Berlin - TV and radio producers, directors and commissioning editors have begun flooding into Berlin for the 2008 Prix Europa festival, which heads off Saturday, with 31 countries and 213 nominated productions chasing trophies and 80,000 euros (108,000 dollars) in cash awards.
Susanne Hoffmann, the long-serving director of the continent's biggest tri-media event, says more than 1,000 people will participate, with many arriving from countries in the north and from Central and Eastern Europe.
Berlin - Germany moved a key step closer Thursday towards injecting 480 billion euros (650 billion dollars) into troubled banks, with its 16 states swinging behind the federal plan.
The accord, announced by Chancellor Angela Merkel, makes it feasible for the legislative package to become law Friday.
Most of the eurozone nations and some allies have agreed to identical aid packages, each comprising a huge guarantee for interbank lending and semi-nationalizations of banks by state equity funds.
Berlin - Global shares are facing the run-up to a grisly end to the week as the prospects of a deep and protracted recession looms large over world financial markets.
After rising sharply earlier in the week on a sense of optimism triggered by coordinated government crisis management plans, share markets were engulfed Thursday by renewed turbulence amid fears about the economic fallout from a financial crisis that could last well into the new year.
Berlin - Germany is to create a special agency for its bank rescue after the country's central bank said its independence would be compromised if it became an arm of government policy, sources said in Berlin Thursday.
The move came as Chancellor Angela Merkel met with leaders of the 16 states to negotiate on the package, announced three days earlier. She aims to have the legislation in place by late Friday.
Berlin - The German government warned Thursday that the nation was on the brink of recession as it slashed its growth outlook for Europe's biggest economy in the wake of world's financial crisis.
Instead of a previous forecast of 1.2 per cent, Berlin now expects the nation's economy to expand by a meagre 0.2 per cent next year as economists expressed concern that the world economy could be facing a deep and protracted recession.
However, setting the government new growth projections, Economy Minister Michael Glos said it made no sense to set out "horror scenarios" about the economic outlook.
Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Wednesday that Europe's biggest economy was facing tough times and stepped up calls on for new rules to regulate the crisis-hit world financial system.
"Germany is strong," she told the German parliament. "However, Germany will go through a difficult period."
"We have to expect that economic growth in Germany will slow," the chancellor said but she went on to say that it was unlikely that the downturn would result in a sustained economic slump.
Berlin - TV and radio producers, directors and commissioning editors have begun flooding into Berlin for the 2008 Prix Europa festival, which heads off Saturday, with 31 countries and 213 nominated productions chasing trophies and 80,000 euros (108,000 dollars) in cash awards.
Berlin - Germany moved a key step closer Thursday towards injecting 480 billion euros (650 billion dollars) into troubled banks, with its 16 states swinging behind the federal plan.
Berlin - Global shares are facing the run-up to a grisly end to the week as the prospects of a deep and protracted recession looms large over world financial markets.
Berlin - Germany is to create a special agency for its bank rescue after the country's central bank said its independence would be compromised if it became an arm of government policy, sources said in Berlin Thursday.
Berlin - The German government warned Thursday that the nation was on the brink of recession as it slashed its growth outlook for Europe's biggest economy in the wake of world's financial crisis.
Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Wednesday that Europe's biggest economy was facing tough times and stepped up calls on for new rules to regulate the crisis-hit world financial system.
