BERLIN (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel signaled for the first time her intention to seek a third term in 2013, although a poll on Sunday showed Peer Steinbrueck of the main opposition party gaining more support from voters.

Merkel made the announcement indirectly in an interview with Sat-1 TV. Although her intention to lead her conservative Christian Democrats into the campaign for a third term was no surprise, the timing just before the summer break was unusual.

BERLIN, July 5 (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel’s
government faces a grilling in parliament over a secret sale of
tanks to Saudi Arabia that Germany’s opposition argues reverses
a post-war stance severely restricting arms sales abroad.

Reuters reported from Riyadh on Monday that Saudi security
sources had confirmed a deal for 200 Leopard 2 tanks, fuelling a
growing political debate over the arms sale after Der Spiegel
magazine leaked first details about it on Sunday.

BERLIN, July 4 (Reuters) – The Treuhand privatisation agency
set up to sell off East German state assets is being touted by
Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker as a model of German
efficiency that could help resolve Greek’s debt crisis.

But the fire sale of communist East German industry –
14,000 companies were sold in four years — may not be such a
shining example for Greece because the Treuhand ended up $170
billion in debt instead of an anticipated $900 billion profit.

BRUSSELS/BERLIN (Reuters) – Euro zone finance ministers have approved a 12 billion euro ($17.4 billion) installment of Greece’s bailout, but signaled that the nation must expect significant losses of sovereignty and jobs.

Ministers in the Eurogroup gave the go-ahead for the fifth tranche of Greece’s 110-billion-euro financial rescue agreed last year, and said details of a second aid package for Athens would be finalized by mid-September.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Greece faces severe restrictions on its sovereignty and must privatize state assets on a scale similar to the sell off of East German firms in the 1990s after communism fell, Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker said.

In an interview published after euro zone finance ministers in the Eurogroup approved a further 12 billion euro ($17.43 billion) installment of Greece’s bailout, Juncker said he was optimistic that measures agreed with Athens would help to resolve the country’s problems.

DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) – The Eurovision Song Contest has become so popular around the globe that there may be scope one day for a Worldvision Song Contest, executive supervisor Jon Ola Sand told Reuters.

The Norwegian director of the 56-year-old contest, watched this year from Germany by more than 125 million people in 55 countries around the world, said Eurovision manages to bring Europe together in a way similar to the Euro soccer tournament.

DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) – Azerbaijan won the annual Eurovision Song Contest with the romantic ballad “Running Scared” on Saturday, watched by a television audience of more than 100 million people.

The song about a love-struck couple was performed by 21-year-old student Eldar Gasimov and Nigar Jamal, 30, a mother-of-two who lives in London. The duo, known as Ell-Nikki, won a total 221 points.

DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) – Azerbaijan won the annual Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday with the love song “Running Scared,” watched by a television audience of more than 100 million people.

The song was performed by Eldar Gasimov and Nigar Jamal, known as Ell-Nikki.

Italy finished second and Sweden came third in the 56th edition of the contest, hosted by Germany.

DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) – The United Kingdom is hoping reunited boyband Blue will end a humiliating losing streak at the Eurovision Song Contest for the country that gave the world pop music.

After finishing in the bottom spot three times in the previous eight years, the UK is sending one of its most popular acts in the past decade into the battle on Saturday night.

DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) – Never before has a Eurovision Song Contest winner claimed back-to-back titles but a perky German teen who gave her long-suffering nation cause to celebrate a year ago is on a risky mission to repeat.

Lena-Meyer Landrut said in an interview with Reuters that she knows history and the odds are against her — the last winner of the world’s biggest musical contest who tried to defend her title ended up last, a humiliating fall from grace.