By Kate Seamons
The four suspected vampires unearthed by archaeologists in Poland may have been in good company. Der Spiegel reports that the number of skeletons found buried with their head placed between their legs (so arranged to ensure that a possible bloodsucker couldn’t find his head and come back to life) has… …read more
Allegations of widespread U.S. data surveillance have created turbulence for Angela Merkel on what looked like a smooth cruise to a third term as German chancellor, even though it remains to be seen whether the flap will threaten her seriously.
Merkel’s center-left opponents have seized on disclosures of National Security Agency surveillance programs by leaker Edward Snowden to assert that she hasn’t been doing enough to confront Washington and protect Germans’ personal data — and to cast doubt on officials’ assertions that they didn’t know of the programs.
The opposition apparently hopes that the issue will breathe life into a so-far stumbling and gaffe-prone campaign for Sept. 22 parliamentary elections. A healthy economy, low unemployment and perceptions that Merkel has managed Europe’s debt crisis well have bolstered the chancellor.
Merkel’s center-left challenger, Peer Steinbrueck, is suggesting that the government turned a blind eye to violations of Germans’ rights and that Merkel violated her oath of office, in which she swore to “keep damage from” her people.
The government, opposition Green party leader Juergen Trittin said, is acting “like the famous three monkeys: hear no evil, speak no evil and definitely see no evil.”
His party called for Germany to take in Snowden. Merkel’s government, like many others, rejected his asylum request.
Protecting personal data is generally a more sensitive issue in Europe than in the U.S. — and particularly in Germany, not least because of memories of surveillance and repression by communist East Germany’s secret police, the Stasi, and the Nazis’ Gestapo.
When President Barack Obama visited Berlin June 19, Merkel offered cautious public criticism, saying that a “balance” between national security and data protection must be ensured.
Then, the German weekly Der Spiegel reported that the U.S. bugged European Union offices — prompting officials to say that if true, that would be unacceptable, especially since the Cold War is over. Germany hosted major NSA sites during the Cold War.
Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany, dispatched her interior minister, Hans-Peter Friedrich, to Washington last week to discuss the spying issue. There, he conferred with Attorney General Eric Holder and had an unscheduled meeting with Vice President Joe Biden.
After those meetings Friday, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
By The Huffington Post News Editors
A man identified by media as an Australian-Israeli Mossad agent and found hanged in a Tel Aviv jail had passed secrets to Hezbollah before his death, an influential German magazine reported Sunday.
News weekly Der Spiegel said Ben Zygier, a man known as “Prisoner X” who died in 2010 in an allegedly suicide-proof cell, had handed tips to the Lebanese militant group that led to the arrest of at least two people spying for Israel.
After conducting its own “internal investigations”, the report found that Zygier had started working for Mossad in 2003, investigating European companies doing business with Iran and Syria.
It said Zygier — who was raised in Melbourne but moved to Israel about a decade before his death — was ordered back to Israel in 2007 because his bosses were unhappy with his work.
In 2008 he took a leave of absence, Spiegel said, and returned to Melbourne to finish his studies after trying to recruit new agents for Israel in a bid to restore his standing with his bosses.
In the process he came in contact with Hezbollah supporters, Spiegel said, and while trying to convince them to work for Mossad, disastrously spilled highly sensitive information.
This included the names of Lebanese nationals Ziad al-Homsi and Mustafa Ali Awadeh, who were arrested in May 2009 on charges of spying for Israel and later sentenced to several years of hard labour.
The report said Israeli security authorities had told Zygier after his arrest that they wanted to make an example of him and demanded a prison sentence of at least 10 years.
Zygier was found dead in his cell in December 2010 at the age of 34.
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Airbus parent EADS and German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp recorded major attacks by Chinese hackers in 2012, German magazine Der Spiegel reported, citing unidentified people within the two companies. That is a trend seen throughout the German economy, where companies are increasingly being attacked by Chinese hackers, the magazine said, citing information from the German government. A spokesman for EADS told Reuters the attacks were “standard attacks” and the company was working closely with government authorities on the issue of cyber security. …
German insurer Allianz SE (ALV.XE) is holding talks with a unit of Dutch electricity grid operator Tennet Holding BV and the German environmental ministry regarding investments in offshore wind parks worth billions of euros, according to an article in German magazine Der Spiegel. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox Business Headlines
By Neal Colgrass 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Great Finds
By Alex Knapp, Forbes Staff In an interview with Der Spiegel, geneticist George Church made some headlines by claiming that it will be possible to clone a Neanderthal in the near future.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
By Neal Colgrass 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Great Finds
Deutsche Bank AG (DB), which asked an external independent panel to review its pay practices, is planning substantial cuts to the variable portion of its staff’s pay, weekly magazine Der Spiegel reports Sunday.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox Business Headlines
