Europe, Germany | featured news

President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed that Europe's debt crisis must be contained.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is "reasonably confident" that U.S. consumers won't face the sort of E. coli outbreak plaguing Germany.

An expert at the World Health Organization says time is running out for German investigators to find the source of the world's deadliest E. coli outbreak, which has spread fear across Europe and cost farmers millions in exports.

German hospitals are struggling to cope with the flood of E.coli victims, health minister Daniel Bahr said on Sunday, as scientists remain puzzled by the deadly bug that has killed 19 and infected 1,700 people across Europe.

German health authorities struggled Wednesday to identify the source of an outbreak that has struck more than 1,500 people, killing at least 15.

Spain denies allegations its cucumbers caused the illness that has killed and sickened people in Germany and Sweden.

Germany's governing coalition said Monday it will shut down all the country's nuclear power plants by 2022. The decision, prompted by Japan's nuclear disaster, will make Germany the first major industrialized nation to go nuclear-free in years.

Germany stands alone among the world's leading industrialized nations in its determination to abandon nuclear energy for good because of the technology's inherent risks.

What a bone-headed move. There’s nothing wrong with the 7 nuclear plants that German Chancellor Angela Merkel decreed would be shut down. Just last fall Germany decided to extend the lives of these plants, which provide roughly 10% of Germany’s electricity. With solar and wind entirely unscalable, how’s Germany going to make up the electric deficit? Either by ramping up the use of fossil-fuel burning plants (and importing more natural gas from Russia) or importing power from its neighbors–like nuke-friendly France.

Germany's economy in 2010 grew at its strongest rate since the country's reunification, propelled by exports and rising investment, the Federal Statistics Office said.