German prosecutors targeting Bishop who allegedly re-appointed child rapist

Finally someone is taking this seriously. Knowingly re-appointing such a rapist and putting people in harms way should be a criminal offense. BBC:

Prosecutors say they are investigating the leader of Germany's Roman Catholic bishops on suspicion of aiding and abetting the sexual abuse of children.

Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg is suspected of allowing the re-appointment of a priest accused of child abuse in 1987.

Archbishop Zollitsch was in charge of personnel in Freiburg at the time.

The archdiocese rejected the charge, accusing prosecutors and the media of "sensationalism".

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It's that time of the year again

White asparagus from Germany. Northern Germany, in fact. My dear friend and cooking partner Wilhelm sent me a photo from Berlin to tease me. He knows that I know the white asparagus from northern Germany is the best in the world and it's hard to find here in Paris. Wilhelm has generously hand delivered white asparagus to our humble abode in the past and taught me how to cook the asparagus as well as how to make soup with the skin and the leftovers. They're only available for a short period of time so you need to cook them during this limited window. This year I will have to settle for the French-grown asparagus, which is still quite good but ever-so-slightly bitter. (For the soup, add the skins to buttered and salted water for the stock and then add cream and leftover bits. Yummmmm.) Read More......

Germany prepares to slash spending

There's a lot more of this to come both in Europe and the US. Though in many cases it has to be done, but whoever does it is going to be extremely unpopular with voters. The Guardian:

The nation is to be forced to make savings more extensive than at any time since the end of the second world war, with education and family welfare expected to take the largest hits.

The sobering figures emerged just after Germany's cabinet gave the go-ahead for Germany to put up €123bn (£105bn) towards the rescue package to stabilise the eurozone. That figure could rise to almost €150bn if needed.

Germans now face several years of belt-tightening, with Roland Koch, the deputy leader of chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party and the minister-president of the state of Hesse, saying that no areas "can be considered taboo".

Tax cuts that were promised by Merkel's government when it came into office in October have now been scrapped, the chancellor announced this week. Instead, policymakers are now talking of raising taxes to fill a €10bn fiscal gap.

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German Robin Hood receives suspended sentence

No, no, no. She's doing it all wrong. The average person on the street is supposed to bailout and fund exclusive lifestyles for the rich like we do in America. Heck, some will even talk about you as the savior of the economy if you do that.

The 62-year-old branch head of one German bank was hailed as a hero after she confessed to transferring money from rich customers to help her poorer clients. Already, she has been dubbed "Die Robin Hood Bankerin".

She was given a 22-month suspended sentence after moving more than €7.6m (£6.9m) in 117 transfers between 2003 and 2005. The court in Bonn was told that the employee, who has not been named, took no money for herself.

"The accused hasn't put one cent in her own pocket. She did it purely out of sympathy with people who were suffering financially," the woman's lawyer, Thomas Ohm, said. She was a "good samaritan" with a "Mother Courage" nature, referencing the Brecht character who believes she can do good in a bad world. The employee was accused of allowing overdrafts for customers who would not normally qualify for them. She then used the money from richer customers to temporarily disguise the loans during the bank's monthly audit of overdrafts.

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Wealthy Germans want to pay more taxes to help recovery

Let's just say you don't see petitions like this ever day. They are taking their petition which has been signed by a few dozen wealthy Germans and will deliver it to Chancellor Angela Merkel. Whether you agree or disagree, it's a rare example of unity of a nation to pull through a tough situation. You really have to read the whole story because it's really amazing. BBC:

The group say the financial crisis is leading to an increase in unemployment, poverty and social inequality.

Simply donating money to deal with the problems is not enough, they want a change in the whole approach.

"The path out of the crisis must be paved with massive investment in ecology, education and social justice," they say in the petition.

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Nazi POW to leave inheritance to Scottish village

Not the most typical story out there. He was taken prisoner in Normandy after D-Day and sent to the Scottish village of Comrie where he remained in prison until the end of the war. He decided to stay until 1956 before going back to Germany but he always appreciated the kindness of the local population. He even wants his ashes to be distributed in the countryside around the old camp. Amazing.

Speaking from his home near the northern German port of Bremen, he said: "I always wanted to pay something back. The people were very kind to us German PoWs. They did not treat us as the enemy. I had so many happy experiences in Scotland."

Speaking about his planned donation, he said: "I've always had it in my mind. I have no children and I live on my own. I came as a prisoner of war and I left as a friend."

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Merkel wins a second term in Germany

AP:

German voters handed conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel a second term and a chance to create new centre-right government Sunday, while her centre-left rivals suffered a historic defeat in the national election.

Merkel succeeded in ending her "grand coalition" with the centre-left Social Democrats led by challenger Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the current foreign minister, according to television projections. She can now form a government with the pro-business Free Democrats, who performed very strongly.

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Germany heading to the polls today

Angela Merkel is very likely to win as the left in Germany is in disarray. Maybe she can quit the tough talk following the elections and start focusing more on substance, if that's possible.

Germans decide Sunday whether to return the nation's first woman chancellor to a second term in office following a lackluster campaign centered largely on economic issues and a rash of last-minute threats by Islamic extremists.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is hoping enough of the nation's 62.2 million eligible voters will support her conservative Christian Democratic Party to give them a solid enough standing to form a center-right coalition with their top partners, the Free Democrats.

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New US ambassador to Germany arrives in executive jet

Classy. Who doesn't love a flashy Goldman Sachs executive arriving like this to represent a new style of government? Like the new US ambassador in London - the top post - the new arrival to Germany is a banker. Banksters of the world, unite!

Former Goldman Sachs chief Philip D. Murphy evidently arrived in the style to which he is accustomed last month to take up his new post as U.S. envoy to Germany, touching down in an ostentatious top-of-the-line executive jet that left German Chancellor Angela Merkel grinding her teeth over President Obama's gift of ambassadorships to wealthy donors.

Sources familiar with the incident said the arrival of Murphy, his wife and four soccer-uniformed kids on what some said was a Gulfstream V executive jet came just as the German press was describing how top embassy posts in the Obama administration were going almost exclusively to wealthy campaign donors.

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German eco town goes car free

It's easy to live in a city and not bother with a car. In our case we have a Metro station at either end of the street and on the few occasions when we need to use a car we either borrow or rent one. If anything, having a car in the city is a hassle and much too costly. Friends and family who live in the suburbs or country have a much more difficult time managing without a car but this little village in Germany is going to be an interesting case study.

The village is outside of another small town and the focus is on the environment. Houses are equipped with solar panels to generate power and because of the thick, insulated walls, they even sell surplus energy back to the power grid. Getting to work or shopping is as easy as jumping on the tram or car-sharing. Could this be replicated elsewhere?

In Vauban, a suburb of the university town of Freiburg, luxuriant beds of brilliant flowers replace what would normally be parking outside its neat, middle- class homes. Instead of the roar of traffic, the residents listen to birdsong, children playing and the occasional jingle of a bicycle bell.

"If you want to have a car here, you have to pay about €20,000 for a space in one of our garages on the outskirts of the district," says Andreas Delleske one of the founders and now a promoter of the Vauban project, "but about 57 per cent of the residents sold a car to enjoy the privilege of living here." As a result, most residents travel by bike or use the ultra-efficient tram service that connects the suburb with the centre of Freiburg, 15 minutes away. If they want a car to go on holiday or to shift things, they hire one or join one of the town's car-sharing schemes.

Because it has no cars, Vauban's planners have almost completely dispensed with the idea of metalled roads. Its streets and pathways are cobbled or gritted and vehicles are allowed in only for a matter of minutes to unload essential goods. Being virtually car-free is only the start of what has been hailed as one of Europe's most successful experiments in green living and one which is viewed increasingly as a blueprint for a future and perhaps essential way of living in an age of climate change.

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German archaeologists with another amazing find

The Germans have been finding a lot of amazing pieces of history recently but this one is really something. Click through to see the photo of this beautiful flute.

A bird-bone flute unearthed in a German cave was carved some 35,000 years ago and is the oldest handcrafted musical instrument yet discovered, archaeologists say, offering the latest evidence that early modern humans in Europe had established a complex and creative culture.

A team led by University of Tuebingen archaeologist Nicholas Conard assembled the flute from 12 pieces of griffon vulture bone scattered in a small plot of the Hohle Fels cave in southern Germany.

Together, the pieces comprise a 8.6-inch (22-centimeter) instrument with five holes and a notched end. Conard said the flute was 35,000 years old.

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German investors to launch $550 billion solar project

The Republicans are probably right. Nobody, but nobody cares about climate change and there is no money to be made here. There's not a business opportunity at all and the corporate world will never care about this issue so it's best letting someone else invest money in new technology because it will only be a failed venture. Better let Big Oil dictate environmental policy because they've always been fair and good for America. Who wants progress that would create new jobs anyway? Bah!

The consortium behind what would be the biggest ever solar energy initiative will first raise awareness and interest among other investors for the project, known as Desertec, which is estimated to cost around €400bn (£338bn).

Torsten Jeworrek, board member of Munich Re, the German reinsurer which is leading the project, said: "We want to found an initiative which over the next two to three years will put concrete measures on the table."

Like other reinsurers, Munich Re has said it is expecting to face mounting claims in the coming years for damage caused by climate change.

The companies – including Siemens, Deutsche Bank, and the energy companies RWE and E.on – will meet on July 13 in Munich to draw up an agreement. German government ministries as well as the Club of Rome, a Zurich-based NGO of leading scientists, managers and politicians which advocates sustainable development, are also expected to be present.

It is seen as particularly significant that the companies aim to start the expensive initiative in the midst of a financial crisis. But although none of the companies is keen to go into detail yet about their involvement, they stress that the project is a chance for them to drive forward the fight against climate change and in doing so to position themselves at the top of the green technology industry. Germany, despite its relative lack of sun, has become a leader in solar energy.

What's that? Insurance companies are investing because they foresee problems ahead with payouts related to climate change? And leading businesses are investing heavily during the worst economic crisis in decades? Could it be so? Are Republicans shaking in their boots because they can't handle any change of the status quo? Are they failing to adapt to the modern world, again? Say it ain't so.

There's a difference between talking up a big, bold story and actually doing it. The Republicans like to whip up macho talk as they bash environmentalists as they hide behind their fear of change. The Germans are actually offering serious change and putting their money behind it instead of same old, same old. Germany, like any country including the US, makes mistakes but maybe, just maybe, we could learn a few lessons in this instance. Read More......

FLASHBACK: When Bush massaged Merkel

As a follow-up to my post below, remembering the summit where Bush gave German Chancellor Merkel a rather unwelcome neck massage, a reader reminded me of this archival footage of Merkel's reaction.

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Sarkozy takes slap at Bush

"It feels really good to work with a US president who wants to change the world and who understands the world." - French President Nicolas Sarkozy today. (And you know Merkel is thinking, finally a president who won't have his greasy paws all over me.)

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France and Germany aren't completely wrong

While France and Germany could stand to invest more in stimulus plans, they're also not wrong about global regulation. The banks have played one country against another for far too long and coordinating an approach around the world is a good idea. It's still unclear why Obama is so against this, other than the possibility that he continues to buy into the know-it-all Summers, who must be against it. London and New York remain the global financial capitals, and that probably has a lot to do with this as well. If there were more confidence in Geithner leading the US regulation, a global regulator would be less interesting. At a very minimum, we need a lot more coordination across borders with regulating banks.

Despite calls for unity from Mr. Obama and the British prime minister, Gordon Brown, the host of the Group of 20 meeting that will formally begin Thursday, a rift intensified over Anglo-American calls for greater fiscal stimulus spending and French and German demands for more intrusive global regulation of financial institutions.

While President Nicolas Sarkozy of France did not repeat an earlier threat to walk out of the conference — “I just got here,” he joked — he made it clear he would reject an agreement that puts off stringent new regulations on banks, tax havens, and hedge funds.

“The decisions need to be taken now, today and tomorrow,” he said. “This has nothing to do with ego. This has nothing to do with temper tantrums. When it comes to historic moments, you can’t circumvent them.”

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Europe with its head in the sand

Ah, Europe. Love em to death - in fact, some of my best family and cats are European. But Chris has been saying for a long time that European governments like to think of the economic crisis as an American problem that won't really affect them. I'd written the other day about the French Finance Minister scolding the US about being so late to the stimulus package game, and thus implying that France and Europe have the higher ground when it comes to confronting the economic crisis, and about how the minister suggested that the crisis was really an American problem.

It seems Nobel laureate in economics Paul Krugman n'est pas d'accord.

Krugman's article today walks you through Europe's handling of the crisis - shorter Krugman: they haven't done much, and have done a hell of a lot less than we have - and notes, repeatedly, that Europe's economic slump will be "at least" as bad as the US'. Krugman says that the European Central bank has refused to low interest rates sufficiently, and that monetary integration (adopting the Euro) has taken away the ability of individual countries to devalue their currency. What about stimulus? The European governments have spent far less, as a percentage of GDP, than we have, but just as bad, they have little incentive to spend any more. Because their economies are so interwoven, no government wants to be the lone actor paying for everyone else's stimulus (since France's stimulus, for example, would help Italy and Spain and Greece and everyone else in the EU). The other countries would be freeloaders. So, better to do nothing than offer your neighbors a little goodwill, or worse - eh gads! - actually put that "European nationality" to work and carve out a stimulus package with requirements for each EU country.

And of course, this affects us too. All of our economies are intertwined. A weak Europe will slow our recovery just as much as a weak American economy will slow the world. It seems the French Finance Minister, along with her Germany counterpart, are hell-bent on taking the rest of us down with them. I guess that's one way to reclaim your global leadership role - being at the front of the pack as we all plunge down the abyss. Read More......

Merkel phones Pope about Holocaust-denying Bishop

Good for her. I have to say, the Germans have outdone themselves in taking a rather outspoken stance against the Pope's rehabilitation of a Holocaust-denying Bishop.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel phoned Pope Benedict XVI Sunday over a Holocaust denier whom the pope welcomed back into the Roman Catholic Church last month.

Neither side seems to have shifted its position over Bishop Richard Williamson, who, shortly before the pope lifted his excommunication, denied the Nazis had systematically murdered six million Jews during World War II.

"It was a very constructive conversation," the German government and Vatican said in a joint statement about the call. Merkel and the pope expressed respect for each others' opinion, the release said -- diplomatic-speak for saying neither side budged.

Merkel demanded Tuesday that the pope firmly reject Holocaust denial: "The pope and the Vatican must make absolutely clear that there can be no denial of the Holocaust," Merkel said.

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German Bishops calling for expulsion of Pope's buddy, the Holocaust denier

I feel bad for the German Catholic church. First German Pope, and what do they have to contend with? A guy who's giving signals that he's sympathetic to the Nazis and Jew-hatred. Only set Germany back about 65 years.

Germany's Catholic bishops are calling for the expulsion of a bishop, recently brought back into the church by Pope Benedict XVI, after new reports that Richard Williamson denies the Holocaust.

In statements to Spiegel Online, the Web site of the German news magazine, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch said the church should part ways with Bishop Williamson, a member of an ultra-conservative group that split off after Pope John Paul II excommunicated him and three other bishops in 1988.

"Mr. Williamson is impossible and irresponsible," Zollitsch, chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, told the magazine in an article published Saturday. "I now see no room for him in the Catholic Church."

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Angela Merkel calls out Pope Benedict

NOTE FROM JOHN: This is how bad this Pope, and this Vatican, are - they've made it increasingly unclear exactly where they stand on the Holocaust.

Rightly so.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Pope Benedict XVI to make a "very clear" rejection of Holocaust denials after the Vatican's rehabilitation of a former bishop who questioned whether 6 million Jews were gassed by the Nazis.

Merkel's rare and public demand came amid increasing outrage among Germany's Roman Catholic leaders over the pope's decision to lift the excommunication of British-born Richard Williamson.

Merkel said she "does not believe" there has been adequate clarification of the Vatican's position on the Holocaust amid the controversy.

Benedict last week expressed "full and indisputable solidarity" with Jews and warned against any denial of the horror of the Holocaust, but several leading German bishops have decried the decision and called for the rehabilitation to be revoked.

"I do not believe that sufficient clarification has been made," Merkel said.

The Vatican moved quickly to counter Merkel's suggestion.

"The pope's thinking on the subject of the Holocaust has been expressed very clearly," said Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi.

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China overtakes Germany to become third largest economy

Will the trend continue and China's growth will make it number one or is this the peak before the bubble bursts? I think there is trouble ahead but then again, everyone is in the same stormy economy right now. If China can make it through this recession relatively unscathed and rebound quickly they could easily march on to the top spot, but it still sounds like a long shot.

China has overtaken Germany to become the world's third-largest economy earlier than expected, after estimates for the country's gross domestic product were revised higher.

The National Bureau of Statistics of China reported this morning it now believes the Chinese economy grew by 13% in 2007, up from an earlier estimate of 11.9% and China's highest annual growth rate since 1993.

Applying the revision to previous calculations carried out by the World Bank shows that China's gross national income reached $3.218 trillion in 2007 compared with $3.197tn for Germany.

Economists were already confident that China overtook Germany during 2008, but it now seems that the change occurred in a year earlier. China took fourth place from Britain in 2005, and now has Japan and the US in its sights.

China's rapid economic growth began to tail off last year, as the manufacturing powerhouse felt the impact of the woes sweeping the global economy. GDP growth fell to 9% in the third quarter of 2008, down from 10.1% in the second quarter and the fifth straight quarter of slowing growth.

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