Germany to increase defense spending

Germany plans to raise its defense budget by €800 million ($923 million) in 2007 as its army extends deployment to regions such as Africa and the Middle East, Defense Minister Peter Struck said on Monday in Berlin. German Finance Minister Hans Eichel approved the additional sum that will raise Germany's annual military budget to €25.2 billion. The budget until 2006 will remain at €24.4 billion. The plan to increase spending on defense follows demands by Javier Solana, the European Union foreign policy chief, who is asking for more money to be spent on military campaigns and crisis management.

Organized crime in Germany falls slightly

Organized criminal activity is still high in Germany, although on the decrease, according to a report released by Germany's Interior Ministry. In 2002 fewer cases involving organized crime were investigated than in 2001. Last year, authorities instituted 690 preliminary proceedings involving organized crime, down from 787 in 2001. Of the cases in 2001, 37 percent were drug related and approximately 13 percent related to property crime. White-collar crimes figured in 11 percent. In more than 82 percent of cases in 2001, some connection with persons or groups from abroad was suspected.

Justice Minister pushing for more community service

Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries is making the argument that sentencing low-level criminal offenders to community service instead of time in custody would take pressure off Germany's crowded jails and ease already over-stretched state budgets. According to the plan, instead of imposing fines and short periods of incarceration in sentencing offenders, judges could impose community service. "The offender would then be providing a service to society," Zypries said. If such a plan is adopted, one in six prisoners could be affected. Last year, German judges imposed some 5,300 jail terms of under three months.

German supermodel calls in ghostbuster

Ghost experts had advised supermodel Claudia Schiffer about the alleged existence of the ghost of a nun said to haunt her new country mansion in England. The "Ghost Club" had written to the German model and her British husband Matthew Vaughn about the supernatural history of Coldham Hall in Stanningfield, Suffolk, which they bought last year for €8.5 million ($9.8 million). Schiffer did not take the warnings seriously at first, but according to Britain's Sunday Mirror, the 37-year-old model has now employed the services of Ghost Club's own ghostbuster, Elisabeth Bridgeman, to rid the manor of the spectral presence. The ghost, which is said to appear every summer in a dark blue robe in the foyer, is said to be that of a young nun called Penelope, a member of the Rockwood family who lived at the mansion, which was built in 1575 by Sir Robert Rockwood. A friend of the couple has reported that since the ghostbuster paid a professional visit, Schiffer is feeling much calmer.