Новости за 24.09.2015

Ellis Kaut, the creator of a red-haired elf called Pumuckl, beloved of generations of German children, died on Thursday aged 94.

Porsche CEO Matthias Müller has been chosen to become the new leader of Volkswagen amid the company's ongoing emissions cheating scandal, Reuters reported on Thursday.

With Germany the fifth best expat location across the globe according to a new HSBC survey, starting a new life here definitely has its benefits. But it's not all good news for Germany. The Local looked at where the country did best and worst in the survey.

Martin Winterkorn who stepped down as CEO of Volkswagen on Wednesday could receive a €60 million golden handshake from the scandal-hit car manufacturer.

Update: German top-of-the-range carmaker BMW on Thursday denied suggestions in a newspaper report that it might have cheated in pollution tests on its diesel cars, as rival group VW has admitted to doing.

UPDATE: As the emissions scandal spreads across the Volkswagen (VW) group, the company admitted that cars in Europe also cheated on tests. Executives from Audi and Porsche - both owned by VW - are to stand down from their jobs on Friday.

The German population rose by almost half a million in 2014, the biggest increase in almost a quarter century, the Federal Office of Statistics (destatis) reported on Thursday.

A Berlin court has ordered a cat owner to have her hairless Sphynx cat castrated – because it would be animal cruelty to let the naked pet breed.

The pollution cheating scandal that has engulfed auto giant Volkswagen touches one of the main nerve centres of the German economy, given the importance of the car sector both politically and economically.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday that a deal to relocate 120,000 refugees among EU countries was far from what was needed to resolve the continent's biggest migrant crisis since the Second World War.

German publishing giant Axel Springer is rumoured to have its sights set on a $560 million (around €500 million) deal to buy online news source Business Insider (BI). One expert tells The Local that it's an obvious next step in the company's drive to stay ahead of the news game.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday that President Bashar al-Assad should be involved in any Syrian peace talks, amid mounting pressure to end the four-year conflict.

The commander of Germany's mission to train Kurdish troops in northern Iraq died suddenly on Wednesday, the Bundeswehr (German army) said.

At a hastily-convened summit in Brussels that continued late into the night on Wednesday, EU leaders agreed on spending and strategy for the coming months to try and lighten the load on countries most heavily burdened by the refugee crisis.