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/ 10 January 2006
German consumer protection watchdog Stiftung Warentest warned on Tuesday of ”serious deficiencies” in security at four of the 12 to be used during the soccer World Cup finals starting in June. The study, presented at a news conference by one of its authors, Hubertus Primus, found that there was no plan to allow fans to enter the pitch in case of a mass panic.
Michael Schumacher has threatened to end his formula-one career if he can’t win with Ferrari. The seven-time world champion had a poor past season. The latest edition of Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine quoted him as saying he may quit if the Italian team can’t build a winning car.
Rescue workers recovered another body from the wreckage of a collapsed skating rink in southern Germany early on Wednesday, police said, raising the death toll to 12. The body was found after rescue crews and dogs resumed their search of the debris following a lengthy break forced by fears that the wrecked roof could collapse further.
Shocked residents of Bad Reichenhall in the German Alps were caught between anger and mourning on Tuesday as they surveyed the collapsed roof of the local ice rink where at least 11 people, most of them children, were killed. A local newspaper reported that a member of staff had recently heard grinding noises coming from the roof and had asked the local authorities what action to take.
A German documentary to be aired this week claims to have found new evidence that Lee Harvey Oswald shot United States president John Kennedy on the orders of the Cuban secret services. ”It was [Cuban leader Fidel] Castro’s vengeance for the CIA bid to assassinate him with a poisoned pen,” award-winning German filmmaker Wilfried Huismann says in the film.
Rescue workers searched into the early hours of Tuesday for at least 20 people feared trapped in the wreckage of an ice rink in Bavaria after the building’s roof collapsed following heavy snowfall. Eleven people were confirmed dead, according to television news reports. At least four children were among the victims of the collapse.
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/ 26 December 2005
It was July 2 1938, start of the school summer holidays, and Erwin Goldberg, a 24-year-old teacher, was cheerful as he strode home. His mood changed minutes later. In his post box was a letter from the Berlin police president’s office on the Alexander Platz. It informed him he was to be taken into custody and had to ”leave the country within 24 hours”.
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/ 10 December 2005
Sven-Goran Eriksson breathed a huge sigh of relief after the Soccer World Cup draw handed England a relatively easy first-round group and spared his squad the prospect of facing either The Netherlands or traditional sporting adversaries Australia. ”It could have been much worse,” England’s Swedish coach said.
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/ 6 December 2005
Football-mad Germany is ready and willing to host the World Cup finals next year but minor problems are plaguing the build-up to the biggest sporting event in the world. The glitzy draw in Leipzig on Friday will decide where and when the 32 nations will play in six months’ time, but the country has been ready for months.
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/ 2 December 2005
Fifty-three years after it was founded by a French soldier, Berlin’s legendary Paris Bar that has hosted stars such as Madonna and Leonardo DiCaprio risks closing because of crushing debts and a criminal investigation. It is being investigated for tax arrears, unpaid social charges and employing illegal immigrants, according to prosecutors in Berlin.
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/ 1 December 2005
Football’s world governing body Fifa will wait until March next year before deciding whether to use an electronically chipped ball at the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany. Fifa spokesperson Markus Siegler said there would be a meeting in March to discuss the tests of the chipped ball and decide whether it is ready for the 2006 finals, running from June 9 until July 9.
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/ 30 November 2005
Angela Merkel addressed Parliament for the first time as German Chancellor on Wednesday, faced with an urgent test over a kidnapped German woman in Iraq and the long-term challenge of reviving the country’s moribund economy. Merkel said the government will set to work to return the country to its status as an economic powerhouse.
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/ 29 November 2005
Franz Schoenhuber, a former Nazi SS soldier who became a prominent figure on Germany’s rightist fringe, has died, the son of another far-right leader said on Monday. He was 82. Schoenhuber was best known as a co-founder of the small, anti-immigration Republikaner party.
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/ 29 November 2005
Namibian officials refused on Monday to sign a deal under which Germany would pay reparations to its former colony for the massacre of the local Herero and Dama populations during the colonial era, which lasted from 1884 to 1915. ”I regret this,” said German Minister for Development and Cooperation Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul.
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/ 28 November 2005
Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba on Monday defended his country’s controversial land-expropriation policy at the start of a five-day visit to Germany. Pohamba said that 15 years after shaking off South African rule, land reform to redistribute land from white farmers to black landless people is essential.
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/ 22 November 2005
On becoming Germany’s new Chancellor on Tuesday, Angela Merkel joined a club of women leaders whose members can still literally be counted on the fingers of one hand. Along with leaders such as Helen Clark of New Zealand and Begum Khaleda Zia of Bangladesh, Merkel is henceforth one of only five women worldwide to head their country’s government.
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/ 22 November 2005
Angela Merkel was sworn in as Germany’s first woman Chancellor before the Bundestag Lower House of Parliament following her formal election by the chamber on Tuesday. The pastor’s daughter became Germany’s eighth post-war leader and the first person from the former communist east to take the helm of the reunited country.
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/ 10 November 2005
When WBC champion Vitali Klitschko called it quits on Tuesday because of his broken-down body, a big dream of the two Klitschko brothers died. Tuesday’s operation for torn right-knee ligaments, which forced the cancellation of Saturday’s title defence against Hasim Rahman, was Klitschko’s fifth major surgery in five years.
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/ 19 October 2005
She may not have a government to preside over yet, but incoming German Chancellor Angela Merkel has already been turned into a doll. Dressed in a version of the blue trouser suit and pink T-shirt she wore on the tense election night of September 18, the baby-faced miniature Merkel is on sale for €189 (R1 480).
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/ 18 October 2005
People suffering from gout should watch their vegetable intake because some have substances that can harm them, a group of German medical insurance technicians said. Peas, spinach and brussels sprouts are among the vegetables that people with gout should avoid because of their purine content, the insurance company advised.
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/ 17 October 2005
South Africa striker Sibusiso Zuma has only been at German club Arminia Bielefeld for five months but he has become a favourite after scoring a wonder goal in Saturday’s 3-0 win over Hertha Berlin. Zuma weaved his way through the Hertha defence in a mazy run from the half-way line he capped off with a cool finish.
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/ 12 October 2005
The intensive odour in many new cars results from a toxic cocktail of more than 100 different chemicals that can have serious health effects, the German environmental organisation Bund has warned. Bund and its sister organisation in Austria, Global 2000, conducted tests on six cars including models from Opel, Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Mitsubishi, Volkswagen and Alfa Romeo.
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/ 11 October 2005
A Chinese SUV, the Landwind built by Jiangling Motors, on Tuesday received some of the worst ratings to date in crash tests carried out be Germany’s influential ADAC automobile club. The results, reported in the latest issue of the ADAC’s monthly Motorwelt magazine, termed the â,¬15Â 000 (Â 000) vehicle’s crash results as ”catastrophic”.
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/ 10 October 2005
Conservative leader Angela Merkel said on Monday she will be the next chancellor of Germany at the head of a coalition uniting the country’s two main parties, and will focus on reviving the economy. "The union will occupy the chancellery," Merkel said, in a reference to her Christian Democratic Union.
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/ 10 October 2005
Gerhard Schröder’s Social Democrats agreed on Monday that conservative leader Angela Merkel should replace him as German chancellor at the head of a coalition government, a party spokesperson said. Schröder will play no role in the coalition government, the head of the Christian Social Union said on Monday.
Croatia, The Netherlands, Poland, Italy and England on Saturday booked their places at next year’s World Cup finals to join fellow European qualifiers, Ukraine and Germany. Croatia beat Sweden 1-0 through Darijo Srna’s 56th minute penalty, while England also needed a penalty — scored by Frank Lampard in the 25th minute — to edge out Austria by the same score.
Germany’s two main parties cleared the way on Wednesday for a grand left-right coalition to break the country’s political deadlock and said they would meet within a day to thrash out who would lead it. Officials in Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats said a leadership summit would be held on Thursday.
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/ 30 September 2005
German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and his conservative rival, Angela Merkel, were back on the campaign trail on Friday ahead of weekend voting in the eastern city of Dresden, which will complete the country’s inconclusive general election. About 220 000 voters will go to the polls on Sunday.
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/ 30 September 2005
Bayern Munich have been hailed ”invincible” after churning out a record 15 consecutive league wins but SV Hamburg’s 2-0 win last Saturday has disproved that theory and injected some much-needed excitement into the Bundesliga. Hamburg now find themselves a point behind Bayern after seven matches and travel to Kaiserslautern on Saturday hoping to live up their new status of title contenders.
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/ 28 September 2005
German champions Bayern Munich put themselves in a commanding position to qualify from Champions League Group A with a 1-0 home win over FC Bruges on Tuesday. It was the first European match at Bayern’s new Allianz Arena and the German champions rewarded a 66 000 capacity crowd with a narrow victory.
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/ 27 September 2005
Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest car maker, said on Tuesday that its new compact sports utility vehicle, the Golf Marrakesh, would be built at its plant in Wolfsburg, north Germany. VW management had threatened to relocate production of the SUV to Portugal where unit costs were much cheaper, if the works’ council in Wolfsburg did not agree to new employment conditions.
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/ 26 September 2005
The troubled German department store chain KarstadtQuelle began giving away free flights to New York with the purchase of a special-edition winter coat on Monday in a bid to revive sales. The store is in the midst of a drastic restructuring after narrowly escaping bankruptcy last year.