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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4149090.stm

Last Updated: Saturday, 13 August, 2005, 16:19 GMT 17:19 UK

"Germany attacks US on Iran threat"

Iran restarted nuclear research this week

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has warned the US to back away from the possibility of military action against Iran over its nuclear programme.
His comments come a day after President Bush reiterated that force remained an option but only as a last resort.

Iran has resumed what it says is a civilian nuclear research programme but which the West fears could be used to develop nuclear arms.

Germany, France and the UK have led efforts to end the crisis peacefully.

Let's take the military option off the table. We have seen it doesn't work
Gerhard Schroeder

Schroeder launches poll bid
Mr Schroeder's rejection of force came at the official launch of his party's election campaign.

The BBC's Ray Furlong - reporting from Hanover - says there was an echo of his last election campaign three years ago, when his steadfast opposition to the use of force against Iraq helped get him re-elected."

http://medienkritik.typepad.com/blog/2005/08/americans_happi.html

"Americans Happier than Germans: How is that Possible?"

(By Ray D.)

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "It is a land "increasingly plagued by self-doubts" and in the midst of a downward spiral. It is a land drowning in guns, brutal crime and social injustice. It is a land that has become "as scary as Osama bin Laden" embroiled in a hopeless civil war overseas. It is a land that lied to the world for oil and unbridled greed.

This land is an imaginary construct of German media and left-wing politicians. It is the United States seen through the distorted lens of publications such as SPIEGEL and STERN. It is a land in which very little positive ever happens and where the great majority of news are negative horror stories.

The land that many Germans believe they know to be mired in misery, crime and hopelessness, is, in fact, totally foreign to them. The United States that they think they know could never be a land of people more optimistic and content with their lives and more economically prosperous. But that is precisely what it is...

Just yesterday, a superb German blog called Die Achse des Guten cited a Harris Poll, which yielded the following results (emphasis original):

"With a few exceptions, Americans are generally happier with their lives and more optimistic about their future than are Europeans, according to a new Harris Poll. In this survey, Americans were asked some of the same questions that were asked in a recent Eurobarometer survey conducted for the European Union.

The big picture is that Americans are much more satisfied with their lives, much more likely to believe that their lives have improved and much more likely to expect their personal situations will improve than most Europeans.

Fully 58 percent of Americans are very satisfied with their lives compared to the 15-country European average of 31 percent. Fifty-six percent of Americans think that their lives have improved in the last five years compared to 45 percent of Europeans. Furthermore, 65 percent of Americans expect their personal situation will improve in the next five years compared to only 44 percent of Europeans. However, Europe is not at all homogenous and the mood varies widely from country to country.""