BERLIN (Reuters) – The lifting of German restrictions on eastern European workers last May has sparked a surge in immigration from countries like Poland that could fuel the first annual population rise in Germany in nine years, official figures show.

The Federal Statistics Office estimated on Friday that the German population rose in 2011 for the first time since 2002 despite the fact that deaths were projected to exceed births by up to 185,000.

BERLIN (Reuters) – The euro zone crisis seemed to vanish from the headlines for a brief moment as 2011 ticked over into 2012, but it is about to return with a vengeance.

The coming months will be decisive in determining whether European leaders can hold their increasingly fragile currency bloc together or will stumble in the face of a daunting set of political, economic and financial obstacles lined up in their path at the start of the new year.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany and France warned Greece on Monday it will get no more bailout funds until it agrees with creditor banks on a bond swap and pressed for an early deal to avert a potential default in the euro zone’s most debt-stricken nation.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy, the euro zone’s two leading powers, insisted after talks in Berlin that private sector bondholders must share in reducing Greece’s debt burden, along with new European and IMF lending.

BERLIN (Reuters) – The euro zone crisis seemed to vanish from the headlines for a brief moment as 2011 ticked over into 2012, but it is about to return with a vengeance.

The coming months will be decisive in determining whether European leaders can hold their increasingly fragile currency bloc together or will stumble in the face of a daunting set of political, economic and financial obstacles lined up in their path at the start of the new year.

BERLIN, Jan 6 (Reuters) – Most Germans want President
Christian Wulff to stay in office even if many were not
convinced by his attempts this week to defuse the uproar over
his efforts to quash an embarrassing newspaper story, a poll
showed on Friday.

The survey for public broadcaster ARD showed that 56 percent
of respondents believed Wulff should not resign over the scandal
that risks damaging Chancellor Angela Merkel, who backed him for
the presidency in 2010.

BERLIN (Reuters) – German President Christian Wulff refused on Thursday to approve publication of a potentially explosive voicemail message he left on the phone of a top newspaper editor, in an escalating scandal that could cost him his job and damage Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The move came a day after Wulff went on television to try to defuse the uproar over his apparent attempt last month to pressure Germany’s top-selling paper Bild to kill an embarrassing story about a private home loan he secured in 2008.

PARIS/BERLIN (Reuters) – The German and French governments have both come to accept that the era when leading euro zone countries enjoyed the very best sovereign debt ratings is nearing an end, but a downgrade could shake Paris far harder than it does Berlin.

Markets have been bracing for a cut in the triple-A rating of France and possibly other top-rated euro zone members since Standard & Poor’s warned in early December of a mass downgrade due to concerns about the bloc’s two-year old debt crisis.

BERLIN/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany’s chancellor and central banker urged Europe to stick to stricter budget discipline and forget about one-shot solutions after financial markets judged that another EU summit had failed to resolve the euro zone’s debt crisis.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann, speaking separately, rebuffed pressure for the European Central Bank to intervene decisively to stop the crisis escalating.