By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN (Reuters Life!) – A popular German entertainment show will go on after a contestant was critically injured when his stunt went wrong in front of a live studio audience and 8 million TV viewers, network ZDF said Monday.

ZDF program director Thomas Bellut said the network would not cancel “Wetten, dass…?” (Wanna Bet?) but would instead do everything it could to make future shows safe to prevent accidents like that from happening again.

BERLIN/PARIS (Reuters) – Germany and France said on Monday that Europe had acted decisively to save the euro by rescuing Ireland and agreeing the basis of a permanent debt resolution system, but financial markets were unconvinced.

The euro’s respite rally was brief in the early hours of Monday’s trading and European shares closed at a seven-week low, with banks among the losers as investor optimism over Ireland’s debt bailout faded.

BERLIN/PARIS (Reuters) – Germany and France declared on Monday that Europe had taken decisive action to save the euro by rescuing Ireland and laying the foundations of a permanent debt resolution system, but investors were not convinced.

Under pressure to arrest the threat to the currency before markets opened and prevent contagion engulfing Portugal and Spain, EU finance ministers endorsed an 85 billion-euro ($115 billion) loan package on Sunday to help Dublin cover bad bank debts and bridge a huge budget deficit.

BERLIN, Nov 23 (Reuters) – German Finance Minister Wolfgang
Schaeuble warned on Tuesday that the euro itself was at stake in
the currency bloc’s sovereign debt crisis, knocking around a
third of a cent off the common currency’s value.

“We’re surrounded by a difficult environment in Europe,”
Schaeuble told parliament, referring to a debt crisis that has
now engulfed Ireland as well as Greece and threatens to spread
further.

BERLIN (Reuters) – The Reichstag in Berlin was abruptly closed to tourists without prior bookings on Monday after reports of a plot by Islamist militants to attack Germany’s historic parliament building.

The shutdown of the majestic structure’s modern glass cupola and rooftop terrace reflected growing worries about terrorism in a country that until now has been mostly spared from violence and largely unperturbed by security fears.

BERLIN, Nov 19 (Reuters) – A suitcase containing a detonator
and clock found at Namibia’s main airport during loading of a
flight to Munich was intended to test security and contained no
explosives, Germany’s Interior Minister said on Friday.

Namibian police found the bag in routine security checks
ahead of the Air Berlin (AB1.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) tourist flight, Namibian and
German authorities said on Thursday.

BERLIN (Reuters) – The German parliament passed healthcare reform on Friday to overhaul the country’s cash-strapped insurance system and plug a threatened 11-billion-euro shortfall in the public health system next year.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right coalition has called the healthcare reform bill one of its most important laws this year, even though her Christian Democrats have clashed for months over details with their Free Democrat coalition partners.

BERLIN (Reuters) – The number of births in Germany fell to a record post-war low last year despite government investment of billions of euros on incentives to counter the country’s shrinking population.

Germany has a population of 82 million but the low birth rates mean average ages are rising, hampering the development of Europe’s largest economy. The tide of immigration that fed the post world war two economic expansion has also now been reversed with new immigration controls.

BERLIN, Nov 12 (Reuters) – The German parliament passed
healthcare reform on Friday to overhaul the country’s
cash-strapped insurance system and plug a threatened 11-billion
euro shortfall in the public health system next year.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right coalition has called
the healthcare reform bill one of its most important laws this
year, even though her Christian Democrats have clashed for
months over details with their Free Democrat coalition partners.

TOKYO/BERLIN (Reuters) – Japan and Germany are waking up to the idea of recycling rare earths as a hedge against China’s tightening grip on supplies crucial to their large high-tech export industries.

The question is whether they can come up with ways to do it cheaply enough.

China produces 97 percent of the world’s rare earth metals but has curbed exports, notably to Japan but also the United States and Europe.