City News

A Franco-German letter calling for reform of EU border-free area rules is being seen by diplomats as political support for Nicolas Sarkozy ahead of Sunday’s (22 April) elections. The letter – signed by the French and German interior ministers – reiterates calls made by Sarkozy during the campaign that the 26-member-strong ‘Schengen’ area should be changed so that governments can “as a last resort … reintroduce internal frontiers for a period not greater than 30 days.”

This is already the situation and the safeguard has in the past been triggered, for instance, to stop hooligans going to international football events.

A German court on Friday ordered a leading Berlin museum to return to a Jewish family in the United States a valuable collection of posters stolen in 1938 by Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.

The collection of some 4,300 posters, valued at around 4.4 million euros ($5.7 million), was taken by the Nazi propaganda ministry from Jewish dentist Hans Sachs, the top poster collector in Germany from the early 20th century.

State police have identified a man who was shot by Berlin police when he opened fire at two officers responding to a family fight.

Troopers say 45-year-old Jeffrey Yeaw shot at the officers at a home on Peck Street shortly after 10:30 p.m. Thursday. One of the officers returned fire and wounded Yeaw, who is being treated at Hartford Hospital and is expected to survive. The officers weren’t injured.

Berlin police say 20 people forced their way into Syria’s embassy in the German capital and damaged offices there.

Police say the men — all of them Syrian or of Syrian origin — destroyed furniture in the building Friday afternoon and sprayed slogans on the facade.

They were briefly detained as they left the embassy.

France and Germany are both considering the reintroduction of stamp duty on stock exchange transactions – along the lines of the tax that already exists in the UK – as a first step towards a fully-fledged financial transaction tax in Europe.

Although Berlin and Paris insist that they are set on eventually introducing a tax covering a much wider range of financial trading, including derivatives and high-frequency trading, officials in both capitals confirmed on Friday that the levy on share trading alone might be a sensible first step.

Pistol duelling in print and energetic postings of “applause” accompanied the Facebook premier of Theodor Fontane’s “Effi Briest”, which organisers said was the first live staging of a play on the social networking site.

Fontane’s classic work, first published as a serial novel in 1894, was specially adapted to be performed on the Maxim Gorki Theatre’s “online Facebook stage” on Monday.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti will travel to Berlin next Wednesday to hold talks on the euro zone crisis with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the German government announced. More >

Germany and the US have expressed great concern over Egyptian raids on non-government organizations. Human rights groups are describing the raids as a campaign against them by the country’s military rulers.

Berlin has summoned Egypt’s ambassador over raids carried out by Egyptian police on offices of pro-democracy and human rights groups in Cairo.

FRANCE AND Germany have revived their clamour for the alignment of Europe’s corporate tax systems, an initiative long resisted by Dublin.

In a joint proposal for a toughening of Europe’s budget rules, the two countries called for the escalation of efforts to forge a common corporate tax base and other measures to deepen economic co-ordination among single currency countries.

British director Mike Leigh will chair the jury of next year’s 62nd Berlin film festival, one of Europe’s top cinema showcases, organisers said on Friday.

The 68-year-old veteran film-maker, a master of bittersweet realism in hits such as “Secrets and Lies” and “Happy-Go-Lucky”, will lead a panel vetting contenders from around the world for the Golden and Silver Bear top prizes.