one should be a little sceptical and inform oneself via the internet,” association spokesperson Petra Hörstmann-Jungemann said.

thelocal.de

Swedish pastor cited after family burial

2009-09-13T18:25:00.000+05:30

A pensioned Church of Sweden pastor has landed himself in hot holy water after performing a burial service for a person who was not a member of the flock. The pastor, who is 83-years-old, now stands accused of breaching church regulations after carrying out the burial service for a man from Skåne in southern Sweden who died last summer.

"There are so many rules and regulations. The problem with the church is that they do not listen. I try to be there for people who seek help and comfort," the pastor said to local newspaper Kvällsposten.

But as the deceased man was not a member of the Church of Sweden the ceremony was a civil service, although it is reported to have been conducted in a religious manner. A Church of Sweden pastor is, according to existing regulations, permitted to perform the funeral service of a non-member, but permission needs to granted by the local parish and the estate of the deceased must cover the expenses.

The Lund cathedral chapter will now consider whether these criteria have been met and are expected to rule on the case in October.

thelocal.se

Amy and Brian to tie knot in 'lovely Leitrim'

2009-09-13T18:23:00.000+05:30

Amy Huberman and Brian O' Driscoll have exclusively revealed that they've picked 'lovely Leitrim' for their wedding day.

The stunning actress-turned-author will marry Ireland's rugby hero in the prestigious Lough Rynn Castle in Mohill Co Leitrim next summer. Though remaining tight-lipped on the date, speaking exclusively to the Sunday Independent at Books 09, which she helped launch on Thursday night, an excited Huberman said: "Wedding plans are going really good. We have booked our place".

Asked about the style of celebration, she smiled before saying, "A big bash". Lough Rynn Castle can cater for 320 guests, and it is thought the couple will avail of these services. Set on 300 acres, the five- star hotel, which was the ancestral home of the Clements Family and the legendary Lord Leitrim, comprises a 42-bedroomed hotel, spa and a championship golf course designed by Nick Faldo.

A spokesperson for the hotel said that the couple were "blown away by the beauty of the setting" and the "privacy the location allows". Huberman admitted that planning her and Brian's special day will be consuming much of her time over the next few months. The celebrity couple have dating since early 2007 and got engaged in March just after she celebrated her 30th birthday and a few days after O'Driscoll captained Ireland to an historic Grand Slam victory.

It is unknown whether the couple have signed a magazine deal, though they have both said in the past, they want to keep it as low key as possible. "We're trying to make this as painless as possible. It's been manic -- but so great -- there's just been so much going on," Brian said.

While his beautiful bride-to-be, told how she wanted to avoid anything "too stuffy" and instead just wanted a big party for all their family and friends.

independent.ie

Pokemon cards taken in sandbox knife heist

2009-09-12T16:53:00.001+05:30

A nine-year-old girl was robbed at knifepoint by a group of young boys in a sandbox in Partille outside of Gothenburg in western Sweden. The booty: the girl’s collection of Pokemon cards. Two 10-year-old boys, and an as of yet unidentified playmate, threatened the girl with a knife in their bid to steal her assortment of the popular Japanese cartoon trading cards.

According to police, the boys also kicked the girl and hit her in the face.

A woman witnessed the sandbox attack from her balcony, believing at the time that the boys had simply thrown sand at the girl and pushed her to the ground, reports the Göteborgs-Posten (GP) newspaper.

But the actual course of events was much more violent, leading the girl’s mother to file a report with the police. The knife-wielding 10-year-olds and their friend will now be a case for social services. “Social services in Partille have been informed and on Friday I’ll present a report of the incident,” Anders Klinberg of the local police office’s youth task force told GP.

thelocal.se

No more mosques'

2009-09-12T16:52:00.002+05:30

Britain needs new policies to tackle issues that racists exploit, the communities secretary said Saturday, following ugly scenes outside a London mosque. Riot police arrested 10 people Friday as they intervened to quell clashes outside the mosque in Harrow, northwest London, on the anniversary of the 11 September attacks.

About 1000 mostly Muslim protestors, many with masks over their faces, were involved in running scuffles following a demonstration by a small anti-Islamic group. Communities Secretary John Denham told The Guardian newspaper that there was a need for a broader strategy from government to "undercut issues that racists try to exploit".

Ministers would in the coming weeks unveil a government programme targeted at mainly white, working class communities, he said, according to the daily. "You need to be prepared to let people's real underlying fears and concerns come out, but to be able to address them frankly and openly," he said.

He gave the example of perceptions of unfair allocation of public housing and new jobs, and hinted at changes to let local people "influence and shape" better how resources are distributed in their area.

Police said they were attacked with bricks and bottles outside Harrow Central Mosque. One person was arrested to prevent a breach of the peace, and nine others for possession of offensive weapons including bottles of bleach, a hammer and a chisel. Police moved in after a crowd of angry Muslim youths threw sticks and stones at a small group of about a dozen mostly shaven-headed protestors.

'Hopefully create violence'

Denham compared those behind the anti-Islamic protest to the 1930s British Union of Fascists. "If you look at the types of demonstrations they've organised... it looks pretty clear that it's a tactic designed to provoke and to get a response and hopefully create violence," he said.

They "have among them people who know exactly what they're doing.

"The tactic of trying to provoke a response in the hope of causing wider violence and mayhem is long established on the far-right and among extremist groups."

The demonstration in Harrow was organised by Stop Islamification of Europe, which said ahead of the demo that it planned to remain peaceful.

Stephen Gash of the SIOE — whose motto is "Racism is the lowest form of human stupidity, but Islamophobia is the height of common sense" — said before the demo: "We don't want any more mosques until all this hatred is sorted out."

But the violence erupted when they were confronted by hundreds of protestors who the police said were either members of a group called United Against Fascism, or Muslims providing support to the mosque.

Concerns about violence have been heightened by clashes last weekend at a rally against Islamic fundamentalism held by a right-wing group, the English Defence League.

More than 30 people were arrested in Birmingham, Britain's second city, when the demonstrators fought with anti-fascist campaigners.

iafrica.com

Police hunt art thieves who stole Warhol portraits

2009-09-12T16:52:00.001+05:30

A multimillion dollar collection of Andy Warhol portraits of sports superstars was stolen from a Los Angeles home. Police said the 11 colour screenprints, each 40 inches by 40 inches, were taken from businessman Richard Weisman's home sometime between 2nd and 3rd September.

Ten of the portraits feature famous athletes of the 1970s, including Muhammad Ali, golfer Jack Nicklaus, soccer star Pele, tennis champion Chris Evert and OJ Simpson. A one million US dollar reward was being offered for information leading to the return of the artwork.

independent.ie

Raising a glass at Germany's autumn wine festivals

2009-09-12T16:51:00.001+05:30

This weekend marks the beginning of Weinfest season, when cities across Germany celebrate one of the country’s oldest industries, wine making. The Local highlights the best of the Bacchanalian bashes.

Steeped in tradition, German wine festivals are a lesser-known alternative to the rollicking tents of autumn beer celebrations like Oktoberfest – but have just as much to offer.

The deceptively-titled Wurstmarkt, or Sausage Market, claims to be among the biggest festivals of its kind and has been running for 570 years. This year it will be held the second and third weekends of September in the Rhineland’s Bad Dürkheim. Vendors will serve some 150 different wines in large wine halls, old-fashioned wooden wine stands, a winegrowers’ garden and even a wine village, where smaller huts are home to tasting rooms run by various local vineyards. A fairground and circus provide entertainment for children, and beer hall style tents offer traditional German fare – including the sausage that gives the festival its name.

Across the country on the weekend of September 18-20, wine-lovers can find the Radebeul-Kötzschenbroda Herbst & Weinfest in the state of Saxony. The picturesque town in the wine growing region near Dresden puts on a wine tasting set to entertainment from around the globe. The line-up includes performances by legendary Uzbek jazz guitarist Enver Ismailov, Russian dancers, pantomime from America and many more.

As the smallest wine area in Germany, the surrounding Elbeland may not be a wine-lovers first destination, but their festival promises to live up to a long history of wine in the area, which dates back to the twelfth century. After years of neglect under the East German government, the area’s winegrowers are now seeing the fruits of redevelopment, and the festival is also a celebration of the comeback.

The same weekend, the baroque-style Castle Moritzburg in Zeitz, a town situated at the border of Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and Saxony, hosts a wine festival that will be opened by a “wine princess.” Local wine merchants and vineyards will have tasting stalls in the charming castle gardens. And in an unusual twist, the wine festival will be followed by a car show on Sunday, with a diverse range of displays and events from exhibitioners that include the army and police.

On the first weekend in October, the town of Rinteln along the Weser River hosts a smaller, more traditional wine festival in the restored market place. Surrounded by timber-framed buildings and some of the best examples of “Weser renaissance” architecture in the country, the Lower Saxony festival promises a global selection of wines to accompany local winery production. Guests can sip from their glasses under Pagoda-style tents with extra assurance – huge umbrellas will be on standby in case of rain to ensure that more than just some of the wines are dry.

thelocal.de

Fire destroys 16th century Bavarian castle

2009-09-11T07:57:00.000+05:30

A massive fire broke out in the early of hours of Thursday morning in the municipality of Ebelsbach, Bavaria, completely destroying a 16th-century castle at its centre. “At this time the cause of the fire is still unclear,” police spokesman Heiko Sauer told journalists. Local residents first reported seeing flames in the building at 4:30 am. When police arrived at the scene, the roof was already totally engulfed in flames.
More than 150 fire fighters fought the blaze. “Volunteer fire fighter units from the surrounding area were joined a private fire brigade from a large firm in Schweinfurt in trying to extinguish the blaze,” police reported. Emergency medical services, police and the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) were also on hand.The fire crew attempted to douse the fire from several angles, but had limited success, media reports said.

As the fire continued, people from the village came out onto the streets to watch. Among them were Ebelsbach Mayor Walter Ziegler, and district administrator Rudolf Handwerker, who were at the scene early in the morning.The fire was extinguished later in the morning without injuries or nearby buildings catching alight. The moated castle was built in the sixteenth century by Baron von Rotehan, which is the small town’s main landmark. The renaissance building, which includes a garden and several outbuildings, is owned by a businessman from Cologne. Police estimated the damages to be several million euros.

thelocal.de

Volvo to recall 26,000 cars due to software glitch

2009-09-10T15:03:00.000+05:30

Volvo Cars announced on Wednesday it planned to recall 26,000 cars worldwide because of faulty software which can lead to engine problems. "It's the electronic module which under certain circumstances does not work as it should. The engine doesn't start or just stops after 100 metres," Volvo spokeswoman Maria Bohlin told AFP.

"All customers will receive a letter informing them to go to a dealer and have the software updated," she added. The cars concerned are the 2008-2010 models of the S80, V70, XC60, XC70 and S80L (sold only in China), which are equipped with a T6, or six cylinder, turbo-charged engine. Of the 26,000 cars to be recalled, 12,000 are in the United States where the engine is "very common," Bohlin said, while there were "very few" in Europe.

thelocal.se

Fortified wine to prevent spread of swine flu: Church of Sweden

2009-09-07T16:04:00.000+05:30

A number of Swedish churches have decided to serve fortified wine during communion in hopes of reducing the risk of spreading swine flu, according to several media reports. Church authorities hope that fortified wine will provide better protection than light or alcohol-free wine against the spread of swine flu when the communion cup is passed around.

Karlskoga church in central Sweden has decided to reintroduce fortified wine and the issue is also being debated among parishes in Piteå in northern Sweden. “We will have a vicars meeting where we will discuss this issue. Everything points to the fact that we will decide to reintroduce fortified wine during communion,” dean Stieg Berggren told Piteå-Tidningen newspaper.

The question of whether or not to serve fortified wine remains a local one. “At the national level, we haven't made any recommendations about fortified wine,” Stefan Håkansson, press secretary at the offices of the Church of Sweden, told TT news agency. Several churches have recommended that visitors shouldn't partake of communion at all to prevent the spread of swine flu.

thelocal.se

Gabriel accuses Merkel of blocking Asse files

2009-09-07T16:02:00.000+05:30

German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel accused Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday of trying to delay clarification on the situation at controversial nuclear waste depot Asse. “It’s good when the chancellor takes an interest in Asse,” Gabriel told daily Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung. “But then she and her Christian Democratic colleagues in the federal government and her own Chancellery shouldn’t continue to come up with new ideas on how to hinder the complete surrender of files and comprehensive witness reports.”

His comments come after he and Merkel made a joint announcement on September 3 to quickly clean up the ramshackle site in Lower Saxony. Merkel told news agency DPA then that Asse, located near the town of Wolfenbüttel, would be “properly renovated” so that the nation could forget their worries over the site. “We have taken the bull by the horns,” she said.

There are currently some 126,000 barrels of radioactive waste – including some 28 kilogrammes of plutonium - stored in the former salt mine. The waste depot was taken over by the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) from the allegedly careless former proprietor Helmholtz Zentrum in January. BfS investigation has since revealed disturbing safety breaches at the site.

Radioactive waste was stored at the former salt mine between 1967 and 1978. In recent years water has threatened to leak into the facility. Meanwhile over the weekend it was revealed that there was three times as much plutonium stored there than previously thought.

Environment Minister Gabriel said that while there was “no acute danger” to the public from the radioactive material, there was, however, a “long-term danger.” He put forward three options for securing the site – moving its contents to a safer storage facility, re-securing it within the current facility, or filling the mine with cement.

thelocal.de

50,000 join anti-nuclear power march in Berlin

2009-09-06T18:36:00.001+05:30

Some 50,000 anti-nuclear protestors demonstrated in Berlin on Saturday against Germany possibly reversing a decision to abandon atomic energy and extending the life of its nuclear power plants. The marchers, backed by 400 tractors, demanded that Germany stick to its commitment to close all nuclear plants by 2020 and also called for the closure of a radioactive dump at Gorleben in eastern Germany.

The police refused to give an estimate of the crowd but organisers - ranging from the Greens to members of the Protestant church - put the figure at 50,000 people, marching from the Berlin train station to the Brandenburg Gate. The protest included a group of famers from Lower Saxony who have driven their tractors from the nuclear waste sites at Gorleben and Wolfenbüttel to the capital.

The issue of nuclear power has slowly become more prominent as the election nears and while information has been released about the poor conditions at the Asse nuclear waste site near Wolfenbüttel, as well as repeated shut-downs of some older nuclear power stations such as that at Krümmel.

Germany decided in 2000 under former chancellor Gerhard Schröder's Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens - when current German leader Angela Merkel's conservative party was in opposition - to mothball its 17 reactors by 2020.

The SPD is currently in coalition with Merkel's conservatives, but members of her CDU party want to look at extending the life of some reactors, which produce around 30 percent of German power. This view is also shared by the party that Merkel wants to govern with after the September 27 elections, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP). Opinion polls indicate the two parties will attract enough votes to form such a coalition.

"The end of nuclearisation has been promised since a long time but up until now nothing has been done," said Jochen Stay, a spokesman for the march organisers. Germany's Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, a Social Democrat, said Merkel's conservatives should "stop being the right arm of the nuclear industry," adding that "the future belongs to renewable energies."

According to a Greenpeace study released Saturday, more than half of Germans want the coming government, regardless of its political persuasion, to continue the closure of the country’s nuclear power stations.

The survey, commissioned from TNS Emnid by Greenpeace showed that 59 percent of those asked rejected the idea of extending the lifespan of older nuclear power stations that is currently being considered.

This share is the same across east and western areas of the country, while those who support the Christian Democratic Union and the Free Democratic Party are less positive, with 50 percent of the former and 49 percent of the latter expecting the next government, due to be elected on September 27, to take the country away from nuclear power.

thelocal.de

Fuglesang completes third spacewalk of shuttle mission

2009-09-06T18:34:00.001+05:30

Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang and an American colleague on Saturday completed the third and final spacewalk of their mission from the US space shuttle Discovery, allowing the Swede to reach a unique space milestone.

The two astronauts installed new equipment on the International Space Station, but failed to connect some of the cables. NASA astronaut Danny Olivas and Fuglesang of the European Space Agency concluded the more than seven-hour walk at 11:40 pm (0340 GMT Sunday), the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration said.

According to the announcement, they completed their major objectives, but not all of them. The spacewalkers deployed a new payload attachment system, replaced a failed rte gyro assembly, installed two GPS antennae and did some work to prepare for the installation of the Node 3 "Tranquility" module next year.

"During connection of one of two sets of avionics cables for Node 3, one of the connectors could not be mated," NASA said in a statement. "This cable and connector were wrapped in a protective sleeve and safed. All other cables were mated successfully." On Friday, Fuglesang and Olivas installed a liquid ammonia tank to keep the space station cool and completed several other tasks.

The spacewalkers also moved a spent ammonia tank, which was removed Wednesday, into the shuttle's cargo bay to be taken back to Earth. With this week's outing Fuglesang -- who was the first Swede in space in December 2006 -- became the first astronaut from outside the United States or Russia to participate in more than three spacewalks. The duo also fetched US and European equipment from the orbiting station's Columbus laboratory that will be brought back to scientists on Earth.

Earlier, a large piece of space debris drifted toward the ISS, but NASA said it would not affect the mission's spacewalks. The shuttle brought 7.5 tonnes of supplies, including new station crew quarters, a freezer, two research racks and a treadmill named after US comedian Stephen Colbert, to the station. The freezer will store samples of blood, urine and other materials that will eventually be brought back to Earth for study on the effects of zero-gravity.

The Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT) is the ISS's second treadmill. Exercise is key for astronauts spending long periods of time in space, where zero-gravity can result in muscle atrophy. Colbert originally won an online poll for NASA to name a new space station room after him, but the US space agency decided to instead name the new module Tranquility and allow the satirist to have his name placed on the treadmill.

The mission for Discovery, currently orbiting with the ISS 354 kilometers above the Earth, is the fourth of five planned for the shuttle program this year. The last is scheduled for November. The shuttle will remain docked at the ISS until Tuesday, and is due to return to Earth on September 10. Once the mission is complete, just six more shuttle flights remain before NASA's three shuttles are retired in September 2010.

thelocal.se

Bank refuses to replace €500 note man claims was eaten by his cat

2009-09-05T18:43:00.001+05:30

A man who said his cat had eaten most of a 500-euro note has been refused a replacement by the German Bundesbank. The administrative court in Frankfurt upheld the federal bank’s refusal to replace the note, after the man failed to provide enough evidence to back up his claim.

According to a report in the Neue Juristische Wochenschrift weekly legal magazine, the court said generally around half of a bank note must be available, and the claimant must be able to prove that the rest has been destroyed, to qualify for a replacement.

Bundesbank workers refused to replace the man’s 500-euro note after suspecting the bits he had presented were from several different notes. The court said it shared the Bundesbank suspicions, adding that in order to be convincing, the man would also have to produce undigested remains from the cat’s excrement.

thelocal.de

Madonna’s pilgrimage to Israel hits a sticky patch

2009-09-05T18:42:00.000+05:30

It should have been a cause for celebration: Madonna and Jesus were back in Israel. The Material Girl and her Brazilian model boyfriend, however, have not had a universally enthusiastic welcome on their one-week pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

Madonna, who ended her “Sticky and Sweet” world tour with concerts in Tel Aviv this week, began with a reminder of her faith in the kabbalah, or mystical Judaism, by asking that work on her performance stage be halted to respect the Sabbath. One Orthodox rabbi tried to get her to show “respect” for the Jewish faith by wearing “more modest” clothing during her two performances, but the request fell on deaf ears, and the concerts featured the usual skimpy costumes that her fans have come to expect.

“She looked amazing, especially for her age — but not really what I would consider an ‘observant’ Jewish woman’s dress,” said Rachel Homesh, a teenager who attended one of the gigs. “We didn’t really think that she would show up all covered up. She wouldn’t be able to dance. The most she wore was at the very end, when she put on a Jewish flag.”

The decision to drape Madonna in the Star of David — handed to her by someone in the audience — sparked fury from Palestinians. Hania Bitar, director-general of the Palestinian Youth Association for Leadership and Rights Activation, said the move had led to protests in the West Bank and Gaza. She also criticised Madonna for not meeting with any Palestinian politicians or visiting the occupied territories.

The singer — who has taken a Jewish name, Esther — told her fans: “Every time I come here, I get so supercharged with energy. I truly believe that Israel is the energy centre of the world. And I also believe that if we can all live together in harmony in this place, then we can live in peace all over the world.”

Madonna kept the media away from her political encounters. She met Binyamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister, and Tzipi Livni, the leader of the opposition, and limited access to her visit to the northern Israeli village of Safed, where one of the rabbis who founded kabbalah is believed to be buried. However, her flirtation with politics, her dabbling in the kabbalah — which many rabbis do not approve of — and her trademark concert antics created controversy anyway.

“Madonna has made her career by being provocative. I guess we shouldn’t have been surprised that her trip here would be controversial as well,” said Danny Yatom, 23, who attended the first of Madonna’s shows. “It’s why we stay interested, no?”

timesonline.co.uk

Criminals caught up in benefits cheat probe

2009-09-05T18:41:00.000+05:30

A campaign by Sweden’s social insurance agency (Försäkringskassan) to root out benefits cheats has found that about 100 seasoned criminals have received millions in unwarranted payments. In just one year, the agency has uncovered close to 30 million kronor ($4.1 million) in fraud perpetrated by 96 individuals.

In addition, around 30 well-known criminals have been denied benefits worth roughly 6 million kronor after their applications were found to have faulty information, reports the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper.

Altogether, the social insurance agency has demanded the return of 312 million kronor in benefits payments from 5,223 Swedes. Ninety-six serious criminals accounted for about 26.9 million kronor in fraudulent payments, roughly 8 percent of the total fraud uncovered by the agency.

Once case involves a 44-year-old man known for blackmailing others who has now been asked to return 1,167,501 kronor in wrongly awarded sick pay and housing allowances. The man ran several black market businesses at the same time he was claiming sick benefits.

In another case, a 43-year-old bank robber has been asked to give back 349,028 kronor in sickness and parental leave benefits. He had received the money based on income earned from a fictitious employer.

In 81 cases, Försäkringskassan’s anti-fraud unit has filed reports with the police about benefits crimes, offences which can result in sentences of up to four years in prison. But the agency doesn’t know what has happened as a result of their complaints, because the police have failed to provide any follow-up reporting on the cases.

thelocal.se

Widow gets land claim help

2009-09-05T18:25:00.000+05:30

A Cape Town widow was on Friday granted an order forcing the state to pay R359 000 towards the legal costs of fighting her land claim. The order, handed down by Land Claims Court judge Shenaaz Meer, requires the Land Claims Commission to pay the money in April next year to the Legal Resources Centre, which is acting for 66-year-old Isabel Florence.

The funds will be spent on counsel and experts in a trial that begins in Cape Town in December. Florence, a former textile factory worker, is claiming restitution or compensation for the loss of her late husband Lionel's family home in 1970 as a result of the Group Areas Act.

The home was in the Black River area of Rondebosch, which was declared a white group area in the 1960s. The site of the building is now occupied by a medical centre in Klipfontein Road, opposite the Red Cross Hospital. Mr Florence, a diabetic, died earlier this year.

He had rejected the commission's offer of R40 000 as compensation for the property. Restitution legislation requires the commission and the Legal Aid Board to assist parties with legal representation in land claims court litigation. The two bodies initially turned down the LRC's applications for funding, the commission claiming its budget for the year was exhausted.

However, after Mrs Florence launched her challenge to this decision, the commission agreed to Friday's order that the money would be paid over in 2010, a month after the start of the new financial year. Mrs Florence said in an affidavit that if she was not able to secure effective representation, including advice and evidence from expert witnesses, the trial would not be fair.

She said the matter was so complex that it was impossible for her or her family to present it effectively by themselves.

iafrica.com

Swedish hunters to target marauding raccoon dogs

2009-09-04T18:37:00.001+05:30

Swedish elk hunters have been encouraged to shoot on sight any raccoon dogs that they may chance across. The Swedish National Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket) has supported calls from the Swedish Hunters Association (Svenska Jägareförbundet) to target the animal which is described as a pest and has been compared to the American mink or the Spanish slug.

"This is good, we would rather that it is removed completely from the Swedish environment," Melanie Josefsson at the agency said. The chances of a hunter coming across the beast, which resembles the raccoon in appearance but is no relation, are small as the animals are extremely rare in Sweden.

The Swedish authorities have in recent years led a successful fight to keep the raccoon dog population, which is indigenous to China, Korea and Siberian Russia, to a minimum. "We think that it can be prevented from establishing itself as we have already begun to fight it at an early stage," Josefsson said.

But a new threat has emerged after over 20 recording sightings of the animal in neighbouring Denmark, with three occasions on record in 2008 alone. Sweden now fears an amphibian invasion of the pest across the Öresund waterway between Copenhagen and Malmö.

The Swedes have previously taken a less ruthless approach to tackling the problem, employing instead a method of sterilization and tracking. There are currently ten animals in Sweden carrying a radio transmitter inserted by researchers at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences who are conducting a project on the species.

Hunters have been urged to shoot only those that have not yet been identified. Once the raccoon dog establishes a population in a country's flora and fauna it can be very difficult to root out. The animal is a known carrier of tapeworm and rabies and can threaten species of birds.

Swedish animal protection legislation does not cover wild animals and therefore the raccoon dog can be freely hunted. There has however been no formal decision taken to exterminate the species, Lottie Göransson Uhrnell at the agency told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.

thelocal.se

Young watchmaker's labyrinthine pieces gain global following

2009-09-04T18:35:00.000+05:30

A young German watchmaker is gaining international attention for his one-of-a-kind luxury timepieces using a technique he calls “skeletonising” that is so intricate he finishes just 50 watches per year. Stefan Kudoke’s signature technique requires painstaking drilling and sawing with implements less than one millimetre thick. Bit by bit, he slowly reveals the inner workings of the watch.

“My watches show people what makes them tick,” the Frankfurt an der Oder-based Kudoke told news agency DDP. Kudoke’s watches display exquisite artistry, engraved and encrusted with jewels, and usually cost more than €3,500.

Customers from around the world have begun to visit the 30-year-old’s workshop at his parent’s home in the eastern Brandenburg town. Almost 80 of his one-of-a-kind pieces have been sold abroad. “The internet helps with that,” he said. “American and Japanese people make up most of my customers.”

Kudoke began his first experience with watchmaking as an apprentice in his hometown in just 10th grade. At 21 he worked as a custom watchmaker for renowned manufacturer Glashütte Original, before moving to the Swiss Swatch Group to work in customer services for the luxury market. Seven years ago, Kudoke left a secure and well-paid job for a place at the Lusatia craft school in Senftenberg.

“I had a vision – I wanted to stand on my own two feet in the luxury watch market,” said the 30-year old. In his home town, Kudoke’s work is still largely unknown – but that is soon to change. On November 2 he is to receive the Brandenburg “Future Prize” in honour of his achievements.

As soon as the economic crisis passes, Kudoke intends to use the new recognition to expand his one-man business. Until then, customers will still have to put their names on the waiting list.

thelocal.de

Once filthy Ruhr River safe again for salmon

2009-09-03T17:02:00.000+05:30

Residents near the Ruhr River are celebrating the return of salmon to the once uninhabitable waters near Essen this week. “This shows that the quality of the Ruhr water has recovered so that is up to the high standards salmon require for their spawning waters,” said Harro Bode, the chairman of the Ruhrverband, a water quality management company.

In the summer of 2008, two young salmon were caught under an embankment near Essen. It sparked a new study and on June 23 of this year, in which researchers confirmed that the fish had returned to what was once the centre of Germany’s industrial region. More than 20 specimens were found that day.

In addition to the salmon, scientists have also found more than 100,000 indicators that the river’s quality is improving, they said in the first report. Near the sampling point at Essen-Rellinghausen, scientists found that levels of phosphorus and heavy metals were also at historically low concentrations.

The Ruhr River runs right through the heaviest-populated area in Germany and was first developed during the Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century. During that time, nearly 300 coal mines were in operation, fuelling the region’s iron and steel factories. The river, a tributary of the Rhine River, served as the main transportation corridor for the industries in what is now North Rhine-Westphalia.

thelocal.de

Hospitals 'bribing' doctors for patients

2009-09-03T16:59:00.000+05:30

Doctors and hospitals are blaming each other this week after it emerged that medical facilities have been secretly paying premiums to doctors for sending them patients. Vice President of the German Medical Association (BÄK), Frank Ulrich Montgromery, said hospitals were responsible for the practise. “One could call it bribery,” he told the German daily Die Welt on Wednesday.

Meanwhile the German hospital association (DKG) and the German hospice foundation rejected responsibility for the controversial payments, asking Health Minister Ulla Schmidt to step in.

The BÄK confirmed the existence of the practise on Tuesday, citing two Hamburg clinics that were known for paying doctors €100 per patient checked into their facilities over the last several years. They managed to disguise the scam by saying the doctors were being rewarded for filling out questionnaires on the hospital’s behalf.

The BÄK estimated that between 70 and 80 percent of patients transferred to the facilities were acceptable. But the rest are in a legal “grey area,” Montgomery told the paper, adding that it was “nonsense” to say that doctors blackmailed the hospitals.

President of the DVG German hospital association Rudolf Kösters said the two sides need to work together in the future. “It is primarily the doctors who organize and come to clinics with demands,” he said, adding that hospitals had no means of sanctioning these requests.

Health Minister Ulla Schmidt reacted to the practise with outrage. “These practices must be stopped as quickly as possible,” she said on Tuesday, calling it “cronyism.” “To me, that’s fraud,” she said.

thelocal.de

Shark attacks on the up

2009-09-01T18:40:00.000+05:30

An organisation that researches marine life has warned the steady influx of beachgoers may be attracting sharks.

The Save Our Seas Association was reacting to news of a man who was killed by a shark in Glentana Bay at George over the weekend.

Twenty two-year-old Gerhard van Zyl's right leg was bitten off just above the knee.

Shark expert Alison Kock said there were possible explanations for the attack.

"It's probably related to more people using the waters and this is a global phenomenon that we've seen more shark attacks as more people use the waters."

iafrica.com

OECD report shows Ireland has high male suicide rate

2009-09-01T18:23:00.000+05:30

Ireland has the third highest suicide rate amongst young men of all OECD countries. A new report from the group of 30 developed nations also shows that child poverty here is the sixth highest of all countries surveyed.

Ireland has the lowest breast feeding rate of all OECD countries and above average rates of child mortality. The survey also finds however that we have below average rates of bullying, some of the lowest rates of overcrowding and the fifth best environmental conditions for children to live in.

independent.ie

Light bulb ban begins

2009-09-01T18:14:00.000+05:30

Starting on Tuesday, classic incandescent light bulbs will begin to be phased out in Germany and the rest of the European Union in a bid to save energy and protect the environment.

Their replacements will be energy-saving bulbs such as compact fluorescent lamps and LED lamps.

Environmental groups welcomed the new rules, but cautioned precautions needed to be taken with the new bulbs. “Those who now use energy saving lamps within their own four walls need just one-fifth of the electricity for the same amount of light,” said Leif Miller, head of German nature conservation society Nabu.

But he added that the disposal of new light bulbs must be improved because their quicksilver content makes them unfit for normal household rubbish.

The complete phaseout of old light bulbs is to occur by 2012, but the first to go on Tuesday will be frosted bulbs rated at 100 Watts. Next will be bulbs that run at more than 60 Watts, followed a year later by those with more than 40 Watts. In September of 2012, bulbs more than 10 Watts will also be banned.

Experts say that light bulbs use just five percent of the energy they burn for providing light, while the rest is simply heat. But energy saving lamps use 25 percent of the energy to provide light and could save up to 80 percent of the energy used in Europe.

Environmentalists have criticised the measures though because many stores plan to get around the ban by stocking up on old light bulbs. According to Jürgen Resch, the head of environmentalist group DUH, drug stores, discount groceries, furniture stores and hardware stores are all planning to use back stock to profit from the ban.

thelocal.de

Runway eludes drunk German pilot

2009-08-31T22:15:00.000+05:30

A natural high proved to be too meagre for a German hobby pilot flying in the state of Thuringia over the weekend. The man got so intoxicated during his flight that officials had to send help to guide him safely to earth.

What goes up must eventually locate the airfield landing strip before coming down, but the 65-year-old became so drunk that he lost sight of the runway near the Schöngleina community, police reported.

To ensure his safe landing, the airport sent a helicopter to help guide the tanked pilot to the ground. After the assisted landing, staff at the airfield soon smelled alcohol on the pilot and immediately informed police.

But the joyride wasn’t over – the man jumped in his car and drove away, police said. Officers tracked him down after he returned home and measured his blood alcohol content 1.9 per mille, well over the legal limit. Police clipped his wings by confiscating his driver’s licence and he now faces criminal charges for his spirited performance.

thelocal.de

Art student convicted over faked psychosis

2009-08-31T22:14:00.001+05:30

Art student Anna Odell has been fined by Stockholm District Court after acting out a faked suicide attempt as part of an art project. Odell was found guilty of violent resistance and fraudulent practice and was ordered to pay a fine of 25,000 kronor ($3,500).

Odell had denied the charges of false alarm, violent resistance and fraudulent practice, date back to January 21st 2009 when she was detained by police on Stockholm's Liljeholmen bridge following what at first appeared to be an attempt to commit suicide.

She was then taken to the psychiatric ward at St. Göran's Hospital for treatment, only to reveal the following day that the whole episode had been faked as a part of her final art exam at University College of Arts, Crafts and Design (Konstfack).

Odell, who has a history of mental illness, explained that she was highlighting deficiencies in Sweden's psychiatric care which she has argued to be "the most dictatorial part of society we have" where "patients are sometimes not believed".

While her actions have drawn criticism from police and medical staff, the opening of the exhibition of her work at the college in May generated a great deal of interest in the art world and wider media.

thelocal.se

Hong Kong actor Andy Lau announces his marriage

2009-08-30T23:42:00.000+05:30

HONG KONG: Hong Kong actor-singer Andy Lau says he quietly got married but did not announce it because he wanted to protect his wife while they tried to have a baby.

Lau said in a brief message on his official Web site late Saturday that he and his girlfriend married in the US because they want to have a child by artificial insemination - a procedure authorized only for married couples in Hong Kong.

"I was afraid that if I announced the marriage, she would be stalked by reporters, so I made a selfish decision. I thought if things go well, I would tell everyone when the baby is stable, but instead I made things more complicated," he said. He did not give more details on their efforts to have a child.

Lau did not identify his girlfriend, but public marriage records made available online by the Clark County Recorder's Office in Nevada show that Lau and Carol Chu wed on June 24, 2008. The records were first reported Saturday by Hong Kong's Apple Daily newspaper.

Calls to Lau's publicists Sunday went unanswered. Speculation about Lau's personal life has dominated the entertainment pages in Chinese-language newspapers after he was spotted in Hong Kong's international airport Tuesday with Chu, a former beauty pageant contestant from Malaysia.

Entertainment reporters had staked out the funeral of Chu's father in Kuala Lumpur and mobbed Lau and Chu when they returned to Hong Kong. The 47-year-old star of films like "Infernal Affairs" and "House of Flying Daggers" has appeared in more than 100 movies since his debut in 1982 and is one of Asia's biggest celebrities.

chinadaily.com.cn

Protests continue at Coca-Cola

2009-08-30T23:41:00.000+05:30

The Labour Relations Commission has said it wants to bring both sides in the Coca-Cola jobs dispute together for talks this week. About 300 workers are manning pickets in Dublin, Cork, Tipperary, Waterford and Galway in protest at the company's decision to outsource 130 jobs.

SIPTU has said it welcomes the LRC's involvement, but will only return to the talks table if management at Coca-Cola agree to discuss new work terms and conditions. It also wants the issues of redundancy and outsourcing addressed. Peter Brennan has worked at the Ballycoolin distribution centre in Dublin for 31 years.

independent.ie

Every other doctor in Sweden from abroad

2009-08-30T18:53:00.001+05:30

Sweden is attracting an increasing number of physicians from abroad. Almost every other new medical license is granted to someone who was educated abroad. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the brain drain of doctors to rich countries is threatening to cause the collapse of healthcare systems in poor countries.

“It is immoral that a rich country like Sweden is profiting from these poor countries,” Martin Stjernquist, programme director of the medical school at Lund University, told Sydsvenskan newspaper. In 2007, 1,400 foreign physicians received medical licenses in Sweden – the equivalent of 60 percent of all new licenses granted that year, Sydsvenskan reports.

At the same time that there is a major shortage of doctors in poor countries, many countries such as France and the UK are recruiting healthcare workers from their former colonies.

“It’s a form of neo-colonialism,” Eva Nilsson Bågenholm, head of the Swedish Medical Association (Sveriges läkarförbund), said.

Many Swedes also choose to study medicine abroad. Every third Swedish medical student studies abroad, Yosef Tyson, head of the Swedish Medical Students Union (Medicine studerandes förbund), told Sydsvenskan. Many Swedes attend medical school in Denmark, which has led Helge Sander, Danish Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, to petition Sweden to increase its number of study places.

thelocal.se

Police investigate neo-Nazi riot

2009-08-30T18:48:00.000+05:30

A criminal investigation is under way in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern following a riot in the small town of Bützow on Saturday night involving around 50 neo-Nazis and police officers.

According to police reports, some of the right-wing extremists were extremely drunk, chanted anti-semitic slogans, and then deliberately provoked the clash with police. Matthias Knöchelmann, chief of police in the area, spoke of "a successful major operation" to suppress the violence, which also involved federal police officers.

Six people were arrested at the scene on suspicion of "serious breach of the peace". The six men, who Knöchelmann said were "clearly ring-leaders", are believed to have attacked officers with iron bars and parts of a ripped-up park bench. Initial reports suggest there were no serious injuries and no instances of serious property damage.

Two of those arrested are known to the police as particularly violent members of the local right-wing scene.

The fights began after midnight, and several dozen police officers were called to Bützow, where an annual folk festival is currently being celebrated. Some witnesses said that reinforcements arrived too late.

The same folk festival also witnessed extremist right-wing violence two years ago, when a stand belonging to a Pakistani and several policemen were attacked.

"We were prepared for violence last year, because of those incidents, but nothing significant happened." Knöchelmann said. "This time we received information in advance that certain people would look for a confrontation with the police." Around 70 police officers were on duty until Sunday morning, some brought in from neighbouring districts.

thelocal.de

Stockholm plays host to international laughter fest

2009-08-29T18:55:00.001+05:30

Sweden's capital will this weekend welcome a host of international comedy stars when the very first Stockholm Comedy Festival opens on Friday. The festival will feature a range of acts within stand up, performance and vaudeville performed by the best of Sweden's comedians with a generous sprinkling of international talent.

Bill Burr (US) headlines a cast of foreign stars coming to Stockholm, a city which in recent years has become a thriving hub of humour with new comedy clubs opening across the city. Burr is a regular performer on The Late Show with David Letterman and has his own HBO Half Hour Special despite having the undisputed knack of lulling you into believing he's an illiterate moron.

In fact Burr offers up an informed and eloquent perspective on race, politics, organized religion and pretty much anything on his mind at the moment. For Stockholm residents that moment is Friday, 8pm at Rival on Mariatorget. ABBA legend Benny Andersson's Rival hotel is one of the main festival venues as well as Södra Teatern on Mosebacketorg, Boulevardteatern on Götgatan, and Norra Brunn - Stockholm's perhaps most established comedy venue near Odenplan.

Jessica Kirson (US) will warm the stage at Södra Teatern on Friday evening and again on Saturday with her wide variety of characters and voices that have shot her to fame and the award of "Best Female Comic" by the MAC association in New York in 2006.

Jason Andors (US) turned to comedy after a freak break-dancing accident ended his hopes of becoming a dancer. He is physical and with his tough New York City background he is unlikely to find Norra Brunn's sophisticated Vasastan audience too daunting a task.

Al Pitcher (NZ) represents the smaller of the lands 'down under' and is reminiscent of a very energetic Eddie Izzard, if that is at all possible to imagine. The Edinburgh Fringe in 1999 gave him the platform to launch a worldwide career, the same year that Al 'The Pub Landlord' Murray belched his way into British hearts.

Commedia Dell'Arte is a form of improvisational theatre that began in Italy in the 15th century. The theatre form largely faded out until it was rediscovered in the 19th century and Ennio Marchetto (IT) - the Living Cartoon, the Swami of Origami - is in town to ensure that the renaissance reaches these northern climes.

The festival line-up is completed by the pick of Sweden's funny men and women. Cutting edge exciting acts such as Yvonne Skattberg, Nour El-Rafai, Klungen and Henrik Dorsin are fused seamlessly with the established old guard represented by David Batra, Peter Wahlbäck, Henrik Schyffert and many more.

The virgin Stockholm Comedy Festival has the stated goal of establishing itself as "one of the largest and most dynamic annual humour festivals in Europe" and it is happening right here, right now.

thelocal.se

Charity mud-games begin in Schleswig-Holstein

2009-08-29T18:50:00.000+05:30

The Wattolümpiade, Schleswig-Holstein's annual charity sports festival, begins on Saturday in the mudflats at the mouth of the river Elbe on the North Sea coast.

The last weekend in August once again sees the town of Brunsbüttel playing host to a mock Olympic Games, where a variety of team sports are given a slapstick edge by playing them in the vast expanses of thick coastal mud. The event includes an opening ceremony in which the 'Watthletes' march by and a flame is lit in a barbecue.

Teams come to Brunsbüttel from all over Europe to throw themselves around and fling mud in each other's faces in pursuit of various sports. Participants often further heighten the hilarity by wearing fancy dress.

The tournaments, which run parallel all Sunday afternoon, include Watt-football, Watt-volleyball, Watt-handball, and the disturbing Eel-relay race, where a fake eel is used in lieu of a baton. According to the Wattolümpiade website, the original idea had been to race with live eels, release the eel carried by the winning team into the river, and eat the losing eels.

A phone call from the notorious sourpusses Greenpeace reportedly scuppered this inspired idea, but luckily the participants are now handed an ingenious eel-surrogate. Made from a bicycle tyre inner-tube filled with rotting fish guts, rice and a vibrator, the device creates the uncanny illusion of running through mud carrying a live eel.

The Wattolümpiade was inaugurated in 2004 in aid of the German Cancer Society (DKG). In 2005 its organisers were awarded a German tourist board prize for innovative tourist projects. Saturday's events also include the Wattstock Festival, a mini-rock festival featuring favourite German bands like Torfrock and Wohnraumhelden.

thelocal.de

Swiss daredevil to walk Zugspitze cable line

2009-08-28T19:10:00.000+05:30

Swiss extreme tightrope artist Freddy Nock will walk a cable car line up to the peak of the Zugspitze, Germany’s highest mountain, in an attempt to break a world record this Saturday.

“I am walking up the highest mountain in Germany – something that has never been done before,” Freddy Nock told The Local.

Born in 1964 into the Nock family, who have been involved with circus art since 1770, Freddy started on the tightrope at age 11. Now 44, Nock continues to break daredevil records in various extreme sports, including tightrope walking.

This weekend Freddy, whose full name is Alfredo Nock, will attempt to climb the cable from the Sonnalpin station at an altitude of 348 metres to the 2943-metre high mountain station atop the famous peak. This stunt will require him to negotiate a cable just 5 centimetres wide that runs at a 56 percent incline at its steepest points.

“I have been planning this walk for a long time. We talked to the authorities and they let me do it. We had to do a lot to prepare – it’s been about two years now,” Freddy said.

At the Zugspitze, Nock will be collecting money for the charity “Menschen für Menschen” (Humans for Humans), which was established to help Ethiopian students by Austrian actor Karlheinz Böhm.

“I’m not just doing this walk for myself – the charity works with schools, and the children in these schools need help. I want to do this walk to show people that we mustn’t forget what is happening in Ethiopia,” he said.

According to a report in German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, Freddy has practised for the cable walk just twice. This is partly because, in the run up to this world record attempt, he is taking part in another separate event involving his famous iron motorcycle sphere at the Europa-Park in Rust.

When The Local spoke to Freddy, he still had four shows left on Thursday afternoon alone. “The event at the Europa-Park will finish on the August 31, so it overlaps with the walk by two days,” he explained. With him at the Europa-Park is Stefanie, his 19-year old daughter.

“She is the one who likes show business, so she stays with me, and will probably carry on my interests into the next generation. But my children must choose for themselves what they want to do – the others are in school and one is learning hairdressing. I don’t want to push the children – they know what they like to do,” he said.

“My children have to trust me – they know what I am doing, and that I am doing it safely,” he added.

thelocal.de

Seven of ten Swedes want swine flu jab

2009-08-28T19:07:00.001+05:30

More than seventy percent of Swedes are considering taking the vaccination against the new A/H1N1 influenza if the vaccine is approved, a new Skop survey commissioned by the Swedish Health and Welfare Board (Socialstyrelsen) has shown. The board welcomed the news and confirmed on Thursday that all of the local health authorities across Sweden had followed its advice to purchase sufficient stocks of the vaccine to treat the entire population.

In total Sweden has ordered 18 million doses - two per person. The survey indicates a broad support for taking the vaccine among Swedes with 72 percent responding that they planned to accept the vaccine, which the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SKL) has recommended should be offered free of charge.

"It is naturally pleasing that as many as 72 percent are thinking of getting the vaccination. By being vaccinated you don't only protect yourself - you also help to protect others from becoming sick," Anders Tegnell at the board said in a statement on Thursday. Those aged 25-34-years-old were reportedly less inclined to vaccinate themselves with 66 percent answering in the affirmative, in comparison to 78 percent of those aged 18-24.

At the same time only 8 percent of Swedes are overly concerned by the risk of being infected with the new influenza. 63 percent responded in the survey that they are well-informed about the virus with those aged 45-64 being the most up to date. One in five Swedes has reported that they have actively researched information about the A/H1N1 virus with women slightly higher represented (23 percent) than men.

72 percent of those surveyed responded that the most important measure to prevent infection and the spread of the flu is to wash your hands regularly. Skop interviewed 2,000 people between July 27th and August 23rd about the new influenza. "We consider this survey to be useful basic data for county councils to use in their work to communicate information around the vaccine," Anders Tegnell said.

thelocal.se

Experts warn of future doctor shortage crisis

2009-08-27T18:44:00.000+05:30

The German Medical Association has called upon the new government to step up work to address a future shortfall in doctors, as two-thirds of German clinics look for new medical staff, and 75,000 doctors approach retirement by 2017. “We expect the future government to make demographic changes and address the future need to provide doctors a priority,” association President Jörg-Dietrich Hoppe, told daily newspaper Die Welt on Thursday.

The new coalition after the September federal elections should address both financial concerns among potential doctors and reduce bureaucracy in clinics and doctor’s practices.

Between 2007 and 2017, more than 75,000 doctors will retire. This situation follows from a change in the medical industry over the last decade, which saw an excess of unemployed doctors turn into a lack of medical professionals. Two-thirds of German clinics are now looking for doctors, the paper said.

“Many of them will find no successor in the future, if conditions are not changed very soon,” Hoppe said of the potential shortfall, adding that it would coincide with an ageing population’s growing demand for medical services. Increasing life expectancy also means an increase in insurance claims and the intensity of treatments, Hoppe explained.

“Although enough students are starting medical courses, too few are leaving university ready to work in preventative or curative medicine,” Frank-Ulrich Montgomery, Vice President of the association told the newspaper. Every fifth medical student that successfully completes their course chooses not to continue with clinical training, according to Die Welt.

“Twenty percent of medical school graduates are rejecting the stress of the hospital – medicine has become an unattractive career option,” continued Montgomery.

Meanwhile medicine has increasingly become a career path for women, who often work less than men because of leave taken to care for their families. The percentage of women in the medical industry in Germany grew from 33.6 percent to 41.4 percent between 1991 and 2008, according to figures released by the Medical Association.

The newspaper reported that money alone would not be sufficient incentive to motivate more young people to take on medical training because the average salary for doctors in Germany is €195,000, placing them among the country’s top earners.

thelocal.de

Swedish archaeologists uncover 7th century ship

2009-08-27T18:40:00.000+05:30

Swedish archaeologists have announced the find of a 7th century burial ship, the oldest of its kind to be discovered in Scandinavia. The ship, thought to be from the Vendel era (550-793) of Swedish prehistory, was found in Sunnerby on the island of Kållandsö in Lake Vänern in central Sweden and, according to Lake Vänern Museum, is the only known ship burial to be uncovered in Sweden.

Archaeologists from Lake Vänern Museum and Gothenburg University are busy excavating the find which includes equipment, gifts and animal sacrifices.

"In Sunnerby, the number of boat rivets found so far indicate that there is a ship hidden in the Kungshögen mound, that is to say a vessel of more than 10 metres and possibly up to 20 metres in length," the museum writes in a statement.

The ship is a burial vessel and the museum reports that only people in the highest echelons of society were afforded such a grand farewell. The museum compares the find to the important Sutton Hoo ship burial find in south east England, though archaeologists believe the Swedish find is unlikely to yield as many significant artifacts as the Suffolk ship.

The ship would have been loaded with the deceased, animal sacrifices, equipment and gifts and the whole vessel set alight in a huge funeral pyre. Annelie Nitenberg and Anna Nyqvist Thorsson, archaeologists at Lake Vänern Museum, hope that the Kungshögen find will help to shed light on Vendel era cultural life by Sweden's largest lake.

Previously, Vendel era society had been understood to be focused in Uppland and the Mälardalen regions of central Sweden rather than further south on the shores of Vänern, Europe's third largest lake with an area measuring 5,648 square kilometres. The excavation of the Kungshögen find will now continue until October. After a break for the winter the work will resume in 2010.

thelocal.se

Teachers rejoice as swine flu brings soap back to schools

2009-08-27T18:38:00.001+05:30

State health officials said on Wednesday they were gearing up to fight swine flu across Germany ahead of the new school year. Teachers are celebrating the return of soap after budgetary cuts left many school restroom dispensers empty.

Health ministries are distributing brochures to relay flu-fighting techniques to teachers, parents and students. In the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Health Minister Josef Laumann recommended that boys and girls “cough into their sleeves.” Pregnant teachers and students should remain home for seven days if they are exposed to an outbreak in their schools. The minister also encouraged schools to have ample soap and paper towels on hand.

“We now something that’s never been here before,” one teacher said of the focus on fighting germs. The cost-cutting that forced teachers and students to do without clean hands have also ended in the state of Lower Saxony. “For years the soap dispensers in the bathrooms were empty. Now they are finally full again,” spokesperson for the Leibniz school in Hannover said.

Students there have been told to regularly wash their hands with a 20-second lather and use paper towels, but one teacher complained that five minute breaks between classes won’t be enough for students to implement the new hygiene measures.

Meanwhile Berlin children will attend “swine flu classes” during the first days of school where teachers will review infectious diseases and hygiene measures. Classrooms will also be aired out every four hours for ten minutes, but officials have not recommended students wear surgical masks. Any students exhibiting flu symptoms will be immediately isolated until their parents can pick them up.

In Schleswig-Holstein, officials have recommended that students disinfect door handles and keyboards in the case of an outbreak. Hesse plans to name a pandemic agent. Updated figures from Germany’s infectious diseases authority, the Robert Koch Institute, show the country has had 14,940 confirmed cases of swine flu. Most of these were reported by people returning from travel abroad.

thelocal.de

Man buys city street for €1,000 in auction goof

2009-08-26T18:50:00.000+05:30

A Lebanese translator from Berlin now owns a street in the Brandenburg town of Havelsee for the low price of €1,000 after officials botched an auction. The development has made residents of the street anxious because they don’t know what his plans are, daily Berliner Morgenpost reported on Wednesday.

Wassim Saab, who owns a translation business in Berlin’s Wilmersdorf district, discovered online that the town planned to auction off the street for the symbolic sum of €1 after the original developer went bankrupt.

“We didn’t anticipate a fellow bidder,” building authority head Christiane Neumeister told the paper about the auction two weeks ago. “There we made a mistake.”

Inside the auction hall were only Saab, Neumeister and the head of the nearby community of Beetzsee’s building authority – who was supposed to buy the 5,200-square-metre street for €1 and take control of the road.

But minutes later she watched helplessly as the street – including street lamps and water pipes – was awarded to Saab. According to the paper, she brought just the symbolic €1 to the auction and it did not occur to her to increase her bid, though Havelsee’s Mayor Günter Noack told the paper she was authorised to do so.

“I still need to think about whether I will sell the street or charge fees for the irrigation and drainage,” Saab told the paper, adding that he will not “unduly stress” the some 100 residents nearby.

The housing development street is in the Briest district of Havelsee and was built in the 1990s by investor Ulrich Pietrucha, who had long been offering it to the city for €1. A corresponding contract was already at the building authority, but no one had addressed it due to reported damage to the street and the €100 to €200 notary fee it would have required to process.

“But the women thought they were clever and thought they’d get the street for one euro,” investor Pietrucha said. Their thrift could end up costing the town of Havelsee dearly. Residents could now sue for government liability of the new owner charges them extra fees. Pietrucha told the paper the city must buy the street back from Saab – but experts estimate the true worth could be up to €500,000.

thelocal.de

Nuclear waste authority says Germany needs new storage site

2009-08-26T18:49:00.001+05:30

The Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) said Wednesday that Germany needs to look for a new nuclear waste depot because the current Gorleben facility has “many birth defects.”

The salt dome formations are not suited to be a permanent storage site, BfS spokesperson Florian Emrich told daily Frankfurter Rundschau. “Gorleben has many birth defects that are not compatible with today’s open and transparent policies and is therefore controversial,” he said.

Emrich suggested that since Germany’s reunification, options for new sites have increased, with potential regions including northern Germany, and the states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg.

But it is up to the government to set further guidelines for nuclear waste storage, Emrich said. Currently there is “no criteria that says Gorleben is suitable and none that says it isn't suitable,” he added.

Claims by Kiel Geologist Ulrich Schneider, who said Gorleben could flood, are realistic, the BfS spokesperson conceded. In May, a leaked internal BfS assessment revealed that Gorleben was developed illegally.

Since work began on the underground facility in the 1980s, only permission for “exploration” has been granted. But even without an official authorisation, the paper said that costs for assessing the salt dome for its suitability had been high because “the construction of the permanent storage depot was begun parallel to the investigation.”

Work at Gorleben has been suspended since 2000, when the government decided to wait until 2010 to resume the controversial project.

The appearance of the documents has confirmed the doubts of nuclear energy opponents, who believed that Gorleben had been earmarked as a permanent storage depot before the safety of the salt dome had been adequately investigated.

Nuclear energy is deeply unpopular in Germany activists often stage protests at Gorleben, which is in the German state of Lower Saxony. The government has approved plans to get rid of its reactors by 2020. But high energy costs and greenhouse gas concerns have some politicians second-guessing the plans.

thelocal.de

Swedish woman in porn flakes breakfast shock

2009-08-26T18:46:00.000+05:30

Ida Riedel Palmer, 23, was left disappointed when what was advertised as a free "body jam" dance CD with her breakfast cereal directed her to a hardcore porn website.

"I chose the brand of cereal because of the free CD. I was at first disappointed but then worried that maybe I had a virus on my computer. I called my boyfriend to check if he had been using my computer, but he told me he hadn't," Ida Riedel Palmer told The Local on Wednesday.

The young woman from Umeå in northern Sweden bought the packet of Nestlé Fitness cereal at the weekend and was left shaken by the nature of the porn to which she was exposed. "It was not soft porn. It was definitely what I would categorize as unpleasant porn - not that I know much about it," she explained.

Palmer tested the offending CD in two more computers to make sure that the problem was not in anyway connected to her computer and the same thing occurred. However the CD did contain the material that was advertised; it just came with an introduction that the unsuspecting Ida Riedel Palmer had not anticipated.

"When I put the CD in again the dance training came up. Without the porn." "But as the problem was clearly not with my computer, it was with the CD, I felt that Nestlé should be informed and I called them."

Nestlé have been in touch and have assured her that they will get to the bottom of the mystery of how Palmer's corn flakes became porn flakes. Ida Riedel Palmer told The Local that despite her experience she is willing to give the brand another chance. "No I haven't changed cereal. But I have bought another packet," she said.

thelocal.se

Pack of circus animals freed from burning transporter

2009-08-25T16:39:00.000+05:30

Police and fire fighters freed a group of circus animals from a burning transporter near the town of Ribnitz-Damgarten in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania early on Tuesday morning.

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The 11 animals – three camels and eight horses – were trapped in the vehicle when a smouldering fire started just after midnight, a spokesperson from the Stralsund police department said.

The driver of the circus transporter, who was coming from the Baltic Sea island of Rügen, was informed of the fire by other drivers after he pulled over for a break. Officers were forced to break open the transporter tailboard to free the animals, which were not injured in the accident. Fire fighters were then able to put out the blaze and the animals later continued their journey in a new transporter.

thelocal.de

Archaeologists uncover large Roman statue of Augustus

2009-08-25T16:37:00.001+05:30

Archaeologists in have discovered fragments of a 2,000-year-old bronze Roman equestrian statue of Emperor Augustus in a stream near Giessen, the Hessian state science ministry has announced.

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"There has never been a find of such quality and preservation in Germany," a statement from the ministry said, adding that it was a "sensational" discovery.

On August 12, archaeologists pulled the gold-gilded, life-sized head of a horse and a shoe of the emperor – who ruled the Roman Empire between 23 BC and 14 AD – from a stream in what was once the Roman outpost Germania Magna. Experts there have uncovered several bits of the statue among some 20,000 artefacts uncovered at the site in recent years.

Scientists from the University of Jena believe it may have been destroyed by Roman soldiers retreating after the legendary Varusschlacht, or the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD, when Germanic tribes ambushed and wiped out three Roman legions. As the remaining Roman troops retreated after the devastating defeat, they destroyed most of what they could not take with them.

“Due to the location of the find, there is a unique possibility to date the statue to a few exact years and establish a connection to the events surrounding the Varusschlacht 2,000 years ago,” the statement said.

The ministry plans to make an official presentation of the find on August 27.

Thelocal.de

'Smokers cost Swedish councils billions': report

2009-08-25T16:32:00.000+05:30

Smokers are costing Swedish municipalities 2.6 billion kronor ($367 million) per annum in the form of breaks and sickness absences, a new report from the Swedish Public Health Institute shows.

The amount is equivalent to 6,000 full time positions.

"We know that three out of four smokers want to quit and most municipalities that introduce bans during working hours also offer help. In that way the workplace supports those wanting to stop. We can now see that a smoke-free work environment provides financial benefits to councils," Cecilia Birgersson at the institute said in a press release on Tuesday.

A smoke-free workplace means in practice that smoking is banned during paid working hours, including breaks. Lunch hour is not considered to be part of regular working hours.

The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, along with union groups, supports the introduction of smoking bans. A survey conducted by SKL earlier in 2009 showed that 64 of Sweden's 290 local municipalities had decided to introduce work time smoking bans.

The institute has calculated the cost of smoking in terms of "smoking hours" at an average 282 kronor, based on a national average hourly wage.

The total cost is a multiple of the time taken to smoke a cigarette by the number of cigarettes per day (for the normal smoker) and the time to go to and from a designated smoking area - a total of 30 minutes per day per smoker. The cost per smoker is thus 31,300 kronor per annum.

Smokers typically claim an additional eight sick days in comparison with a non-smoker and this costs an additional 13,700 kronor per annum per smoker, bringing the total cost per smoker to 45,000 kronor, according to the institute's calculations.

thelocal.se

Scorpion hiding in Vietnamese fruit basket stings young girl

2009-08-24T18:49:00.001+05:30

A gift basket from Vietnam contained a venomous surprise for a seven-year-old girl, who was rushed to the hospital in Bonn after being stung by a stowaway scorpion. City authorities told Cologne-based tabloid Express the girl is recovering from the sting, to which she had an allergic reaction. Her parents rushed her to the university children’s clinic along with the scorpion, so that doctors would know exactly how dangerous it was.

It is believed the scorpion was in the basket when it was packaged in Vietnam and travelled all the way to Germany with the family's visitors. The stowaway was then taken to a reptile zoo in nearby Königswinter owned by Marlies Blumenthal.

“This was a completely new species to me,” Blumenthal told Express. “I passed the creature on to other experts. I wasn’t comfortable keeping it here.”

Most scorpion species can only produce enough venom to cause a minor reaction, like that of a bee sting. Of the estimated 1,500 scorpion species, only 50 are considered dangerous to humans and only half of those produce venom that can be deadly. Still, for every deadly snake bite, 10 people die from scorpion stings.

thelocal.de

Bank explodes in Malmö smash and grab raid

2009-08-24T18:48:00.001+05:30

A bank cash dispenser on Södra Förstadsgatan in Malmö exploded at 5am on Monday morning in an apparent smash and grab robbery attempt. At around the same time a truck forced entry into an electronics shop on Handelsgatan in Jägersro and police believe that the two events could be connected.

"At three minutes to five we received several calls about a powerful explosion on Södra Förstadsgatan. Eight minutes after five got an alarm about a truck having been forced through the entry of an electronics store in Jägersro," Cindy Schönström-Larsson at Skåne police confirmed.

It is as yet unclear if anything was stolen in the attacks but a report in the Aftonbladet newspaper indicates that the interior of the branch of Handelsbanken has been left severely damaged. "The whole bank is in bits," an eye witness told the newspaper.

A police unit arrived at the scene at 5.45am and after securing the area they immediately set up a cordon in order to conduct a technical examination. As a result of the police cordon bus services were forced to redirect at the Bergsgatan junction with Södervärn. Police have confirmed that goods of an unknown value were stolen from the store in Jägersro and that the truck used in the attack had been previously reported stolen.

thelocal.se

Fugitive reality TV star found dead in motel room

2009-08-24T18:46:00.000+05:30

A reality TV contestant who was being sought over the murder of his ex-wife in California has been found dead in a motel in Canada. US police have been hunting for 32-year-old property developer Ryan Jenkins since the mutilated body of model Jasmine Fiore was found in a rubbish bin near Los Angeles last week.

His boat was found on Wednesday near the US-Canada border and Jenkins himself was found hanging in a motel room near Vancouver yesterday. Jenkins was recently a contestant on the VH1 reality show Megan Wants a Millionaire, in which wealthy young men try to win the affections of a materialistic blonde.

independent.ie

Six dead in two dramatic air accidents

2009-08-24T18:45:00.001+05:30

The German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Investigation (BFU) is investigating two separate aircraft accidents that left six people dead on Sunday. Both accidents occurred in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Four people were killed when a Cessna collided with a helicopter at an Ellwangen airfield festival, and another two people died in a crash near Fronreute.

In Ellwangen, the Cessna 172 model plane and the R 44 helicopter were both attempting to land when they collided at a relatively low altitude, investigators said. The accident occurred around 3:20 pm just a few hundred metres from the festival, though none of 1,000 attendees were in danger, police said.

The helicopter dropped some 500 metres from the landing strip and erupted into flames and the Cessna flew a bit further before crashing. An eyewitness reported seeing the two aircraft come “very close” before he lost sight of them and heard a loud explosion.

All four occupants of the helicopter were killed, while the Cessna pilot was severely injured. The bodies of those killed in the helicopter were so badly burned that police have not yet been able to identify them.

Both aircraft were part of the airfield festivities. The helicopter had been taking guests on tours of the region, while the Cessna was on its way back to the airfield after dropping parachuters over the show.

Meanwhile in Fronreute a 62-year-old pilot and his 54-year-old passenger died around 2:35 pm on Sunday when their ultralight aircraft broke apart just a few minutes after taking off in Berg. Bits of the plane tumbled to the ground, spreading across one kilometre.

Authorities are baffled about the cause of the crash, as both plane occupants were experienced pilots with many years of experience. There was no explosion or fire in the plane before it crashed.

thelocal.de

R50m housing scam probed

2009-08-23T18:59:00.001+05:30

The police commercial branch unit is investigating a R50-million housing scam in the Atlantis area of the Western Cape, police said on Friday. Superintendent Jerome Hardenberg said Eugene Hendricks allegedly took deposits from victims, offering an attractive housing project.

He also offered a fixed payment system of R700 per month for 15 years to enable people to become home owners. "According to our preliminary investigation there are... approximately 1500 victims from the residential areas of Atlantis, Eerste River and Scottsdene who fell prey to the housing scam," Hardenberg said.

He called on anyone who was a victim of the scam to register affidavits at the Atlantis police station next Wednesday or at the commercial branch offices on Thursday and Friday, during office hours.

iafrica.com

2009-08-23T18:54:00.000+05:30

RESIDENTIAL property values have fallen by between 40 and 50 per cent from the peak levels they achieved in 2007, according to one of the country's leading estate agencies. The figures, drawn up by property firm Hooke and McDonald, emerged last Thursday when lawyers for embattled property tycoon Liam Carroll presented them to the High Court as part of the Zoe Group's last-ditch effort to secure court protection from creditors.

Valuations prepared for the developer's companies by both Hooke and McDonald and CBRE revealed the staggering decline in both the residential and commercial property markets over the past two years.

On the residential front, the court was told of Hooke and McDonald's property valuations expert David Cantwell's conclusion that prices had already declined by 40 per cent since 2007.

And while Mr Cantwell's valuation report said the asking prices of Mr Carroll's apartments "had held up so far" in relation to the prices that had been set for them, he conceded that future sales would be considered at or "within 10 per cent of their asking price".

Taking that 10 per cent discount into account, Mr Cantwell's report suggests that residential property prices are already at or near 50 per cent below their 2007 peak. The decline in commercial property values, meanwhile, continues apace, according to agents CBRE.

Details from their latest valuation report suggest that investment properties have fallen in value by between 10 and 15 per cent since the beginning of this year alone. Unsurprisingly, development land has fared even worse, and shows a decline of between 15 and 25 per cent since the beginning of 2009.

The court also heard how since CBRE had prepared its first valuation report on behalf of Mr Carroll in December of last year, the timeframe for a predicted recovery in the commercial market had increased from two years to between three and five years.

independent.ie

Sheep shearers battle it out for fleece title

2009-08-23T18:50:00.000+05:30

Around 1,000 sheep will be feeling significantly cooler after Sunday when the German sheep shearing competition is over. The 11th annual competition took place in Salem on the generally genteel Lake Constance.

The 62 competitors, including five women, sheared sheep in front of around 5,000 spectators who saw them remove between four and five kilograms of wool from each sheep. The fastest needed only around three minutes to relieve a sheep of its wool using electric clippers.

Anette Wohlfarth, from the State Sheep Breeding Association of Baden-Württemberg, which organised the meeting, said that competitors were judged on speed, but also technique, cleanliness and quality of the shear.

thelocal.de

Swedish naval vessel jumps Göta Canal banks

2009-08-23T18:42:00.000+05:30

A Swedish military boat took an unexpected turn up onto shore on Saturday, startling attendees of a festival held along the shores of the Göta Canal. The accident occured when a Combat Boat 90 traveling at high speed attempted to perform a sudden stop in front of throngs of onlookers at Kanalfest in Söderköping in eastern Sweden.

But something went wrong during the maneuver, sending the Swedish Navy vessel up over the banks of the canal before it skidded to a stop on the ground. “First the boat went off from the locks toward the E22 motorway bridge. Then it came back at full speed,” Fredrik Jonson, a photographer for Norrköpings Tidningar (NT), told the newspaper.

“The boat began to wobble back and forth and the bow was very low in the water. Then the boat drove right up on land on onto the canal bank.” The boat came to rest about 50 metres from the crowd of onlookers sat at outdoor tables to watch the day’s exhibitions.

Military spokesperson Anders Kallin told the TT news agency that there were no injuries or damage to equipment as a result of the incident. He added that an investigation has been launched to determine exactly what went wrong.

thelocal.se