BERLIN (Reuters) – Angela Merkel’s education minister said on Wednesday she would take legal action against a decision to void her doctorate for alleged plagiarism, an untimely distraction for the German chancellor ahead of September’s national election.

German opposition lawmakers said Annette Schavan, a close Merkel ally, should resign after the University of Duesseldorf said on Tuesday that parts of her 1980 doctoral thesis had been copied and that it was stripping her of her PhD.

BERLIN, Jan 29 (Reuters) – Germany’s Greens are on a roll
after a big jump in their support in a regional election this
month confirmed the growing mainstream appeal of a party once
seen as a fringe leftist movement but which now poses a
challenge to Angela Merkel.

Worryingly for the conservative Chancellor ahead of a
federal election in September, support for the Greens is
spreading from the cities to rural areas once dominated by her
Christian Democrats.

LIMASSOL, Cyprus/BERLIN (Reuters) – Cash-starved Cyprus set its hopes on securing a bailout that looked uncertain on Friday after a savage ratings downgrade from credit agency Moody’s dumped further economic misery on the island.

Moody’s cut Cyprus by three notches overnight, forecasting its debt pile was set to rise and with an increasing likelihood of default because of the capital needs of its banks, burnt by their exposure to indebted Greece.

BERLIN, Dec 12 (Reuters) – From beeswax and birch bark to
war booty and gas pipelines, an exhibition now showing in Berlin
chronicles the long, colourful and sometimes tragic history of
relations between Germany and Russia, Europe’s two most populous
nations.

The “Russians and Germans” exhibition at the Neues Museum
focuses on cultural and trade contacts between the two peoples
stretching back to the 10th century and largely skirts the
political controversies that still dog their relationship.

BERLIN, Dec 7 (Reuters) – German business daily Financial
Times Deutschland (FTD) bade farewell to its readers on Friday
in a final edition packed with gallows humour cartoons and
melancholy musings on the revolution in the media industry that
sealed its fate.

“Finally black”, was the laconic headline on a darkened
front page of the paper, which like its British namesake is
published in a salmon pink colour. Several letters of the
paper’s name were omitted to make it read ‘Final Times’.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Greece has scored the worst ranking of all 27 European Union nations in a global league table of perceived official corruption, falling below ex-communist Bulgaria as public anger about graft soars during the country’s crisis.

The index on state sector corruption, published by anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) on Wednesday, also showed other struggling euro zone countries scoring poorly such as Italy which ranked below Romania.

BERLIN (Reuters) – German lawmakers approved the latest bailout for Greece on Friday by a large majority despite growing unease about the cost to taxpayers less than a year before federal elections.

The outcome of the vote in the lower house was never in doubt but it was a test of Angela Merkel’s authority over her centre-right coalition. She did not manage to draw an absolute majority from her own ranks after 23 of her lawmakers rebelled.

BERLIN, Nov 30 (Reuters) – Germany’s parliament will approve
a fresh bailout for Greece on Friday in a vote seen as a test of
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s authority over her centre-right
coalition less than a year before federal elections.

The outcome of Friday’s vote in the Bundestag lower house is
not in doubt but Germans are deeply uneasy over the costs of the
euro zone debt crisis and the number of coalition lawmakers
voting against will be keenly watched.

BERLIN, Nov 28 (Reuters) – German lawmakers and media
accused the government on Wednesday of deceiving taxpayers over
the true costs of saving Greece and said the euro zone would
eventually have to write off much of its Greek debt.

The Bundestag, the lower house of Germany’s parliament, is
expected to vote on Friday on the package of measures agreed by
euro zone finance ministers this week which aim to cut Greek
debt to 124 percent of gross domestic product by 2020.

BERLIN, Nov 28 (Reuters) – German media accused the
government on Wednesday of deceiving taxpayers over the true
costs of saving Greece and said the euro zone would eventually
have to write off much of its Greek debt.

The Bundestag, the lower house of Germany’s parliament, is
expected to vote later this week on the package of measures
agreed by euro zone finance ministers late on Monday that aim to
cut Greek debt to 124 percent of gross domestic product by 2020.