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Rwandan militia leader commanding Congo violence from Germany

admin — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:26:08 +0000

In spite of an international arrest warrant, Ignace Murwanashyaka lives free in Germany. By telephone, he leads FDLR, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda.

A Deutsche Welle article states, “In 1994 Rwanda was the site of one of the worst genocides in history. More than 800,000 people – mostly Tutsi – were killed over three months by the army and Hutu militias. Today, there’s peace in Rwanda but on the other side of the mountain range, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, many of the Hutu militiamen continue their fight. Organized as the FDLR, they bring havoc over the eastern Congo – turning 1.5 million people into refugees.”

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Special A/H1N1 vaccine for Germany’s government

admin — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 17:27:49 +0000

Leaders of the German government will receive a different vaccine than the one distributed to the public, reports The Local. The government’s vaccine does not have a booster and a preservative containing mercury.

“Chancellor Angela Merkel, her cabinet members and ministry civil servants as well as those working for other agencies will get Celvapan, produced by US firm Baxter, which does not have the adjuvant or the preservative, according to Der Spiegel.”

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Anti-nuclear group criticizes German waste shipments to Russia

admin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:07:34 +0000

[Deutsche Welle]– In the wake of a French investigation into reports that nuclear waste is sent from French plants to Siberia, news has emerged that Germany has a long tradition of shipping toxic waste to Russia.

The German anti-nuclear group “Ausgestrahlt” said that since 1996, Germany’s only uranium enrichment plant in Gronau has shipped about 22,000 tons of uranium hexafluoride, which is a compound used in the uranium enrichment process, to Russia.

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Chris McKenna (Thryduulf)

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Stranded cargo vessel with Russian sailors near UAE impounded

admin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 05:35:49 +0000

[RIA Novosti]– A cargo vessel with nine Russian crewmembers stranded in the United Arab Emirates has been impounded, an inspector from the International Transport Workers’ Federation said.

The Magdalena, owned by a German company and flying the flag of Antigua and Barbuda, has been anchored 16 miles off UAE coast near Dubai since early August due to an engine breakdown.

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Rootology

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High hurdles for extending the life of Germany’s nuclear power plants

admin — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:36:21 +0000

[Deutsche Welle]– Germany’s new government is considering extending the lives of some of the country’s nuclear plants – under strict conditions. The deliberations come as a ceiling at a temporary nuclear waste storage site caved in.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and her new liberal Free Democrat (FDP) coalition partner are embroiled in coalition talks this week, where both parties have indicated their willingness to nix current nuclear phase-out plans in favor of extending the operational life span of nuclear plants in connection with strict security standards.

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ja:User:Newsliner

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Berlin’s former city finance chief calls the capital too stupid to be great

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:48:33 +0000

[Deutsche Welle]– Berlin’s outspoken former city finance chief Thilo Sarrazin has provoked the citizens of his old home town once again by blaming the city’s underclass and its leftist mentality for what he sees as its lack of success.

“The city is burdened by its ‘68 tradition and the West-Berliner sloppiness factor,” Sarrazin said in an interview with the cultural magazine Lettre International. “Its politics are not elitist – it has a plebeian and petit-bourgeois outlook,” he said.

Sarrazin pointed out that Berlin’s unique 20th century history prevented it from re-attaining its status as an intellectual, financial and industrial metropolis. The destruction of Jewish culture in the 1930′s drained the city of its intellectual and business elite, Sarrazin believes.

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Thomas Wolf (Der Wolf im Wald)

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Merkel has centre-right majority with 33.5%, exit polls show

admin — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:41:18 +0000

[France 24]– Chancellor Angela Merkel has won a second mandate in the German federal elections with a new centre-right CDU/CSU coalition holding 33.5% of the vote, exit polls show. The SPD suffered their worst score since the war with 22%.

Angela Merkel swept to a second mandate in the German election Sunday with a new centre-right alliance she said was best-placed to jumpstart Europe’s ailing top economy, exit polls indicated.

The exit polls released as voting closed showed the 55-year-old Merkel’s conservative Christian Union bloc (CDU/CSU) as the clear winners with about 33 percent of the vote.

That will mean that Merkel, Germany’s first female leader and the only chancellor from the ex-communist east, can serve another four-year term.

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Ricardo Stuckert/PR

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Germany sets up no-fly zone over Oktoberfest in wake of terror threats

admin — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 18:12:31 +0000

German authorities have banned air traffic in the skies above Munich’s Oktoberfest in response to the spate of terror threats in recent days.

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann announced a no-fly zone over the Oktoberfest festival area on Saturday, Sept. 26. The airspace restriction came at the request of the federal Interior Ministry.

Munich’s Theresienwiese beer garden is spread over 77 acres (31 hectares), where 6 million people join in the 16-day celebration every year.

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Germany on edge after fourth consecutive al-Qaeda bomb attack warning

admin — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:35:48 +0000

Germany was on edge yesterday after a fourth consecutive al-Qaeda video warned of an imminent bomb attack in Germany unless the Government withdrew its troops from Afghanistan.

The threats were aimed at German voters ahead of next Sunday’s general election and were being taken seriously by the security authorities.

Armed police are being deployed around railway stations, airports and Jewish institutions. The 660 orderlies at Munich’s Oktoberfest beer festival — the world’s biggest open air drinking party and a possible target — have been briefed to check the baggage of suspicious revellers. The Oktoberfest, which celebrates beer and alcohol consumption, would presumably not have many believing Muslims in the crowd.

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Merkel presses Netanyahu on settlements

admin — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 01:19:44 +0000

The construction of Jewish settlements on Palestinian lands must be stopped, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a meeting in Berlin.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on a four-day trip to Europe and has sought support for stronger sanctions against Iran, which Israel regards as a threat to its existence. But while German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed a willingness to consider new sanctions, she also reiterated calls from the Palestinians and US President Barack Obama to halt the construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

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David Shankbone

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