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Effenberg emigrates to the US First off, he showed them all. Now, Stefan Effenberg gives Germany the finger. His girlfriend Claudia Köhler, formerly Strunz, said that they had had enough of the treatment in Germany - and wanted to emigrate to Florida. Even if he currently doesn't really have to be dealing with bad treatment in Germany - he is playing in the desert of Qatar - he doesn't really have that much love for his home country anymore, girlfriend Claudia told the German newspaper "Bild." In any case, Effenberg had canceled the plans to buy a house in Hamburg. Originally, that was where the couple was planning to move after Effenberg finished his career. In 2004, they will not only have to pack their bags for Florida, they are also planning to get married that year. The soccer player wants to move to Florida to be closer to his children. His ex-wife Martina had moved to the US after their divorce.

US economy isn't growing - it's exploding One month ago statisticians reported that US economy had been growing 7.2% in the third quarter - and this already seemed like quite a lot. Now they had to correct their data again - it is even more. Currently, the US Department of Trade sets the rise of GDP in the third quarter at 8.2%. After US President Bush had been criticized for the lack of success of his economic policies for quite some time now, the US economy now seems to experience the greatest increase in almost 20 years.

An even greater plus had last been registered in the first quarter of 1984 - back then, GDP rose by 9%. Nominally, the GDP even rose by ten percent to an annual figure of $11.06 trillion. The national income rose by eight percent, the steepest increase of the last 25 years. Company profits rose by 10.6 percent during this period.

Generous billionaires - Bill the Benefactor Being rich is no reason to be ashamed in the US - but only those who donate part of their money to charity are truly respected. The 50 most generous people among the rich alone donated roughly 47.2 billion Dollars between 1999 and 2003. At the top of the list compiled by US magazines "Business Weekly" is Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who is such a fierce competitor in day-to-day business life. He alone donated almost 23 billion Dollars, most of it to his own foundation. In September this year he donated 168 million Dollars to fight malaria in Africa, one year ago, roughly 100 million Dollars to fight the auto-immune disease AIDS in India. He announced that in the case of his death, a significant portion of his money will be left to charity.

Five more benefactors follow: the co-founder of chip manufacturer Intel, Gordon Moore, with seven billion donated or promised Dollars within the same period made the second place, followed by US investor George Soros with 2.4 billion Dollars and Sun-founders Eli and Edythe Broad. On the next ranks are people such as American Century creators James and Virginia Stowers and computer manufacturer Michael Dell. Among the big donators is also media tycoon Haim Saban, who recently became known in connection with the ProSiebenSat.1 deal - with roughly 100 million Dollars, he still make place 47 on the list.

Scholarships for the US - financial aid for athletes Approximately 10,000 German students go to US colleges every year. Especially athletes have many opportunities for highly remunerated scholarships - but also people without any athletic talent have good chances for a scholarship. It happens once a year in New York's Madison Square Garden - young basketball players are being selected for America's professional league NBA. The often highly remunerated contracts are their big chance. Most of them have already proved themselves in college. Because sports are much more important at US universities than they are in Germany. Usually for prestige reasons, colleges offer generous scholarships - not only to Americans. Students from abroad as well have the opportunity of financing their college years through their athletic achievements. There are three agencies in Germany that specialize in organizing sports scholarships around the world. They help with the application forms and, on the way to participation, with the necessary tests. The process is said to take up to one year. If everything goes well, a lot of money can be saved. The scholarship covers the tuition fees, accommodation and food as well as books and sports trips. The decisive criteria are the athletic achievements.

Wireless in Georgia At the small-town university of Athens in the US state of Georgia, laptops and handheld devices are part of every day student life. Now the students have covered the entire city with their wireless network. With up to eleven megabits per second the data packages are speeding through the sweltering southern weather. A wireless high speed internet connection, also known as WiFi for Wireless Fidelity, transmits data up to 200 times faster than an analog modem connection. Wireless internet on campus is as normal as a bulletin board on many campuses, not only in the US. The Wireless Athens Georgia Zone (WAGZone) provides, apart from the campus, almost the entire historic part of town with free wireless internet access. 30 students helped with this low-budget project - because the whole thing is for science. They only had $80,000 for the technical realization of the project. The university is proud of the fact that no state of the art, but only state of the Wal-mart technology has been used.

However, technology really isn't the main thing in Athens. The project focuses on the using of the WiFi network and the social effects mobile information has a constant companion on the individual.

Waiter on bungee cord - new mega-discos in New York Mega-discos are hot again in New York. After the Avalon has been opened in what was previously a church, more discos like this one are supposed to follow. The new discos that are said to have room for hundreds or thousands of people are already planning other special attractions, for example a waiter on a bungee cord. Most of those mega-discos had been closed by former New York mayor Giuliani, because he thought the discos were something like drug-supermarkets. Now, New York nightlife seems to have changed again.

Basketball - new German talent in the land of opportunity Edwin Ofori-Attah is one of the greatest German basketball talents. Like many others his age, the U18 national player is dreaming of a NBA career. That's why the boy from Berlin went to the US to attract the attention of talent scouts as a high school basketball player. When Edwin Ofori-Attah showed up for the first Lions training at the Statesville Christian High School in North Carolina, his team members first of all studied the moves of the new member. Not bad, they thought, and after a short while one of them asked him where he came from. "Germany." The team members were puzzled - not all of them knew what exactly Germany might be, some suspected it might be the name of a city. The German talent is already used to questions like that one - most people suspect he was from New York or the North, the German says. Even though ever since the NBA days of Detlef Schrempf and Dirk Nowitzki, Americans should know that also players from overseas have enough talent to make it in the world's best league. The 18-year old Ofori-Attah wants to be one of them, which is why he embarked on his Lions adventure.

The basketballs scouts saw the young German at the U-18 European Championship in 2002, when he was Germany's best scorer. Apparently, the scouts did well - in the second game of the season against Calvary High School from Winston Salem Ofori-Attah contributed with 37 points to the 72:57 victory of the Lions. He even wants to improve this in the next games. Many other colleges and universities have already signaled interest.

California - Arnold thwarted, Senate denies budget proposal With 34:0 votes the Californian senate has voted against Schwarzenegger's budget proposal. The plan included a 15 million Dollar bond. Schwarzenegger now has to look for alternatives. Oppositional Democrats complain that the plan would strangle education and other programs and put a strain on the budget for years to come.

Wal-Mart USA $1.52 billion sales - in one day! On Friday, Wal-Mart in the US registered record sales of $1.52 billion. This is a 6.3% increase compared to last year. The big test, however, is still to come, the stores are trying to keep this up until Christmas.

Too much fast food - American bears are overweight Over the past years, American bears have discovered how much they like fast food. They get the food from garbage cans everywhere. As a consequence, more and more bears are overweight. But the black bears don't just get fat from fast food, they also become more susceptible to diseases. More and more voices are demanding bear-safe garbage cans.

Birthday: oldest human is 114-yaer old woman from Leipzig, living in the US The oldest person in the world is a 114-year old woman. Today is her birthday. She was born in Leipzig and lived there with her parents for some time. In 1896 the family left Germany and went to the US. The parents owned a hotel in the US. In 1908, Charlotte Benkner got married. She never had kids. Today, she lives in Ohio with her 15 years younger sister Tillie O'Hare.

The woman who is vigorous for her age, is content with her life. In an interview about her age she said it was genetic, since her family too had lived to a very old age. Of all inventions, she liked the washing machine most. Her favorite US president was George Bush.

Researchers: Exodus across the Atlantic - migration continues After China and Japan, Germany is among America's biggest suppliers of brain power. Between 1990 and 1998 the portion of Germans among foreign researchers with a degree, postgraduate, PhD, assistant professor, research fellow - so not students - has risen from 5.2 to 7.2%. After Great Britain, especially young researchers from Germany and France are going to the US and intending to stay. 75 percent of Europeans who make their PhD in the US intend to stay there. In 1990, 49 out of 100 tried to achieve that. Motives are mostly the attractive wages and less bureaucracy as well as the chance to work independently. Especially European young scientists are attracted by the top wages in the economic sector.

The migration of scientists from Europe to the US contributes to the foreign science elite - Among the 3.5 million FuE employees in the US, 760,000 are from countries outside the US. According to statistics of the EU Commission in Brussels 9682 scientists from Great Britain received a permanent residence status in 2001, followed by at least 4202 from Germany and 4151 from France. A total of 7.6% of visas went to EU scientists with an upward trend.