(Own report) - Paris is protesting Germany's growing economic hegemony over the EU with unusual bluntness. France's finance minister declared in a newspaper interview that, for years, Berlin has been forcefully implementing its export offensive at the expense of other Euro countries. As can now be seen in Greece, this German trade surplus is pushing these countries into a crisis and may be unsustainable for them in the long run. After years of cutting wages and social welfare services, Berlin should consider boosting its domestic demand. The German government is resolutely rejecting these French demands, which are supported by other Euro countries and thereby exacerbating the dispute. When the German finance minister presented his plan for a European Monetary Fund in Brussels on Monday, which would pressure other Euro countries to follow the German example of austerity measures, he was met with resistance. With its austerity measures, Germany would like to be able to continue to economically compete with the world powers and forge itself a sufficient economic foundation to be a world power.

(Own report) - German Navy circles are discussing US plans for the militarization of the Arctic. According to the latest edition of the German magazine "MarineForum", the US Navy is currently elaborating concrete scenarios for missions in the Arctic Ocean to develop arms programs for the next few years and is examining the possibility of establishing a permanent military presence in the High North. These US projects are not only important for Germany because Washington would like to coordinate them, at least to a certain extent, with its allies. In addition, the competent department director in the German Navy declared already last year that it must also be examined "to what extent ships, boats and aircraft already in service" would be capable of participating in "operations in the maritime regions of the High North." Berlin favors Iceland joining the EU, because it could provide a strategic base for Arctic missions and the EU is endorsing membership negotiations. Western authorities are suspiciously watching China’s recent efforts to use the opening of the Arctic.

(Own report) - The German government is seeking to obligate Eurozone nations to adhere to a rigorous government austerity program by establishing a European Monetary Fund (EMF), as revealed by aspects of a plan made public by the German Ministry of Finance a few days ago. According to this plan, countries threatened with bankruptcy may call for financial help from the EMF, but must, de facto, relinquish their budgetary sovereignty for a period of time. Countries, whose governments do not live up to the EU's financial regulations, will be threatened with painful sanctions, including exclusion from the Euro. With these EMF proposals, the German government is reacting to growing pressure, particularly from Western Europe, to finally establish a wide-ranging European financial and economic policy to confront the crisis. Berlin's proposals run counter, for example, to those of France and are being portrayed in the French press as "thoroughly Germanic". They are designed to enforce throughout Europe Germany's low-wage policy and strict austerity measures in social spending.

(Own report) - Today, International Women's Day, Afghan women's rights activists are calling for the withdrawal of western troops from the Hindu Kush. The discrimination of women has remained catastrophic under the western occupation and the Karzai puppet regime the oldest and most prominent Afghan women's organization, RAWA has declared. RAWA's assessment has been confirmed by new reports of human rights organizations. While western propaganda still claims that the West seeks to protect Afghan women from the Taliban, in reality, the women's loss of previous rights can be attributed to western intervention. Since 1979, the USA and the Federal Republic of Germany supported the most reactionary forces in Afghanistan to run pro-Soviet circles from the government in Kabul. These reactionary forces introduced an unprecedented discrimination of women, when they took power in the early 1990s. Numerous warlords, who had become influential at the time, are among the West's preferred cooperation partners. One would "be in a better situation," says RAWA, "if the occupation wasn't shoveling billions of dollars to the most reactionary elements in society."

(Own report) - In light of Greece's financial crisis, government advisors in Berlin are considering new limitations to EU member nations' sovereignty. Because of difficulties in bringing the situation in Greece under control, the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) wrote in a recent analysis that it should be discussed "whether and how it could be possible to take drastic action more precociously on national fiscal policies". Yesterday, the government in Athens consented to Brussels' new reductions in pay and more tax increases, but it is uncertain whether these drastic measures will suffice to keep Germany from having to provide Greece with financial aid. Berlin has begun weighing the option of letting that country go bankrupt, the consequences being probably "just a bit more serious" than those of last year's insolvency of General Motors, writes the SWP. In Greece, since some time, protests have been raised against German economic dominance. The media is warning that "the Germans could take absolute control" of the Greek national budget.

(Own report) - A study on the history of the German League of Expellees (Bund der Vertriebenen - BdV) financed by the German government is relativizing the Nazi-activities of former "expellee" functionaries, according to the conservative German daily the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). The newspaper writes that some of the arguments used in this study, examining the Nazi-past of high level representatives of organizations of the relocated, could "put Heinrich Himmler's basic national socialist conviction into question." The study was made by the Institute of Contemporary History (Institut für Zeitgeschichte - IfZ) and is being kept under lock and key. The institute is relativizing the study's importance and has declared that it is merely a "feasibility study". The study's author is in contact with "Germandom"-organizations in countries to the east of Germany. The historian Manfred Kittel had procured the assignment to prepare the study, writes the FAZ. Manfred Kittel is director of the "Foundation Flight, Expulsion, Reconciliation," which is organizing a permanent exhibition in Berlin on the theme of "flight and expulsion". His scientific work came under heavy criticism already in the 1990s.

(Own report) - A long-time Friedrich Naumann Foundation employee, a proponent of the Honduran putschists is the newly appointed director of a department in the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Previously, in his function as the "director of the Regional Office for Latin America" he had established the Naumann network in Honduras. Last summer he came to the defense of the putschist regime against protests. His appointment as department director is an aspect of the restructuring process taking place in the BMZ, aimed at linking the ministry more tightly to Germany's economic and military expansion. The restructuring was initiated by the new Minister, Dirk Niebel (FDP). Just last week, the appointment of a Bundeswehr colonel as department director (also for Afghanistan) had provoked strong protests from civilian aid organizations. A third new department director is considered a specialist for promoting small and medium-sized enterprises, which, to a growing degree, are seeking to expand abroad - also with the support of the ministry of development.

(Own report) - Serious social upheavals are threatening to erupt in Kosovo on the second anniversary of its secession, accomplished with strong German impulsion. Since its breaking away from Serbia, the economic situation of the region has become desolate, with an increase in bitter poverty, protests and strikes. Outside the EU there is talk of "a failed state." Whereas Germany, along with the other leading western powers, is continuing to pressure Serbia into recognizing the illegal secession, politicians in Kosovo are threatening to annex more Serbian territory. Bombing attacks, apparently politically motivated, were reported in the areas in question. The situation of minorities remains catastrophic. For example, the Roma in Kosovo are massively discriminated against, hundreds are languishing in lead contaminated camps. Berlin's plans to deport Roma seeking refuge in Germany back into this persecution, are meeting growing protest. The German Bundeswehr is alone in having discerned a positive development. A member of the Bundeswehr has declared that NATO's occupation of the region is a "success story," and calls on the population to recognize "the successful work of the soldiers."

(Own report) - The German Navy and Air Force have been carrying out since Monday their largest non-NATO maneuver of the year in South Africa. This maneuver, entitled "Good Hope IV" taking place close to Cape Town, is the fourth of its kind to be held together with the navy and air force of South Africa. The objective is to enable the two countries to coordinate military operations and will, this year, also include firing guided missiles, including air-to-ground missiles, such as those used by Germany in the aggression on Yugoslavia. South Africa seeks to be recognized as the stabilizing power for Africa. Berlin seeks to exploit this ambition and with Pretoria's help acquire new possibilities of control in Africa south of the Sahara. Their joint activities are benefiting not only from the generally close relationship between the two countries, but also from the fact that South Africa disposes of a large quantity of German-produced war material. In the current maneuver that simulates joint interventions in Africa, the navies of both nations will be operating warships produced in German dockyards. The maneuver is due to last until March 15.

(Own report) - The German ministry of development plans to extend its activities to develop foreign markets for German businesses, according to a competent state secretary. The covert subsidy policy, which, over the past few years, has provided sums in the billions, is operating under the name "Public Private Partnership" (PPP). It is explicitly aimed at opening "growth markets" that have been neglected by the private sector, because of profit perspectives being dim without state subventions. The attention has been particularly focused on impoverished populations in the countries of the southern hemisphere because of the global financial and economic crisis. Because of their high percentage of the world's population and in spite of their low income, they are being considered as potential consumers of metropolitan goods and services, such as so-called "micro-insurances" against the sequels of natural catastrophes. The German Allianz Insurance Co. can expect considerable profits from these cheap "micro-insurances" that are subsidized by the ministry of development, because of the large number of insured.