The UK economy has nearly recovered the ground lost since 2008 financial crisis Best manufacturing performance since 1999 Senator hurries to close Pfizer tax loophole Omnicom-Publicis $35bn merger collapses 3.21pm BST Earlier, Ireland's 10 year bond yields fell below those of the UK for the first time in six years, another sign of the continuing improvement in eurozone economies. Ireland 10Y yield...
Euro-MPs from across the continent and political spectrum describe their weekly routine At the beginning I found it unbelievably difficult to get things moving in the European parliament, and to get people's attention. No one listens to you automatically. Continue reading... ...
Giulia Enders' debut book, whose title translates as Charming Bowels, has sold 200,000 copies in her native Germany To dismiss Giulia Enders' debut work as a "toilet book" would do it great injustice not least because the author argues that we shouldn't really be reading books in the lavatory anyway. Darm mit Charme ("Charming Bowels") which has sat atop the German paperback charts...
A selection of winning images from the Nature photographer of the year 2014 competition held by the Society of German Wildlife Photographers ( Gesellschaft Deutscher Tierfotografen GDT ) Continue reading... ...
Several works in his collection suspected of having been looted from Jewish families during Nazi era A Swiss museum has inherited one of the most controversial art collections in recent European history. Kunstmuseum Bern confirmed on Wednesday it has been named the "unrestricted and unfettered sole heir" in the will of the reclusive collector Cornelius Gurlitt, who died on Tuesday. Several...
Frank-Walter Steinmeier says Ukraine is 'a few steps away' from military conflict as dozens are reported dead near Slavyansk Ukraine is close to war, the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, has warned in interviews published in four European newspapers on Tuesday. Dozens are feared to have died in clashes outside Slavyansk on Monday as Ukrainian troops clashed with pro-Russia separatists....
Siemens says acquisition will strengthen its position in oil and gas industry and in field of decentralised power generation German engineering firm Siemens on Tuesday announced it would buy the energy production arm of Britain's Rolls-Royce for 950m (£780m) to strengthen its standing in the oil and gas industry. "Siemens is acquiring the Rolls-Royce Energy aero-derivative gas turbine and...
Cornelius Gurlitt, 81, dies amid dispute over thousands of masterpieces, including work by Picasso, Chagall and Matisse Cornelius Gurlitt, the reclusive art collector who kept thousands of masterpieces in his Munich flat, has died at the age of 81, opening a new legal can of worms over the future of his collection, some of which is suspected of having been looted by the Nazis. Gurlitt, whose collection...
German carmaker experiences sales boost in first quarter and hopes to sell more than 2m vehicles in a year for first time BMW is heading for a record year after surging Chinese demand for its cars helped to drive profits higher in the first quarter. The German high-end carmaker said it was on course to sell more than 2m vehicles in a year for the first time. Continue reading... ...
Axel Schneider says his team were unable to do nothing as the sound of gunfire came closer and closer The head of an OSCE team released by pro-Russia rebels in east Ukraine on Saturday has described how he and his colleagues faced a "constantly growing threat" as the situation deteriorated around them. "The proverbial fire of handguns and artillery came closer and closer," said...
A Berlin-based website has decided to slam the brakes on speed-dating by creating in-depth, polished profiles of its users One evening last summer, Jule Müller and Anni Kralisch-Pehlke were about to call it a night at their local bar in Berlin's Neukölln neighbourhood, when the conversation turned to dating. "We asked ourselves why so many of our friends are still single," Kralisch-Pehlke...
Editorial: Hitler is dead; that seems certain. Even a superman would find it hard to survive so much slow Wagnerian music Hitler is dead; that seems certain. Even a superman would find it hard to survive so much slow Wagnerian music. But when and how he died who shall say? There is hardly room to doubt that we are present at the most interesting spectacle of the launching of a myth upon the world....
The multigeneration houses in Germany combine nurseries and nursing homes. It may be a glimpse of a new kind of social care The thinktank IPPR has recommended that the UK learns from the multigeneration houses in Germany , designed to provide support to people of several generations at once, with a kindergarten rubbing shoulders with day service for older people. That this idea should seem so radical...
US and German leaders present united front in warning Putin futher sanctions inevitable unless Russia reverses course US president Barack Obama and German chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday warned Russia that sanctions targeting whole sections of the country's economy would be inevitable unless Moscow de-escalates the situation in Ukraine before elections later this month. Appearing together at the...
European Union institutions no longer work. A radical financial and democratic settlement is needed The European Union is experiencing an existential crisis, as the European elections will soon brutally remind us. This mainly involves the eurozone countries, which are mired in a climate of distrust and a debt crisis that is very far from over: unemployment persists and deflation threatens. Nothing...
A strangely lost and not yet found film (Reel finds, G2, 2 May) is Fritz Wendhausen 's Little Man What Now (1933), with Hertha Thiele and art direction by Caspar Neher . This film co-scripted by the author of the novel, Hans Fallada was originally to be directed by Berthold Viertel , with music by Kurt Weill , prominent Jews who had to leave Germany. The novel was an international bestseller and was...
Technology stymies German chancellor's first meeting with Obama since NSA revelations after translating device fizzles German chancellor Angela Merkels first visit to the White House since the revelation that her calls were bugged by the National Security Agency was never going to be easy. But Merkel could not have known how quite how awkward her appearance with US president Barack Obama would be....
Forty years after the Rubik's Cube was invented, competitors from around the globe still gather to solve the puzzle On a low stage, a young man examined a Rubiks Cube. Around him, an audience stood, precariously, on tables and chairs, or peered down from skyboxes. In one fluid motion, he activated a timer on the table before him and his fingers disappeared in a blur of activity. When he set the puzzle...
With the number of over-65s set to double and childcare more expensive than ever, Mehrgenerationenhaus may be the answer In Pattensen, a small town of 13,000 just south of Hanover, pensioners play cards to the echoing tick-tock of a grandfather clock. It might be a melancholy scene if it wasn't for the squeals of delight coming through the open door from the nursery on the next floor. The nursery and...
Separatists claim they are under attack in Slavyansk Two helicopter pilots killed Ukraine brings in conscription to combat gains by separatists 9.46am BST Both sides are now saying that two Ukrainian helicopters were shot down and their pilots killed, AP points out. The Ukrainian Security Service said one of the helicopters was shot down with a surface-to-air missile, which it said undercut Russia's...