DENPASAR, Indonesia (AFP) — Five foreigners have been arrested in Bali for drug trafficking, authorities said Thursday, with a German and Peruvian possibly facing execution if convicted under Indonesia’s strict drug laws. The accused smugglers — also including a Chinese, a Malaysian and a Briton — were arrested separately over the past two weeks, Bali police said. The arrests come less than a month after the first member of the Bali Nine heroin-trafficking gang […]
Tag: Germany
German rail strike halts trains nationwide
Frankfurt am Main, Germany (AFP) — Germany was plunged into transport chaos Monday as train services were halted by a railworkers’ strike over pay, affecting millions of passengers. Inter-city and regional services as well as many urban commuter trains were cancelled throughout Europe’s biggest economy by the four-hour stoppage that started at 05:00 am (0400 GMT), Deutsche Bahn (DB) said. Although the walkout ended as planned at 09:00 am, its ripple effects will be […]
Before Mars landing, a nail-biting ‘six and a half minutes of terror’
by Kerry SHERIDAN Agence France Presse TAMPA, United States (AFP) — A spacecraft that cost nearly a billion dollars is on course to make a perilous landing Monday on Mars, if it can survive a high-speed approach and the scorching heat of entering the Red Planet’s atmosphere, a process NASA has nicknamed “six and a half minutes of terror.” “There is very little room for things to go wrong,” said Rob Grover, head of […]
Merkel says planned exit won’t hurt her influence abroad
by Hui Min NEO Agence France Presse BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday she does not expect her global influence to be diminished in the run-up to her planned exit from politics in 2021, even as the race to succeed her gathers pace. Merkel said Monday she would not stand for re-election in December as leader of her center-right CDU party, but that she planned to see out her fourth term […]
Merkel to step down as chancellor in 2021
by Jan DÖRNER / Christof MEISSNER Agence France Presse BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Angela Merkel on Monday announced she will quit as German chancellor when her mandate ends in 2021, as she sought to curtail a series of political crises that have rocked her fragile coalition. Often described as the world’s most powerful woman and Europe’s de facto leader, Merkel said she hoped her planned departure would end fighting within her coalition and allow it […]
Merkel government shaken by German regional vote battering
by Tom BARFIELD Agence France Presse FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Germany (AFP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition government on Sunday suffered a beating in a second key regional election in as many weeks, multiplying questions over the future of the veteran leader’s fragile alliance. Weakened by a strong backlash against immigration after allowing over a million people into Germany since 2015, Merkel’s fourth government has staggered from one crisis to the next since being formed […]
Germany tries ‘serial killer’ nurse over worst post-war spree
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — German nurse Niels Hoegel, already serving a lengthy term for previous killings, will go on trial before anguished relatives Tuesday over the murders of around 100 more people — a spree prosecutors say is unprecedented in the post-war period. The 41-year-old is accused of intentionally administering medical overdoses to patients in his care in order to be able to bring them back to life at the last moment. He rarely […]
Israel, Germany at Japan tumatanggap ng Filipino workers
(Eagle NewS) — Bukas ngayon ang pamahalaan ng Israel para sa mga Pilipinong naghahanap ng trabaho. Nangangailangan ang Israel ng 5,000 Filipino hotel workers at may kaugnayan sa hotel and restaurant management. Bagaman wala pang job order at guidelines para sa naturang mga trabaho, sinabi ni Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III na aayusin na ito sa nobyembre. Maliban sa Israel, bukas din ang Germany at Japan na kumuha pa ng maraming Pilipinong manggagawa. Para sa […]
German sadistic killer couple jailed in ‘House of Horrors’ trial
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — A German court Friday jailed a couple who tortured and killed women they had lured to their village home in what has been dubbed the “House of Horrors” case. Angelika Wagener, 49, received a 13-year prison sentence and her former husband Wilfried, 48, an 11-year term in a psychiatric ward for the abuse that led to the deaths of two women. The couple had entrapped at least eight women over […]
Merkel warns Trump against ‘destroying’ UN
FRANKFURT, Germany (AFP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday warned US President Donald Trump against “destroying” the United Nations. “I believe that destroying something without having developed something new is extremely dangerous,” Merkel said at a regional election campaign event in Bavaria. The veteran leader — a close ally of Trump’s bugbear Barack Obama while he was president — added that she believed multilateralism was the solution to many of the world’s problems. Trump […]
Merkel, Erdogan hold tense talks in shadow of protests
by Antoine LAMBROSCHINI with Michelle FITZPATRICK in Frankfurt Agence France Presse BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Germany’s Angela Merkel hosts Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Berlin Friday to try to repair badly frayed ties, a task complicated by planned anti-Erdogan protests and the chancellor’s own domestic woes. The pair is meeting a day after Germany beat Turkey to become the Euro 2024 host nation, following a tight race that took on political significance when Erdogan […]
German Catholic Church apologizes for mass child sex abuse
by Raphaelle Logerot and Hui Min Neo in Berlin Agence France Presse FULDA, Germany (AFP) — Germany’s Catholic Church on Tuesday apologized to thousands of victims of sexual assault by clergy, with the institution’s top cardinal saying perpetrators must be brought to justice. Cardinal Reinhard Marx said he was ashamed over the decades of abuse that have shattered trust, as well as how so many looked away for so long. The dismay expressed by […]





