DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH
Germany: Huge cocaine stash found in coffee shipment Some 200 kilograms (441 pounds) of cocaine packed in 210 parcels have been found hidden between sacks of imported coffee in the northern German city of Hamburg, customs authorities said on Monday. The quantity of the drug, which is usually bulked out with various additives to around three times its volume before sale, would have fetched more than €30 million ($34.2 million) on the black market, customs spokesman Stephan Meyns said. The coffee had been shipped from Brazil. The company it was intended for had discovered the cocaine last Thursday and alerted customs, Meyns said. Cocaine hidden in cargo shipments from Latin America areregularly intercepted in Germany.Last year, the customs in Hamburg alone confiscated some 4.5 tonnes of the drug.
Iran sanctions: US grants oil exemptions for several countries AsUS sanctions against Irancame back into effect on Monday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo revealed that several countries secured oil import exemptions, including:India,China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Turkey, Greece, and Italy. Iran has saidit will defy the reimposition of sanctions,which target the countryʼs oil exports and financial transactions. The US decided to reimpose the sanctions after US President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal earlier this year. Pompeo told reporters that the eight countries secured temporary waivers to continue importing oil from Iran.The exemptions were granted with the understanding that the countries will seek to reduce their imports to zero.Waivers were also issued to allow European firms to continue conversion work on two of Iranʼs nuclear facilities.Pompeo also warned Tehran that it can "either do a 180-degree-turn, or it can see its economy crumble."
252/2018 • 6 NOVEMBER, 2018
Chancellor Angela Merkel: German center is split The government must hold
Angela Merkelʼs immediate task is to organize the contest over who will be her successor as leader of the CDU. Whoever it turns out to be could well pull the party away from the political center — wherever that is.
British and Italian lenders struggle in EU banking stress test The European Banking Authority (EBA) has published results of a stress test it ran on major lenders from the EU and Norway, showing that a clutch of British banks and two lenders from Italy fared worst. The London-based European Banking Authority (EBA)scrutinized a total of 48 lenders on the continent between January and October, confronting them with a hypothetical scenario where gross domestic product in the EU would fall by 2.7 percent over the next two years. On top of that, the tests simulated unemployment rising by 3.3 percent to levels last seen in 2009, during the financial crisis. Moreover, economic risks linked to a
no-deal Brexit, falling trade and financial market disruption were built in, as were falling property prices, losses on holdings of sovereign debt and even potential fines over embezzlement by managers. The 2018 exercise showed among the worst performers British banks Barclays, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland, along with Italyʼs Banco BPM and UBI, as well as Germanyʼs regional lender NordLB. Overall, however, the EBA said the stress-tests showed that Europeʼs banks were in much better shape as a result of clean-up measures imposed by national regulators and the European Central Bank (ECB) since the 2008 global financial crisis.
The First World War captured in film Early photographs and films documenting World War I were all in black-and-white, without any synchronized sound. Although initial simple color photography methods already existed during the war, they did not become widespread until the 1930s, and even later in film. Sound cinema was only invented a decade
after the end of the First World War. Now, advanced digital technology makes it possible to perfectly colorize old black-and-white footage and set it to sound. In this vein, a documentary film was recently premiered at the London Film Festival, which viewers saw as a sensation: They Shall Not Grow Old by Peter Jackson.
German lawmakers push for Syrian refugee deportations The rape of a young womanin the southwestern city of Freiburghas reignited the debate over deporting criminal asylum-seekers. At least seven Syrian men and one German man are suspected of raping an 18year-old student in mid-October. In response, a number of conservative politicians have demanded the government be able to deport Syrian refugees accused of severe crimes back to their native country. If the situation in war-torn Syria"continues to improve, even if only in parts of the country, deporting a limited circle of persons should no longer be barred across the board," Mathias Middelberg, a parliamentarian and domestic policy spokesperson for Chancellor Angela Merkelʼs conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), told Die Welt newspaper.
Interior Minister Seehofer forces ex-spy chief Maassen into retirement German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said on Monday that he was temporarily relievingformer domestic spy chief Hans-Georg Maassenof his duties after Maassen made "unacceptable remarks" in a farewell speech to representatives of international intelligence agencies. Seehofer, who has previously supported Maassen, said that a "cooperation based on mutual trust" was no longer possible in view of the remarks. Maassenʼs critical view of the governmentʼs policy on refugees, as further evinced in the comments he made in the speech on October 18, has highlighted and contributed to rifts within Germanyʼs coalition over the past few months.
weather today BUDAPEST
8 / 19 °C Precipitation: 0 mm