Berlin, Germany | AFP | German industrial giant Siemens on Monday said it would buy US software firm Mentor Graphics for $4.5 billion, building out its offer to high-tech manufacturing industries. Oregon-based Mentor employs more than 5,700 people and produces software used to design electronics products, especially integrated circuits. The …
Read More »Huawei takes jab at Samsung with ‘no explosion’ phone
Munich, Germany | AFP | Chinese electronics firm Huawei on Thursday unveiled its latest Mate 9 smartphone in Munich, designed to challenge global market leaders Apple and Samsung with features including a high-quality camera and higher-capacity battery. As Korea’s Samsung struggles with negative publicity following the high-profile recall of its …
Read More »German YouTube alive with sound of music after copyright deal
Frankfurt, Germany | AFP | One of the world’s most restrictive countries on access to music videos opened up on Tuesday as YouTube announced a deal with musicians’ body GEMA to pay when people stream music in Germany. YouTube users in the country had for years been confronted with a …
Read More »Merkel announces aid package for Niger to stem migrant flow
Niamey, Niger | AFP | German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday announced a 27-million-euro aid package for Niger, her second stop in a three-nation Africa tour aimed at fighting terrorism and stemming the migrant influx to Europe. The German leader said the army of the arid west African country, one …
Read More »Germany’s Merkel in Africa on trip aimed at stemming migrant flows
Bamako, Mali | AFP | German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday warned against Africa suffering from a “brain drain” as she arrived on a three-day tour of the continent focused on security and stemming the migrant influx to Europe. Merkel also underscored the need to “establish coherent cooperation” in development …
Read More »Germany says new East-West tensions more dangerous than Cold War
Berlin, Germany | AFP | The mounting tensions between the United States and Russia have created a situation that is “more dangerous” than the Cold War, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in an interview published Saturday. Relations between the two have nosedived since a ceasefire they agreed to in …
Read More »Ten years on, WikiLeaks and Assange as controversial as ever
Berlin, Germany | AFP | Celebrating its 10th anniversary this week, anonymous whistleblowing platform WikiLeaks can look back on a decade that saw it turn classified documents into global headlines and inspire a host of copycat leaks. But with founder Julian Assange hiding in Ecuador’s London embassy to evade rape …
Read More »Germany blocks WhatsApp data transfers to Facebook
Berlin, Germany | AFP | German data protection authorities on Tuesday said they had blocked Facebook from collecting subscriber data from its subsidiary WhatsApp, citing privacy concerns. Facebook and WhatsApp promised in the wake of the Silicon Valley giant’s 2014 acquisition of the messaging app that they would not share …
Read More »Five things to know about VW’s ‘dieselgate’ scandal
Frankfurt, Germany | AFP | It has been a year since Volkswagen admitted to fitting millions of cars with cheating software to dupe emissions tests, plunging the German auto giant into one of the biggest scandals ever to hit the industry. Billions of dollars in compensation later and mired in …
Read More »Bayer buys controversial Monsanto for $66 bn
Frankfurt, Germany | AFP | German chemicals giant Bayer said Wednesday it had agreed to buy the controversial US seeds and pesticides firm Monsanto for $66 billion, in a deal that triggered immediate criticism from environmentalists. After a months-long pursuit, Bayer said its US peer had accepted an improved offer …
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