| SPIEGEL ONLINE | INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER |
| Compiled on December 12, 2013, 05:45 PM CET |
| EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Snowden Will Make Video Appearance Leaders in the European Parliament have agreed to allow NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to answer questions by video, despite efforts by some conservative |
| ABDUCTED IN SYRIA Extremist Rebels Target Journalists Radical Islamists embedded among the rebels in Syria are reportedly targeting foreign journalists for abduction. Instead of holding them for ransom, however, they use them as trump cards in their power struggles with more moderate rebel groups. |
| TEPID WELCOME Germany Struggles to Lure Skilled Workers Germany must look abroad to make up for its shortage of highly skilled workers. But a series of obstacles, including daunting bureaucracy, stand in the way of foreign specialists looking to relocate. |
| ON STANDBY Kassel's 270 Million Euro Airport to Nowhere A regional airport that opened six months ago in the German city of Kassel has close to 140 employees, but no scheduled flights this winter. Everyday operations are legally required, even as the facility hemorrhages money. |
| NIGHTLIFE CRISIS AVERTED GEMA Strikes Fee Deal with Clubs Nightlife organizers have finalized an agreement with performers' rights organization GEMA about controversial fee increases for rights to play songs. The previously proposed increases had been seen as a threat to Berlin nightlife. |
| 'ONLY IN THE CHIMNEY' Anti-Semitic Carol Causes Uproar in Romania Advocacy groups are incensed after a Romanian government-owned channel broadcast a Christmas song glorifying the Holocaust and calling for Jews to be burned. The channel is blaming a local group for the performance. |
| CONTROVERSIAL THEOLOGIAN HANS KÜNG 'I Don't Cling to This Life' Hans Küng fought his whole life for the reforms being weighed by the Vatican today. In a SPIEGEL interview, the elderly Swiss theologian discusses Pope Francis' chances to revolutionize the church, why John Paul II shouldn't be canonized and what he hopes to learn in heaven. |
| PICTURE THIS The Long Goodbye |
