- Latest Popular Stories, Instablogs Community by A_norbert

German Elections: Merkel faces search for coalition partner

Norbert — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:11:49 +0000

Across the country, in loud, sweaty beer tents and on scrappy, weed-tangled urban parkland, German politicians are scrambling for the Absent Voter. With four days to go before the general election, about 26 per cent of Germans are unsure how to cast their vote. So the parties have instructed their candidates to go out and shout their wares, like fishmongers at the end of market day.

But what about the Absent Leader? The Chancellor, Angela Merkel, who spent the beginning of the election campaign hiking in the South Tyrol, will be in Pittsburgh for the G20 meeting during its final days. So far the figures show that she is right to be confident. Barring some extraordinary reconfiguration of the Left, she will still be Chancellor of Germany this time next week. Two polls give her Christian Democrats 36 per cent of the vote, a 10 point lead over the Social Democrats. The open question is whether she will win a sufficient majority to head a pro-business coalition with the liberal Free Democrats (currently polling 12 per cent) or whether she will be forced back into harness with Frank Walter Steinmeier’s Social Democrats. Either way she does not have to change her telephone number.

Germany's Cash for Clunkers Black-Market Scandal

Norbert — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 08:27:04 +0000

As the U.S. jumps on board the cash-for-clunkers bandwagon, the Obama Administration would do well to pay attention to what is happening in Hamburg’s sprawling harbor. The seaport city is one of the busiest ports in the world: nearly every car - new or used - passes through its docks on the way out of Germany. And this week, the police charged with patrolling the harbor released evidence showing that Germany’s hugely popular cash-for-clunkers program may have some unintended beneficiaries: organized-crime groups and individuals who export the old cars to the Third World instead of crushing them into scrap. (Watch a video on how the cars-for-clunkers process works.)

Under the German program, which started in February, anyone who scraps a car that is at least nine years old can apply for a government subsidy of $3,600 toward the purchase of a new car. The German federal government has earmarked about $7 billion for the plan, which has been so popular that car sales in Germany could hit a 10-year high of 3.5 million vehicles this year.

German Children Now 'Holocausted' With Comics

Norbert — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:37:51 +0000

A strip cartoon telling the story of the Holocaust has been tested on hundreds of German schoolchildren, provoking

Germany slaughters 1,400 farm birds against bird flu

Norbert — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 18:44:48 +0000

Germany moved Friday against an outbreak of bird flu close to the Polish border, slaughtering 1,400 ducks and geese on a farm at Markersdorf near the city of Goerlitz.

NASA Revises Chance of Massive Asteroid Strike Down from 1 in 45,000 to 1 in 450 After Being Corrected by 13yo

Norbert — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 07:17:47 +0000

It was an incredible tale of a German schoolboy spotting a miscalculation by the US space agency, proving the chances of an asteroid hitting the Earth were higher than initially...

15 Ads That Prove Sex Sells ...Best?

Norbert — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 21:31:29 +0000

Sex sells. Advertising and sex have been tied together since advertising became a big business. The use of sexually suggestive images to sell just about everything really emphasizes the point that sex is a merchandiser’s best...

Mosley in Nazi Sex Romp

Norbert — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 20:26:32 +0000

Leading German car manufacturers Mercedes-Benz and BMW issued a statement here Thursday slamming the alleged recent lurid behaviour of FIA president Max Mosley as “disgraceful.”

Both companies, with teams in Formula One set to take part in this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, distanced themselves from the revelations about Mosley’s private life as revealed by British Sunday newspaper the News of the World last weekend.