Berlin - Violent computer games are sparking controversy all over the world. Legislation recently passed in Germany in July, for example, makes it easier to put such games on the banned list following the introduction of a rating index. Yet what does it all really mean? Who sets the age recommendations for "normal" games? In Germany, at least, these roles have been in flux of late.
Berlin - While postal services want to promote letter writing, the trend is clearly working against them. With a push of the button, an e-mail lands in the inbox of its recipient before a letter writer can even moisten the stamp. The tools of the trade are e-mail programs known as clients. They are used to manage correspondence on the computer, but nowadays they can often do far more.
Berlin - Berlin's memorial to the Jews murdered during the Nazi era was desecrated Saturday, only a week after a similar memorial to gays and lesbians persecuted by the Nazis was vandalized, polic
Berlin - The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) on Friday criticized Germany for first recognizing and then withdrawing the refugee status of thousands of people.
In a report prepared for the European Court of Justice, the UNHCR was particularly critical of Germany's practice of giving people refugee status who had already returned to their homeland regardless of the security situation and whether they could live in dignity.
This, the UNHCR argued, was contrary to the rules set out in the Geneva Convention on Refugees and under European law.
Since the Iraq war and the fall of Saddam Hussein more than 17,000 Iraqis have had their refugee status annulled.
Berlin - Frank Meisler was ten when he and a group of other children boarded a train at Berlin's Friedrichstrasse that would rescue them from Nazi Germany and take them to England in August 1939.
Meisler, whose parents were Jewish, had arrived in Berlin from the German port of Danzig (today Gdansk). He remembers his aunt Adele waiting for him on the station platform to give him a hug and hand him bananas - a luxury in those years.
A few hours later the youngsters, most of them aged between five and 17, continued their journey to the Dutch coast to catch a ship bound for Harwich in England and then a train to London's Liverpool Street station.
Berlin - Europe's biggest carmaker Volkswagen AG said Thursday worldwide sales of its flagship VW brand slipped 1.5 per cent to 305,000 during July in the face of growing economic uncertainty and high fuel prices.
However, the German-based auto giant said it set a new record for worldwide deliveries during the first seven months of the year, rising by 4.7 per cent to 2.21 million vehicles.
In particular, the world's leading emerging economies continued to power VW sales, with China reporting a 12.9 per cent increase in deliveries between January and July.
Berlin - Violent computer games are sparking controversy all over the world. Legislation recently passed in Germany in July, for example, makes it easier to put such games on the banned list following the introduction of a rating index. Yet what does it all really mean? Who sets the age recommendations for "normal" games? In Germany, at least, these roles have been in flux of late.
Berlin - While postal services want to promote letter writing, the trend is clearly working against them. With a push of the button, an e-mail lands in the inbox of its recipient before a letter writer can even moisten the stamp. The tools of the trade are e-mail programs known as clients. They are used to manage correspondence on the computer, but nowadays they can often do far more.
Berlin - Europe's biggest carmaker Volkswagen AG said Thursday worldwide sales of its flagship VW brand slipped 1.5 per cent to 305,000 during July in the face of growing economic uncertainty and high fuel prices.
