International Glance
BERLIN: Despite strong criticism from the opposition and even its own coalition partners, Chancellor Angela Merkel's government agreed Wednesday to give Germany's police forces greater powers to monitor homes, telephones and private computers, maintaining that an enhanced reach would protect citizens from terrorist attacks.
But opposition parties and some Social Democrats who share power with Merkel's conservative bloc criticized the measures in the draft legislation, saying they would further erode privacy rights that they contend have already been undermined, after revelations of recent snooping operations conducted by Deutsche Telekom, one of the country's biggest companies.
TVNL Comment: Back to the Future....and the rise of the Third Reich!
Vice Premier Haim Ramon on Monday acknowledged that Israel was holding talks with Hamas, in violation of a government decision not to conduct talks with the Islamist Palestinian group until it complies with the demands of the Quartet.
"A foreign force occupied an Arab country and hanged its president and we stood by and watched," he told an Arab summit in the Syrian capital.
