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Merkel Urged to Press Obama on NSA Scandal Ahead of Washington Talks

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Photo Credit: Imago/Barcroft Media

Photo Credit: Imago/Barcroft Media

Angela Merkel should ask Barack Obama to destroy her NSA file when she meets the American president in Washington this week, a leading German opposition politician has told the Guardian.

The Greens warn that failure to address the intelligence monitor scandal would risk undermining the credibility of the western alliance during the Ukraine crisis.

“Close co-operation between western allies requires joint values – also in relation to the activities of our intelligence services,” said Omid Nouripour, the Green party’s foreign policy spokesperson.

“Trying to sit out the NSA scandal won’t work: we can’t afford to let the remaining open questions strain relations during on the current crisis,” he said, suggesting that a symbolic act, such as the destruction of Merkel’s NSA file, could help to mend US-German relations.

The German chancellor travels to the US on Thursday and will meet Obama on Friday.

Read more from this story HERE.

Merkel: Euro Crisis Will Last at Least Another 5 Years; Shipments of Life-Saving Drugs to Greece Halted

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Merkel: Euro Debt Crisis to Last at Least Five More Years

By Associated Press. German Chancellor Angela Merkel says Europe’s sovereign debt crisis will last at least five more years.

Merkel says the continent is on the right path to overcome the crisis but “whoever thinks this can be fixed in one or two years is wrong.”

Two years ago some heavily indebted European countries were dragged into the turmoil that first gripped global financial markets in 2007.

Greece in particular has been struggling with the austerity conditions imposed on it by countries such as Germany. Read more from this story HERE.

Germans stop shipment of life-saving cancer drug to Greece as Euro crisis deepens

By the Daily Mail Reporter. The spiralling decline of the Greek economy took an even more brutal turn today with the news that German pharmaceuticals firm Merck KGaA has ceased deliveries of a life-saving cancer drug to Greek hospitals.

The drug, Erbitux, is an effective treatment for both colorectal cancers and head and neck cancers

A number of industrial giants have shied away from accepting orders from the crisis-hit Greeks.

Another German-based pharma giant, Biotest, suspended shipments to Greece because of unpaid bills in in June of this year.

Matthias Zachert, Merck’s chief financial officer, told the German newspaper paper Boersen-Zeitung that publicly-owned hospitals in several euro-zone countries had been struggling to pay their bills. Read more from this story HERE.