Two Australians face jail for running up €148,000 hotel tab
Two Australian men stood in a Frankfurt court on Monday for running up an enormous hotel bill that they couldn’t pay.
Day: September 22, 2008
How I learned to stop worrying and love my Sparbuch
In the latest dispatch of Portnoy’s Stammtisch, The Local’s column about life in Germany, Portnoy muses on how the current global financial crisis has brought Germany’s leftist populist Oskar Lafontaine and America’s cowboy capitalist George W. Bush together.
Five German tourists kidnapped in Egypt
Five German tourists have been kidnapped in Egypt, the Foreign Ministry in Berlin confirmed on Monday.
Berlin rejects joining US bank bailout package
Germany on Monday said the country would not participate in the US government’s $700-billion bailout package for troubled banks, as Chancellor Angela Merkel renewed her call for greater regulation of the financial sector.
Germany caps financial aid to China
German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said on Monday Berlin was ending all financial aid to China amid criticism the rapidly growing country no longer needed such forms of direct support.
Alcoholic dies trying to rappel from fifth-floor forced detox
A 48-year-old alcoholic Wuppertal woman fell to her death on Sunday evening trying to escape the fifth-floor apartment where she'd been confined to prevent her from drinking.
Heidi Klum misses out at Emmy Awards
German supermodel Heidi Klum failed to win an Emmy award on Sunday night for her popular reality show “Project Runway,” despite being nominated in two categories.
KfW transfer to Lehman reportedly no mistake
The €350-million transfer to Lehman Brothers from German state development bank KfW transfer was not a mistake, according to the Monday edition of daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Berlin boat nearly hits mystery cable strung across canal
Berlin police are investigating an incident near Görlitzer Bridge in the city’s Kreuzberg district after a passenger boat narrowly avoided a cable that was strung across the canal, daily Der Tagesspiegel reported on Monday.
German and Somali hostages released
A German national and his Somali wife who were kidnapped over the weekend in the northern Somali breakaway state of Puntland were released on Monday, officials said.
Postbank workers stage all-day strike on Monday
Service sector labour union Verdi has called for a day-long strike for Postbank workers across Germany on Monday in an ongoing wage dispute.
‘Baader Meinhof Gang’ jail to be demolished
The notorious high-security prison where leaders of the German urban guerrilla group the Baader Meinhof Gang committed suicide is to be torn down to make room for a mental hospital, daily Stuttgarter Zeitung reported on Monday.