Spiegel online

Chancellor Angela Merkel's move to help President Nicolas Sarkozy in his bid for re-election is unprecedented. But so too is the European debt crisis. Berlin is driven by the fear that a Socialist president in Paris may overturn its strategy to rescue the euro. But Merkel's campaign assistance poses risks. By SPIEGEL Staff

In a SPIEGEL interview, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the Euro Group, talks about the need for Greece to push ahead with economic reforms. If the country doesn't meet Europe's demands, it will have to declare bankruptcy in March, he says.

China said on Monday it was forbidding its airlines from joining a European Union carbon emissions scheme to protect the climate. The companies now face fines or may even be barred from landing at EU airports. The dispute comes as the EU is looking to China to help tackle the euro debt crisis. 

Though largely ignored by the national media, Hungary's right-wing extremist Jobbik party operates within a surprisingly well-developed and self-sustained online universe. What's more, recent studies have found that the party's supporters aren't the "losers" that many experts thought they were.

One year ago, Egyptian Internet activist Wael Ghonim quickly became the face of the uprising. But he was never comfortable with the role and would still prefer to retreat into the crowd. The digital world is his comfort zone.

An international court ruled on Friday that Germany cannot be held liable for paying reparations to the descendents of victims of a massacre perpetrated during World War II in Italy. The verdict has implications far beyond Nazi-era war crimes, and was welcomed by countries far and wide.

With two more people killed since Wednesday's stadium tragedy in Port Said, renewed violence in Egypt has highlighted the ongoing struggle for power there. German editorialists say the violence at the football match was just the latest manifestation of tensions between protesters and the powerful military.

It was a story too good to be true -- and it wasn't. In reality, Tongan luger Bruno Banani, who supposedly shares a name with a German underwear company, was rechristened as part of a guerrilla-marketing plot. But will that now shatter his Olympic dreams?

Frigid temperatures and snowfall have swept across Europe over the last week, with well over 100 people having died due to the cold, most of them homeless. The dangerous weather is expected to continue.

Does Sharia have a place in Germany? The interior minister of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate thinks it could, particularly in civil cases relating to marriage and divorce. But criticism of his comments has been fierce.

Gerhard Richter is one of the world's most important contemporary artists. But he is also his own harshest critic. Recently surfaced photos show works of art that he destroyed half a century ago. Today, they would have been worth hundreds of millions of euros.

Italian parliamentarians voted this week to slash their salaries by 1,300 euros per month. That, though, is a mere drop in the bucket according to a study released in late January by a Rome think tank. The cost to run Italy's parliament is twice that of Britain, Germany, France and Spain combined.

Though their relationship has always been fraught with problems, Scotland and England have been partners for over 300 years. But Scottish nationalists, with their charismatic leader Alex Salmond, believe their chances of gaining independence are closer than ever.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel needs help -- and in China this week, she has not been afraid to ask for it. She would like to see Beijing exert more pressure on Iran and Syria. Above all, however, Germany wants China to make a concrete pledge to invest in the euro bailout fund.

Outgoing Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackermann presided over his final annual press conference on Thursday. His legacy will be that of transforming Germany's largest financial institution into a profit machine. But in the end, he lost control of the specters he unleashed.

Paparazzi have a bad reputation for bending the rules to satisfy the world's insatiable demand for celebrity photos. But the business is also incredibly lucrative, something that prompted Bill Gates' Corbis photo agency to buy the world's top paparazzi shop. Some in the industry are trying to free it from its sleazy image, but upstart agencies have few moral qualms.

It's back to the drawing board for stock exchange companies Deutsche Börse and NYSE Euronext after the European Commission blocked their merger plans. German commentators ask if the megal-deal was even a good idea in the first place.

A suspect arrested this week in connection with a murderous neo-Nazi terrorist group has been identified as a former member of the far-right National Democratic Party. His affiliation is likely to spark renewed calls for the party to be banned in Germany.