Free Republic

Three days before Germany goes to the polls, the ruling parties clung to the hope that they can woo enough undecided voters -- reportedly one-third of the electorate -- to rescue Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's center-left coalition. Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer of the Greens, junior partner in the governing alliance, said his party still had a fighting chance Sunday of matching its record 8.6 percent result in the 2002 election. "We can reach that goal if we throw ourselves into the campaign and do not get sidetracked by any kind of speculation" about other possible coalition partners, Fischer told German news...

WASHINGTON, June 27 - After a meeting with Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany, President Bush said Monday that it was "unacceptable" for Iran to continue pursuing a nuclear program and strongly embraced European efforts to negotiate a deal to halt it. President Bush said on Monday that he and Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany had agreed on a firm line on Iran. After an election in Iran that the administration dismissed as a sham, Mr. Bush said Monday that the United States and Europe were sending the country a "focused, concerted, unified message." Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, vowed after...

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German man suspected of helping a Libyan bid to acquire atomic weapons technology in 2001 has been released on bail, the federal prosecutor's office says. The man, who lives in South Africa and was named only as Gerhard W., 65, is suspected of passing on to a South African company a request from an illegal procurement network based in Dubai to supply Libya with gas centrifuge equipment used for uranium enrichment, the office said. Although the firm built the centrifuge, it was never delivered to Libya, it said, adding it was still looking into the extent...