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Merkel's Greek gambit backfires

Top News: Germans have been astounded recently by the rapid decline in Angela Merkel's political fortune.

Merkel's Greek gambit backfires

Top News: Germans have been astounded recently by the rapid decline in Angela Merkel's political fortune.

NATO contemplates a broader mission

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Eleven years ago, few people other than south-Asia watchers had any idea what the Taliban was, much less could have imagined why more than 100,000 soldiers would be needed to fight it. At that time, the world’s premier military alliance, NATO, had never fought a ground war, operated outside of Europe, or invoked its Article 5 collective-defense clause.  But Sept. 11, 2001 changed everything for the alliance. Well, almost everything.

Modern Germany: one day at a Munich courthouse

MUNICH, Germany — John Demjanjuk, a 90-year-old on trial for assisting in the murder of nearly 30,000 Jews during World War II, lay on a hospital bed in a Munich courtroom with his eyes closed. In a neighboring room, a young Afghan man cradled his head in hands as his sister-in-law testified that he had killed his wife in a fit of jealousy. And in the hallway between those courtrooms, a gaggle of television cameras waited for the verdict in the trial of a teenager accused of perpetrating an act of random violence that had horrified the nation.

Macedonian Jews erect world-class Holocaust museum

SKOPJE, Macedonia — The construction cranes, heavy machinery and plumes of dust in Skopje’s city center herald the final chapter in one of the Balkans’ saddest tales. After years of delays, Macedonia’s Jews are building a world-class museum to remember their near-extinction in the Holocaust.

EU leaders defend the euro

Where the pope's words resonate

TRAUNSTEIN, Germany — In the Church of St. Veit and Anna, which sits alone atop a hill in the Bavarian town of Ettendorf, every pew was packed and some people were standing.  On this first Sunday after Easter, people shuffled over a bit to make room for two latecomers, but the new arrivals knew to simply close the heavy oak doors behind them and remain in place while joining in with the choir. 

Germany at War

Top News: Germany has been busy recently dealing with the traumas of war. The conflict in Afghanistan has claimed the lives of seven German soldiers during the month of April.

German families look to US for asylum

WASHINGTON — The doorbell rang early that morning in 2006, before the three oldest Romeike children had begun their schoolwork at the family’s kitchen table in Bissingen, Germany. Uwe Romeike peeked through a window and saw two police officers. Romeike’s heart stopped. He didn’t know what to do. He prayed the officers would go away if he didn’t answer the door. Instead, Romeike said, the officers left a voice message threatening to break in.

In Europe, forced to take the long way home

SOMEWHERE IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC — It’s 2:30 in the morning as I write these words, my Berlin-bound train rattling through the darkness of the southern reaches of the Czech Republic. I take it we’ve just crossed the Austrian-Czech border because a no-nonsense conductor in a red-trimmed blue uniform just yanked open the door of our compartment, flipped on a blinding overhead light and demanded our tickets in Slavic-accented German.
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