Euro Charm Offensive: Merkel Acts to Polish Poor Image Abroad

[sysop]

Iron lady, leader of the Fourth Reich, lacking compassion: Chancellor Angela Merkel's image has suffered during the euro crisis. Suddenly, though, she is all smiles and full of praise for the efforts made by indebted euro-zone states. But will her charm offensive be enough to transform Germany's battered image in Europe?

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...852967,00.html

[thorpeman@sky.com]

That's where the problem lies within the EU. Indulgent countries want handouts for no return from countries that stand on their own two feet

[sabcia77]

Notwithstanding the proverb ‘let the bygones be bygones’, informational hysteria around the violation of Belarusian state border in airspace by a Swedish light aeroplane and subsequent flight over Belarusian territory is becoming annoying.

To tell the truth, we, the people once relevant to military art, are not much worried about the level, to which the relations between the republic and the monarchy were either elevated or dropped by already former ambassador in Belarus Stefan Ericsson. We are fed up with phony appeals both from masterminds of ‘teddy bear landing’ and their image-makers among democratic Belarusian mass media and from ideologists of propaganda about world conspiracy against our country akin to Yuri Prokopov, Vadim Gigin and Alexei Mihalchenko.

Obviously we are more interested in the future of Belarusian air defence system. Yes, they flopped and got busted. But there must be a way out of this situation. That is the topic for a separate serious talk and it seems to me that necessary funding and implementation of advanced modern technologies, including those already known to Belarusian military science, will contribute to national security. http://www.belvpo.com/en/15063.html