| SPIEGEL ONLINE | INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER |
| Compiled on December 11, 2013, 05:58 PM CET |
| REALITY CHECK Sluggish US Sales Threaten VW's Growth VW has misjudged the US market, where it is underperforming its rivals and still has a market share of just 2.6 percent. The company's goal of becoming the world's biggest automaker by 2018 is at risk. |
| EU WRANGLING Berlin Plays It Safe on Banking Union German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble met with his EU colleagues until midnight on Tuesday to discuss Europe's planned banking union. Berlin is playing it safe in the talks, but its hesitancy threatens to derail the project's core ambitions. |
| SELF DEFENSE Protectionism Rules in EU Arms Industry German Chancellor Angela Merkel loves to preach economic prudence to her European Union partners. But she looks the other way when it comes to the bloc's wasteful defense policy, and Europe's citizens are footing the bill -- to the tune of at least 26 billion a year. |
| NEO-NAZI WORRIES Bavaria Pulls Plug on Annotated 'Mein Kampf' For years, historians in Munich have been working on an annotated edition of Adolf Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" to be released when the copyright expires in 2015. The state of Bavaria gave the green light in 2012 -- but now they are trying to halt the project. |
| ARCTIC SCRAMBLE Russia to Flex Military Muscle in Far North The Arctic is believed to be rich in natural gas and oil, and countries with territory in the region are increasingly looking to exploit it. Russia is now planning a dedicated Arctic military force, and is revamping old Soviet military bases to stake its own claim. |
| RADIO VATICAN Unpredictable Pope Challenges Journalists Each day, Radio Vatican translates the pope's words into 44 languages. The station's staff of 400 are some of the best and brightest from some 60 countries. But Pope Francis is very unpredictable, making a tough job even harder. |
| KUNDUZ BOMBING German Court Drops Case Over Civilian Deaths A German court has ruled that the country is not liable for damages relating to the 2009 bombing of hijacked tanker trucks that killed dozens of civilians. Lawyers representing the victims had been seeking damages from Berlin. |
| PICTURE THIS Connubial Bliss |
