Dennis Rodman arrested after failing to pay for boozy party
Flamboyant US basketball star Dennis Rodman was temporarily retained on Monday for not paying his sky-high hotel bill after a boozy party in the western German city of Trier.
Day: November 16, 2009
Germany
Germany
Lufthansa credit cards hit by fraud fears
Thousands of Lufthansa “Miles & More” credit cards have been frozen because of fears they were vulnerable to a major fraud ring in Spain, the airline announced Monday.
Sweden
500 refugee children in urgent need of housing
Swedish migration authorities have decided to more than double the number of municipalities assigned to receive refugee children, regardless of the local councils' views on the matter.
Sweden
Sweden hopes gas talks don’t turn poisonous at EU-Russia summit
EU and Russian leaders will open summit talks in Sweden on Wednesday in an atmosphere clouded by uneasy relations between Moscow and Stockholm over human rights and last's year's war in Georgia.
Germany
Munich unveils latest cultural offering: portable opera
A mobile opera house that can be pulled apart and fit into a shipping container was unveiled Monday by the Bavarian State Opera, which expects its new creation to travel Germany and the world to showcase experimental performances.
Germany
Germany’s citizens in uniform
Roger Boyes, Berlin correspondent for British daily The Times, believes German society’s fascination with authority belongs confined to where it once was lacking: the country’s military.
Sweden
Saab slapped with debt claim over worker pay
Saab Automobile has been hit with a payment demand from the administrative board of Västra Götaland county, which lent the troubled automaker hundreds of millions of kronor to ensure employees' salaries during restructuring.
Sweden
Bankers blindsided by con artist’s creamy cake
A well-dressed Swedish fraudster treated bank employees to cake as thanks for helping him make off with 12 million kronor ($1.75 million) in cash and gold. He has now been sentenced to eight years in prison.
Germany
Mercedes buys Brawn F1 team
Mercedes on Monday bought a controlling stake in Formula One world champions Brawn GP in a move which is likely to see Jenson Button join McLaren next season.
Sweden
Annika Östberg to be released in May 2011
Annika Östberg Deasy, who sat in a US prison for 28 years for her role in two murders, has had her life sentence reduced and will be released sometime in May 2011.
Sweden
Young trio sold sex with mentally disabled girl
Three young people have been indicted in Malmö on pimping charges for repeatedly selling the sexual services of a 14-year-old girl with a mild mental disability.
Sweden
Swedish town restricts ‘immigrant weddings’
A local politician from Landskrona in southern Sweden has decreed that only one “immigrant wedding” can be held at the town’s local community centre every month.
Germany
Köhler honours activists who stood ground against East Germany
President Horst Köhler awarded Germany’s highest honour, the Federal Cross of Merit, to 12 former East Germans on Monday for standing up to injustices committed by the communist regime.
Germany
Informant goes on trial for neo-Nazi radio station
In an embarrassing situation for Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, one of its paid informants in the neo-Nazi scene went on trial Monday for running a radio station that called for the nuclear destruction of Israel, daily Tagesspiegel reported.
Germany
Fire brigade bills fairground ride victims for rescue
Fourteen people rescued by the fire brigade after being left dangling upside down from a Berlin fairground ride last summer for nearly an hour have been slapped with a hefty bill, a spokesman said Monday.
Germany
Brüderle’s refusal to help Opel angers state premiers
Premiers from German states with Opel plants clashed on Monday with Economy Minister Rainer Brüderle over his insistence that the struggling carmaker would get no federal financial help.
Sweden
Swedes cast about for EU job candidates
Sweden, the current head of the EU's rotating presidency, is ratcheting up its hunt for consensus candidates for two new EU top jobs. Stockholm intends to have the positions filled at a summit later this week.
Germany
German government gets secure smartphones
The German government has ordered several thousand secure smartphones from Deutsche Telekom, Essen-based daily Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung reported on Monday.
Sweden
Norwegian named as new Vattenfall CEO
Sweden’s Vattenfall has picked a successor to take over from current CEO Lars G. Josefsson, who has been under fire following a string of controversies at the state-owned energy giant.
Germany
Swine flu kills two in Bavaria
German health authorities on Monday confirmed the deaths of two men in Bavaria from swine flu, but a 55-year-old from the eastern German state of Thuringia did not die after being immunised for the H1N1 virus as had been originally feared.
Sweden
Few convictions for paying for sex in Sweden
Although it has been illegal to pay for sex in Sweden for ten years, only two people have been sentenced to prison for violating Swedish laws criminalizing the purchasing of sexual services.
Germany
Eyes sewn shut – playing an emotional zombie
“Colin” is the title and hero of the new sleeper-hit zombie movie playing at this year's Britspotting film festival. Made for a reported £45 (€50) in a lot of people's spare time, it caused enough of a stir in Cannes to get a British cinema release. Ben Knight meets Colin himself, Alastair Kirton.
Sweden
Deadly skin cancer on the rise in Sweden: study
The number of Swedes diagnosed with one of the deadliest forms of skin cancer has increased by 50 percent over the last decade, a new study shows.