News Bytes

Increasing numbers of Germans plan to emigrate
19 percent of the working population in Germany plans to move to a country with lower cost of living, due to lacking financial security after retirement. This was shown by a study of Postbank in co-operation with the Allensbach Institute. In 2006, only 15 percent of respondents mentioned such a plan. 23 percent of workers between 16 and 29 years of age are prepared to leave their home country, making it the largest group of prospective emigrants. The next largest group are the workers between 30 and 49 years of age with 20 percent, and those of 50 and older with 12 percent. Up to 2004, the US was the most popular destination for German emigrants, according to the German Federal Statistical Office (Statistisches Bundesamt). Now Switzerland is the number one, followed by the US as the number two. In 2006, roughly 13,200 German citizens emigrated to the US.

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Empire State Building: Last original tenant died
In New York, the last original tenant of the Empire State Building, Jack Brod, died at the age of 98. The jewelry salesman had been a tenant of the best-known skyscraper in the world for almost 80 years continuously. 77 years ago Jack and his father moved into the seventh floor. Brod was there when a plane of the US military crashed against the building in 1945 and he saw all 6,379 windows being exchanged. He spent the last years of his life on the 76th floor.

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No Glamour at the Golden Globe
It really happened - without any kind of great show, without stars walking the red carpet, without great sentiment during the thank-you speeches and raising the trophies, the Golden Globes have been awarded in Los Angeles. These annual awards for motion picture and television presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association are so important because they are supposed to hint at who will be winning the Academy Award a month later. Since the actors in Hollywood wanted to show their solidarity with the Writer's Guild of America strike and decided no to attend the usually so glamorous event, the winners were simply being announced this time - open the envelope, read the name, watch a movie clip, and done. And as if the rather matter-of-fact atmosphere was being mirrored in the results, there were no shining winners this year at the Golden Globes. The British adaptation of the novel "Atonement" with Keira Knightley and James McAvoy was named Best Drama, but both leading actors had to go home surprisingly empty-handed. The awards for best actor and actress went to Julie Christie for her moving portrayal of a woman with Alzheimer's and to Daniel Day-Lewis for his portrayal of a ruthless oil baron in the historical drama "There Will Be Blood." The question remains, whether the strike will also turn the Academy Award into nothing but an unemotional press conference.