Terror Trial - neo-Nazi Beate Zschäpe charged with murder | Seeking Shelter - Syrian refugees eye asylum in Germany | Mainstream Greens - how broad-based is Germany's Green Party? | Care Crisis - German pensioners in Eastern European nursing homes
German federal prosecutors have brought charges against Beate Zschäpe in 10 murder cases. She is the sole surviving member of the National Socialist Underground, a neo-Nazi group suspected of committing the crimes. It's a vindication for the families of the victims. They are hoping the trial will reveal why the right-wing involvement in the xenophobia-fuelled murders went undiscovered for so long.
In 18 months of civil conflict in Syria more than 400,000 people have fled the country. The streams of refugees across Syria's borders continue to grow. Foreign policy experts from all parties in the German Bundestag are calling for some of them to be granted asylum in Germany. But the Foreign Ministry says that any decision by Germany must be within the scope of EU regulations.
The once-revolutionary ideas initiated by the Greens, such as the phase-out of nuclear power, have moved into the mainstream. They are now widely espoused by a well-educated, high-earning segment of the electorate. Take the southern German university town of Tübingen, for example. Boris Palmer of the Greens has been mayor there for years.
Costs of caring for the elderly in Germany have risen sharply. Because many retired people can no longer afford long-term nursing, families are seeking cheaper alternatives outside the country. That's why some care-dependent patients have ended up in nursing homes in Slovakia, for example: hundreds of kilometers from their homes and relatives, and where the staff rarely speak German.
