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Germany Defies Calls For Stimulus

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Photo Credit: European University Institute

Germany has ignored calls from its eurozone partners for more economic stimulus by tabling plans to cut spending and balance its budget ahead of schedule on the eve of an EU summit dedicated to growth.

Wolfgang Schäuble, German finance minister, said on Wednesday that his budget for 2014, involving spending cuts of more than €5bn to trim the total below €300bn, was “a strong signal for Europe”.

The plan means Germany will reach budget balance in 2015, a year earlier than required under the “debt brake” written into its constitution.

He described the 2014 spending plan as “growth-friendly consolidation”, intended to prove to the rest of the eurozone that “consistent sustainable budgeting and growth are not mutually exclusive”. Philipp Rösler, economy minister, said Germany’s public finances were the “envy of the world”.

Publication of the budget was deliberately brought forward by a week to bring out the figures before the EU summit, according to German officials. In spite of tough cuts for health, social security and environment, the plan was rushed through the cabinet well ahead of schedule.

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Brother of Infamous Nazi Hermann Goering Up For Prestigious ‘Righteous of the Nations’ Award

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Albert Goering, the brother of infamous Nazi Hermann Goering, is now among the candidates to receive the Righteous Among The Nations award. Albert was a German businessman who died in 1966.

According to accounts, Albert saved hundreds of Jews and political dissidents during the Second World War by helping them obtain exit permits and through other means.

Irena Steinfeldt, director of the Righteous Among The Nations department at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial and research center in Israel, is supposedly preparing a file on Goering. The award is given to those who not only saved Jews, but risked their lives in doing so.

Despite their conflicting political views, the Goering brothers remained close.

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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.

Eurozone Unemployment Hits Record High While, At the Same Time, One Eurozone Country Has Record Low Unemployment

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The eurozone unemployment rate was 11.4% in August, up from 10.2% last year. Data from the EU statistics agency Eurostat estimated that 25.5 million men and women were out of work over the period, 18.2 million of whom were in the eurozone.

Compared with the previous month the number of unemployed people in the EU rose by 49,000 and in the eurozone by 34,000.

The overall unemployment rate in Spain has reached 25.1%, while the latest data from Greece for June shows a figure of 24.4%. The outlook is far more optimistic in Germany, however, where just 5.5% of people are out of work.

The EU announced on Monday that it will reallocate an extra €2.7bn of structural funds to tackle youth unemployment, on top of the €7.3bn already identified.

The reallocation is part of the EU’s “Youth Opportunities Initiative” which saw pilot programmes set up in the eight EU member states with the highest levels of youth joblessness: Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Lithuania, Slovakia, Ireland and Latvia.

Germany cooperated with Black September after Munich Massacre

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German newspaper Der Spiegel revealed Sunday that German authorities cooperated with Black September, a Palestinian terror group, after it had carried out an attack that killed 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. Germany, it was reported, did so for fear of additional attacks on its soil.

According to the report, the German government held secret contacts with the planners of the Munich Massacre. Several months after the attack, Germany’s then foreign minister, Walter Scheel, met secretly with several Black September members to “rebuild trust.”

Berlin demanded that the terror group not carry out any more terrorist attacks on German soil. The Palestinians, on their part, demanded Berlin’s support of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).

According to Der Spiegel, Germany suspended its criminal investigation against the massacre’s perpetrators as the talks progressed. Several weeks later, the deputy foreign minister announced that the investigation had been concluded.

In 1977, French police asked Germany whether it wanted it to extradite Abu Daoud, one of the planners of the attack, but Germany decided not to answer the question.

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