News Bytes

Customs: no fun for tourists returning from the US

All the offers in the land of opportunity are just too tempting. Due to the weak Dollar, many must-haves are so cheap that more and more German tourists simply can't resist. However, upon their return home there's the great uncertainty at customs, because tight value limits exist on imports from countries outside the European Union. Each traveler may import new goods for personal use worth €175 (approx. $270), for everything exceeding that value, the traveler has to pay 19 percent import sales tax, and for some goods even an additional customs duty. Gold jewelry, for example, always requires customs duty. According to the customs officials' experience, especially older, well-off couples like to import that.

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More German emigrants than ever

According to the Federal Statistical Office, a total of 165,000 German emigrants have been recorded in 2007 in the Federal Republic of Germany. This is a 6 % increase compared to the previous year. The most common destinations were Switzerland (20,000), the US (14,000), Poland and Austria (10,000 each). Thus, the US remain one of the leading destinations for emigrants.

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Clinton wins and keeps on fighting

In the competition for the nomination as presidential candidate of the Democratic party, Hillary Clinton won the primaries in West Virginia with a considerable lead over Barack Obama. After 76 percent of the electoral districts had been counted, she had 66 percent of the votes, her opponent had 27. This is Clinton's second best result in the primaries after Arkansas, where she got 70 percent of the votes. Clinton's victory on May 13 had been expected, but has mostly symbolical meaning since the New York Senator knows she cannot really catch up with her leading opponent in the remaining six primaries until June 3. In West Virginia, Clinton got at least 16 of the 28 delegates, Obama got seven. Five more were still being counted. Clinton, however, still displayed fighting spirit: "I am more determined than ever to carry on this campaign until everyone has had their chance to make their voices heard," she told her supporters. "This race isn't over yet. Neither of us has the total delegates it takes to win."

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US list the polar bear as a threatened species

Ice in the Arctic is melting quickly - and the polar bear's natural habitat becomes smaller. Now the US have listed the white predator as a threatened species. It is controversial, however, just how threatened the bears really are. After taking his time for several months, Secretary for the Interior Dirk Kempthorne now finally organized a press conference. The polar bear, according to the Secretary, could be at risk to become an endangered species in the foreseeable future. Therefore, it had been decided to put him on the list. The Secretary even brought along a number of satellite pictures and charts for his talk with the journalists. Documentation that was supposed to prove one thing: the sea ice habitat in the far North is continuously being reduced - despite the fact that this year's winter had been comparatively cold. The shrinking of their habitat led to a decrease in the number of polar bears, the Secretary explained. Therefore, Kempthorne demanded effective measures to counter global warming. "This listing will not stop global climate change or prevent any sea ice from melting," he said. However, Washington's diplomats in favor climate protection have been known to be among those who keep slowing things down in international climate protection negotiations.