Europe Today

Europe

Germany’s central bank decides to sack board member

BY The Guardian | PHOTO Reuters
PUBLISHED 09:53, September 3, 2010
null

Germany’s central bank today took the unprecedented step of sacking a board member after he repeatedly criticised the country’s Muslim population and said “all Jews share the same gene”.

In a brief statement, the Bundesbank president, Axel Weber, and four other board members said that they had been in unanimous agreement in dismissing Thilo Sarrazin, who caused an outcry when he said Muslims were sapping Germany’s intellectual and economic strength. The board’s decision, taken at an extraordinary meeting, is the first such in the institution’s 50-year history. All that remains is for the German president, Christian Wulff, to sanction the dismissal of Sarrazin, according to the bank’s rules. Wulff has signalled he will do so, calling Sarrazin’s remarks damaging to Germany’s international reputation. Sarrazin has written a book, Germany Is Destroying Itself, published this week, which unleashed a scandal and... [Full article]

Freedom of information combats corruption in Spain

BY Eurotopics | PHOTO IDA
PUBLISHED 15:51, August 17, 2010

According to media reports, the Spanish government is working on a freedom of information law which would give citizens easier access to information held by public institutions.

The left-liberal daily El País is full of hope: “With more transparency we would have less corruption; if the authorities were forced to give citizens access to documents about how public money is used, contracts on building projects, the minutes of meetings or the content of expensive experts’ opinions. Then there would be fewer false debates. … It is to be hoped that... [Full article]

Merkel rejects plans to attract skilled foreign workers

BY Deutsche Welle
PUBLISHED 18:28, August 2, 2010

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has rejected plans by the German Economy Minister, Rainer Bruederle, to make it easier for skilled foreign workers to find jobs in Germany.

It was unnecessary to amend the law controlling migrant workers at present, said government spokesman Christoph Steegmans on Monday. The law, which came into force in January 2009, made it easier for foreigners who had trained in Germany to find work in the country. It also lowered the minimum income needed for a... [Full article]

Britain plans to decentralize health care

BY IHT
PUBLISHED 21:41, July 29, 2010

Perhaps the only consistent thing about Britain’s socialized health care system is that it is in a perpetual state of flux, its structure constantly changing as governments search for the elusive formula that will deliver the best care for the cheapest price while costs and demand escalate.

Even as the new coalition government said it would make enormous cuts in the public sector, it initially promised to leave health care alone. But in one of its most surprising moves so... [Full article]

Former Nazi Guard, 88, charged in mass murder of Jews

BY IHT
PUBLISHED 21:37, July 29, 2010

German prosecutors have charged an 88-year-old former Nazi guard with aiding in the murders of 430,000 Jews at the Belzec death camp during World War II, and with shooting 10 people himself during his time there.

The former guard, Samuel Kunz, No. 3 on the list of most wanted Nazi war criminals published by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, was indicted earlier this month for crimes committed between January 1942 and July 1943, Christoph Göke, a prosecutor in Dortmund, said Wednesday.... [Full article]

Former officers sentenced to life for Srebrenica massacre

BY France 24
PUBLISHED 08:48, June 11, 2010

The International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has served seven former officers in the Bosnian Serb army sentences of up to life in prison in connection with the July 1995 massacre of more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica.

Seven former Bosnian Serb military leaders were convicted and sentenced to up to life in prison on Thursday for war crimes related to the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of thousands of Muslim men in the former Yugoslavia. Vujadin Popovic, and Ljubisa Beara, two former Serbian army chiefs of security, were found guilty of genocide, extermination, murder and persecution and received life terms, the... [Full article]

Advertisement