DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH
Togolese asylum-seeker who fought deportation lands in Italy The man has arrived in Milan one day after authorities denied his appeal to stay in Germany. The case sparked major national attention when other migrants prevented authoritiesʼ first attempt to deport him. A 23-year-old refugee from Togo, who made headlines with the attempts to block his deportation order has landed in Italy, authorities confirmed on Tuesday. The news came just one day after Germanyʼs highest courtrejected his final plea not to be removedfrom the country. "The rule of law cannot be stopped," said Thomas Strobl, interior minister of the state of BadenWürttemberg, where the young man lived in a new arrivals home in the village of Ellwangen.
Chinese pilot sucked halfway out of airplane "I saw that the co-pilot was already halfway out of the window," said the pilot who landed the airplane after a cockpit window shattered in mid-flight. The co-pilot suffered scratches and a sprained wrist. A Chinese pilot was hailed a hero on social media on Tuesday for successfully landing a commercial aircraft after his co-pilot was sucked "halfway" out of the cockpit in midflight. The incident occurred while the Sichuan Airlines Airbus A-319 was flying at 800-900 kilometers per hour (500-560 miles) at cruising altitude on its way from the central province of Chongqing to the city of Lhasa in Tibet. "The windshield burst suddenly and a loud noise was heard, and when I looked to the side, I saw that the co-pilot was already halfway out of the window," Liu Chuanjian told Chinese newspaper Chengdu Business Daily. "Luckily his seatbelt was tied."
109/2018 • 16 MAY, 2018
Iran deal: The European Unionʼs ugly options How cozy will Europe get with the Kremlin to save the agreement?
Will keeping the Iran deal on life support kill trans-Atlantic ties and re-energize the EUʼs relationship with Russia?
Times change but German obsession with cash endures "Do you accept cards?" If you’re asking in Germany, there’s a good chance that the answer is no. The country has a curiously low cashless rate. Can the European economic powerhouse’s aversion to plastic payment continue? If there is a place where cash truly ought to be king, itʼs in one of the ubiquitous late night corner shops (known in German as a Späti) seen on practically every street of the German capital Berlin. Yet in recent times, Türkan Dogar brought a card machine into his small shop in the south-east of the city. He has to pay a monthly fee for it, but itʼs negligible enough that he doesnʼt recall exactly how much. "Customers were asking
regularly if we accepted cards, so in the end I got it because itʼs good for business," he says. If people spend less than €10 ($11.89) in his shop, they can still pay with card but then they have to pay a 50-cent surcharge. Yet a stroll around the neighborhood quickly points to Germanyʼs somewhat complicated relationship with plastic payment. Around the corner, at Erolʼs bicycle repair shop, card bearers are given short shrift. "Cash-only here," says Erol as he stands beside an upturned bicycle in his navy overalls. "I like cash. Itʼs warmer. If people donʼt have it, they can go to the cash machine and come back. I donʼt care!" he says with a laugh. "It works for me."
German university hospital defends auto firmsʼ nitrogen dioxide test ethics No experiments on animals or humans can take place in Germany without a go from an authorized ethics committee. Dr. Thomas Kraus from Aachen University Hospital says this was the case in the most recent NO2 scandal. The European Research Group on Environment and Health in the Transport Sector (EUGT) "did not impinge in any way on the nitrogen dioxide (NO2) research it commissioned Aachen University Hospital to do," Professor Thomas Kraus from the
hospital told the German press agency DPA on Monday. The EUGT is a now defunct organization that was funded by German carmakers Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW plus partsmaker Bosch, thus raising questions of possible conflicts of interest. In 2013, 25 healthy volunteers were exposed to NO2 pollution for three hours, Kraus said. "None of them had any negative health effects," he went on, adding that the tests were meant to measure the impact of pollutants in the workplace.
Former Taiwan president gets jail time for information leak Taiwanʼs High Court has overturned a previous not-guilty verdict and charged former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou. Ma plans to appeal his sentence but can also avoid prison by paying a fine of €3,370. Former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou was sentenced to four months in prison on Tuesday for leaking classified information. Taiwanʼs High Court found that "Ma Ying-jeou violated the Communication and Surveillance Act," when he leaked information relating to national security and opposition lawmaker Ker Chien-ming, which should have been confidential. Ma told local media he planned to appeal the High Court sentence, but he could also skip prison if he pays a fine of T$120,000 ($4,020, €3,370), the court said. A former stalwart of major opposition party Kuomintang of China, Ma was Taiwanʼs president from 2008 to 2016 and encouraged closer ties with China. He also served as the justice minister and mayor of Taipei.
Russia-Crimea bridge to be opened by Vladimir Putin The controversial Crimean Bridge has been finished six months early and will link Russiaʼs southern Krasnodar region with the Crimean city of Kerch. The massive bridge will help reduce Crimeaʼs reliance on sea transport. Russian President Vladimir Putin was due to open a 19-kilometer bridge connecting southern Russia to the Crimean peninsula on Tuesday. The controversial Crimean Bridge links the southern Krasnodar region with the Crimean city of Kerch and spans across a stretch of water between the Black Sea and the Azov Sea.
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