City News

Former Germany international Markus Babbel has experienced the highs and lows of football, from winning trophies to suffering an illness which threatened not just his career but his life.

After an agonising period spent battling Guillain-Barré syndrome, a neurological illness affecting the nervous system and leading to paralysis, Babbel is back — albeit on the touchline as coach of Bundesliga outfit Hertha Berlin.

Gov. John Lynch and Department of Resources and Economic Development commissioner George Bald are scheduled to attend groundbreaking ceremonies for the Burgess BioPower biomass plant Thursday.

Cate Street Capital announced the ceremony will take place at 11 a.m. at the plant site. In addition to Lynch and Bald, speakers will include Berlin Mayor Paul Grenier, Public Service of New Hampshire chief executive officer Gary Long, and Cate Street Capital president John Halle.

A 31-year-old man who allegedly stabbed a woman and then barricaded himself inside a motel room in July was charged with attempted murder in connection with the incident on Thursday, police said.

Isaiah Boucher was on special parole at the time and was immediately turned over to parole agents. He was brought to Superior Court in New Britain on Thursday, where Berlin police arrested him by warrant.

Haile Gebrselassie lost the race against time on Sunday when Patrick Makau shattered his marathon world record and ended an era of two decades dominated by arguably the greatest distance runner in history.

His lungs seizing up and struggling for air after more than 17 miles of the Berlin Marathon, Gebrselassie finally quit shortly after mile 21.

The race leading to Sunday’s vote for the German capital’s House of Deputies has been plagued by anti-Jewish campaign posters associated with the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD). The 141 legislators will choose the next mayor.

A new party – BIG – is dominated by disaffected social-democratic German-Muslims who advocate an anti-gay school curriculum and have ties with the radical Turkish Islamic organization Milli Görüs (“National Vision”). BIG is a German abbreviation for Alliance for Innovation and Justice.

The Green Party candidate for mayor, Renate Künast, in 2009 allegedly called a pro-Israel German NGO a Mossad-backed organization. Künast denied making the statement.

At Europe’s biggest consumer electronics trade fair, Samsung has rented one of the biggest spots on offer. But its hotly awaited new tablet computer is nowhere to be seen at IFA consumer electronics show, which opens to the public in Berlin on Friday. More >

David Rudisha has come a long way in making up for the disappointment in Berlin in 2009 by twice breaking the world 800 metres record since then.

But the Kenyan agrees he needs to work harder to become one of the world’s greatest middle distance runners. Inexperience and bad weather contributed to his semi-final elimination in the German capital, but the two-lap star hopes his return to the East Asia region, where he won the world title as a junior in Beijing in 2006, will fulfill his hopes.

German authorities are scrambling to contain and make sense of a surge in car torchings in the nation’s capital that have raised fears that the vandalism spree could escalate into the broader, more dangerous forms of street crime that have recently hit other pockets of Europe.

Setting cars on fire has become a popular form of class protest and petty crime in recent years in Berlin, triggered in part by tensions over fast-rising rents and other forms of gentrification in this relatively poor city compared with other major German cities. But the latest spate—including some 60 cars torched in four nights—marks a sharp surge in the arson attacks. While previous car burnings were largely confined to Berlin’s up-and-coming working class neighborhoods, such as Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain, the latest spate has rapidly spread to its more affluent western districts.

GERMAN CHANCELLOR Angela Merkel is on holiday in South Tyrol and, come what may, is planning to stay there.

That was the message from Berlin yesterday, where Merkel’s officials described the letter from European Commission president José Manuel Barroso – calling on EU leaders to extend the capacity of the bailout fund – as unwelcome and unnecessary.

“If we allow ourselves to play this game, we’ll be at it every 10 days,” complained a senior Berlin official.