Berlin

Berlin's Tempelhof Airport closes 85-year history

Berlin's Tempelhof Airport closes 85-year history Berlin - Berlin's fabled Tempelhof Airport ceased 85 years of operations on Thursday, with its last scheduled flight taking to the skies after the city's mayor declared time was up for the site.

The airport, which is surrounded by multi-storey apartment blocks, was once the entry point for 2.3 million tons of airborne relief during the 1948-49 Berlin Airlift. Future use of the historic site has not been decided.

German industry offers key workers pay hike of 2.1 per cent

German industry offers key workers pay hike of 2.1 per cent Berlin - Key industrial employers in Germany offered 800,000 workers in and near the carmaking city of Stuttgart a wage rise of 2.1 per cent Thursday as pay bargaining hung in the balance.

The militant IG Metall trade union announced weeks ago that it was seeking a hike of 8 per cent, prompting an indirect rebuke from the European Central Bank, which said it feared a wage-price spiral.

Festival and rain closes Berlin's Tempelhof Airport

Festival and rain closes Berlin's Tempelhof Airport Berlin - Rain marred an aviation festival on the last day of operations at Berlin's fabled Tempelhof Airport on Thursday, raising the risk that some planes might be stranded on the ground when the airport shuts.

The airport was once the entry point for 2.3 million tons of airborne relief during the 1948-49 Berlin Airlift.

Three veteran planes, which require ideal weather to get airborne, were stuck on the ground as night fell, with cold rain falling on the city.

German unemployment falls to 16-year low

German unemployment falls to 16-year lowBerlin - German unemployment fell to 16-year low in October, defying the economic gloom facing the nation, data released Thursday showed.

Seasonally unadjusted German unemployment fell to below 3 million for the time in 16 years, the Nuremberg-based Federal Labour Agency said with the numbers dropping by 84,000 in October to 2.997 million. This was 437,000 less than in the same month last year.

After dropping by a revised 28,000 in September, seasonally adjusted unemployment, which analysts see as pointing to long-term market trends, fell by another 26,000 to 

Woman deputy set to become new German agriculture minister

Berlin, GermanyBerlin - A female legislator from the sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats was picked Thursday to become Germany's new minister of agriculture and consumer affairs.

Ilse Aigner, 43, was nominated by Horst Seehofer, who resigned from the post on Monday to become prime minister of the southern state of Bavaria.

"I'm very pleased," said Aigner, who like Seehofer hails from Bavaria and is a member of the Christian Social Union (CSU).

Forty per cent of women in Germany victims of abuse: study

Forty per cent of women in Germany victims of abuse: study Berlin - Some 40 per cent of women and girls over 16 in Germany have been victims of physical or sexual abuse, a government official said Thursday, quoting from a study.

Handicapped, elderly women and those requiring care suffered more than others, said Marion Caspers-Merk, secretary of state at the ministry of health.

"The issue of violence is too often considered taboo," she said. "It is often underestimated as a health risk."

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