The correct use of a car’s air-conditioning system, including switching the unit off completely when it is not needed, can save fuel, experts at the TUV Nord testing centre in Hanover point out. When the car interior heats up after the vehicle has been standing in the sun for a long period, it is far more effective to open all the doors and the tailgate first before switching on the air conditioning.
The BMW Z4 coupé is available from this month at European dealers just a year after the first design study was unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Prices start at â,¬38Â 900 (about R335Â 000) and are between â,¬1Â 500 and â,¬2Â 000 cheaper than the convertible, depending on the engine size.
Paul Spiegel, who fled the Nazis as a child during World War II and returned to Germany to eventually become the influential — and at times contentious — head of its main Jewish organisation, has died. He was 68. Spiegel died overnight of cancer in a hospital in Duesseldorf where he had been seriously ill for weeks.
Michael Schumacher has been offered another lucrative two-year contract extension at Ferrari, seemingly ensuring that he ends his career at the famed Italian Formula One team and doesn’t move elsewhere. Bild said that Schumacher will earn the same annual â,¬35-million he gets under the current four-year deal he signed in 2003.
Two men accused of attempted murder after a brutal racist attack on a German citizen told federal investigators on Friday that they had nothing to do with the assault. ”Both of the accused denied having anything to do with the crime and presented an alibi,” federal prosecutor Kay Nehm told reporters in the south-western city of Karlsruhe.
The arrest of suspected rightists in connection with the brutal beating of an Ethiopian-born German citizen is fuelling fears that neo-Nazi violence could overshadow the football World Cup being held in Germany. Germany’s federal prosecutor said the attack, which left the 37-year-old father of two in a coma, had probably been carried out due to ”hatred towards foreigners”.
Michael Schumacher aims to stay calm and at the same time highly motivated at the San Marino Grand Prix on the weekend in an effort to close in on Formula One world championship leader Fernando Alonso. The ex-world champion Schumacher said on Tuesday that Sunday’s race in Imola, the home GP of his Ferrari team, is to start Ferrari’s comeback.
Germany captain Michael Ballack is leaving Bayern Munich because he will make more money elsewhere, most likely at Chelsea, according to Bayern general manager Uli Hoeness. ”It was always clear that Michael was not interested in learning a new language or a new culture, but a new currency,” Hoeness was quoted as saying.
A suspected former member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) was sentenced to six years in prison by a German court on Tuesday for his role in the foiled bombing of a British army base here 17 years ago. The court said it was clear that Leonard Joseph Hardy (45) had taken part in the bombing of the Quebec barracks in Osnabrueck, in western Germany, in June 1989.
Hundreds of thousands of people spent the night without electricity after a tornado tore through the north German city of Hamburg, leaving two people dead and a trail of destruction. The powerful winds uprooted trees, brought down power lines, overturned cars and forced rail traffic to a halt, officials said on Tuesday.
Bayern Munich admit they are resigned to losing Germany captain Michael Ballack to Chelsea at the end of the season. Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho revealed on Monday that the west Londoners had made Ballack, out of contract at the end of the season, a lucrative offer and Bayern general manager Uli Hoeness conceded defeat.
Henkel, the German maker of Persil washing powder, said on Wednesday it was selling a stake in its South African unit to a group of black investors as part of a campaign to involve black South Africans ”more fully in their country’s economic activity”.
German media reports on Tuesday said that Kimi Raikkonen’s move from McLaren-Mercedes to Ferrari in the new year has been finalised. Bild newspaper quotes an unnamed ”McLaren insider” as saying that the Finn has made up his mind — in favour of Ferrari.
Car maker Volkswagen (VW) and internet giant Google are developing an in-car navigation system that gives directions using Google Earth images, Volkswagen said on Monday. The three-dimensional display, combining road maps with satellite imagery of locations, also makes use of online data that provides the driver with information on traffic conditions and the weather, VW said.
Will our grandchildren spend their vacations on the moon, or their honeymoons in a hotel orbiting Mars? A few dreamers at the International Tourism Fair say space tours for average travellers could come sooner than we think. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are rumored to have booked tickets on Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Spaceship, which is due for lift-off in 2010.
A bank run by women for women is being launched in Germany to tailor financial services to female needs in a sector traditionally governed by a very male suit-and-tie brigade. Its name? What else — Frauenbank, or Women’s Bank. The idea was the brainchild of Astrid Hastreiter, a 41-year-old information technology specialist who said she was spurred on by a few observations.
Researchers in Berlin have come a step closer to developing a device that will enable people to write and manipulate objects by reading their mind. The so-called mental typewriter that translates thoughts into cursor movements on a computer screen will be on display at the computer technology fair CeBIT, which opens in the German city of Hanover on March 9.
More than 20 years have passed since former conservative German chancellor Helmut Kohl came to power, promising to follow the lead of Britain and the United States with a rigorous round of economic reforms. However, the Kohl era ended with very little to show in the way of major changes to Europe’s biggest economy.
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/ 19 February 2006
Computer users need a special removal tool to rid their computers of the Nyxem computer worm. The tool seeks out and neutralises the worm, says Anja Hartmann, of the German Federal Agency for Information Technology in Bonn. As the pest can deactivate anti-virus software, that software should be reinstalled.
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/ 13 February 2006
German police had to resort to shutting down a highway to stop an elderly man driving down the wrong side of the road, apparently so convinced he was in the right that he continually blinked his lights at oncoming traffic, authorities said. The man continued along at 110kph for about 70km before stopping.
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/ 8 February 2006
BMW engineers are working on a steam-powered auxiliary drive system that reduces fuel consumption by up to 15% and boosts performance at the same time, the car maker said. The ”Turbosteamer” concept applied to a 1,8 litre, four-cylinder petrol engine recycles the waste heat in the exhaust gases and cooling system.
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/ 7 February 2006
A nurse facing murder and manslaughter charges went on trial on Tuesday over the deaths of 29 patients in what has been described as the biggest series of killings in Germany since the end of World War II. Stephan Letter (27) could face life in prison if the Bavarian state court in Kempten convicts him on 16 counts of murder, 12 of manslaughter and one of mercy killing.
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/ 3 February 2006
Clever electronic features are the make-or-break feature in many new toys on display at the Nuremberg Toy Fair, which entered the second day on Friday of a six-day run. Baby Shark, a toy from Super Grand Enterprise of Hong Kong, exemplifies how makers are taking traditional playthings and giving them a new twist.
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/ 2 February 2006
Formula-one supremo Bernie Ecclestone reignited his row with the sport’s constructors on Wednesday, blasting them for failing to keep spiralling costs under control. Ecclestone told German weekly magazine Sport-Bild that teams should be able to remain competitive on a budget of €50-million a season.
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/ 27 January 2006
At Berlin’s Herbert Hoover High School, roughly 90% of the pupils come from immigrant families, but in a step that has caused political ripples they have been told to speak German and nothing else. ”German is the language spoken in our school. Every pupil is therefore obliged to communicate only in German,” reads the rule that was adopted at the school.
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/ 26 January 2006
Franz Seitz, one of Germany’s most prolific film producers, has died at the age of 84, his son said on Tuesday. Seitz produced about 80 films, including <i>The Tin Drum</i>, an adaptation of the novel by Nobel laureate Guenter Grass that in 1980 became the first German picture to win an Oscar for best foreign film.
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/ 22 January 2006
From eBay and Skype access to personal identification numbers for online banking — passwords are an everyday part of life with computers. Experts advise against using the same user name and password for all accounts, so security-minded internet users need an extraordinary memory to keep all of their various access codes straight.
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/ 19 January 2006
A dead whale was lying in front of the Japanese embassy in Berlin on Thursday after Greenpeace brought it to the German capital to protest Japanese whale hunting for scientific research. The whale was brought to Berlin by the environmental group after it was found beached near Wismar on Germany’s Baltic coast on Saturday.
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/ 18 January 2006
Deep in provincial Germany, Mohammed Coubageat Sherif Toure has prepared hard for the biggest year of his life — the almost unknown centre-forward of the Togo national team will play in both the African Nations Cup, starting on Friday, and the World Cup finals.
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/ 17 January 2006
A self-confessed German cannibal on Tuesday said at his retrial for murder that five years after butchering and eating an apparently willing victim he felt no guilt. Armin Meiwes (44) told the court that cannibalism was against the codes of social conduct but not a crime because his victim had wanted to die in this way.
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/ 16 January 2006
A self-confessed German cannibal said at his retrial on Monday that a man found cut into pieces and partially eaten at his house had asked him to kill him. Armin Meiwes told the court in Frankfurt that once he had cut off his victim’s penis, with the man’s consent, Meiwes had hoped he would die of blood loss or throw himself to his death from a window.
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/ 15 January 2006
The man who was to direct the multi-million euro World Cup gala, which was cancelled in acrimonious circumstances, demanded an apology from football world governing body Fifa on Saturday. Andre Heller, the Austrian who was to direct the 90-minute show in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium on June 7, two days before the start of the World Cup, said the decision to call off the extravaganza had caused a public outcry.