Euro Reaches Record High

What's going on with the euro? In trading on Wednesday, the European currency jumped over the $1.30 mark for the first time ever. Over the weekend, the euro stood at $1.2996. Such an expensive currency, while good if you're earning euros and want to travel, is much less positive for European exports. While most German managers are taking the currency's spike in stride, it has potential to do real damage, especially for those companies who rely on the United States for their main export market. The already ailing German automobile industry, for example, stands to lose from a consistently high euro. The European Central Bank has so far resisted taking measures to slow the rise of the currency. By Wednesday afternoon, the euro had fallen back below $1.30 on news that the US trade deficit is lower than expected -- the deficit is a mere $53.55 billion instead of the previously announced $54.04 billion. Just four years ago, the euro reached its low point against the dollar at $0.82. (5:45 p.m. CET)

Party for Pilfered Treasures

Happy Birthday to the German Archaeology Institute! It turned 175 years old on Wednesday and threw itself a party in Berlin. To mark the day, we have gathered the top five world treasures "plundered" by German archaeologists in their illustrious history (okay maybe just dug up and carted back home). Of course, in making off with the loot (mainly in the late 19th century), Germany was merely trying to catch up with their European neighbors who had been at it for decades. But still, end result is impressive, if perhaps a bit out of place in their Berlin homes.

1. The Pergamon Altar (Built around 180 B.C. -- found in what is now Turkey.)
2. The Ishtar Gate of Babylon (Dedicated by Nebuchadnezzar II, King of Babylon, in the 7th century B.C. One of the gates into the inner city of Babylon in today's Iraq.)
3. Bust of Nefertiti (Dating from 1345 B.C. and found in Egypt in 1912, the debate still rages as to who she actually was.)
4. The ruins of Troy (found in present-day northern Turkey and carted to Germany by Heinrich Schliemann, but then "stolen" by the Russians after World War II and taken to Moscow.)
5. The Market Gate of Milet (Built in 120 A.D. in western Turkey and found at the beginning of the 20th century.)
(4:15 p.m. CET)

UN Sanctions for Ivory Coast

Ivory Coast continued its rapid slide into chaos on Tuesday and Wednesday even as the United Nations Security Council threatened to impose sanctions on the West African country. The sanctions are scheduled to go into effect on December 1; France had asked for immediate penalties but was blocked in the Council by China. On Tuesday evening, seven people were killed and hundreds wounded as thousands of government loyalists massed outside a French evacuation post. France has denied accusations its troops shot indiscriminately into the crowd, saying demonstrators fired first and were then killed by Ivorian security forces. French troops have been heavily involved in the recent violence, having been attacked by the Ivory Coast air force over the weekend and responding by destroying its former colony's small collection of planes and helicopters. On Wednesday morning, France and the UN began evacuating thousands of expatriates and personnel trapped in UN compounds by escalating anti-foreigner violence. More than 1,600 French citizens have taken refuge in a French military compound in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's capital city, and are waiting to be evacuated.(1:33p.m. CET)

Iraq Update: Presidential Family Kidnapped

The family of interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi is the latest victim of the wave of kidnappings plaguing the country. A cousin of Allawi as well as his cousin's wife and a further family member were abducted on Tuesday morning from their house in Baghdad following a short exchange of gunfire. No demands have yet been made.

The US offensive against the rebel stronghold Fallujah spiked Wednesday as American military forces reported controlling up to 70 percent of the city of 300,000 inhabitants located just west of Baghdad. So far, 10 US soldiers and at least 70 resistance fighters have been killed, the US military says. Fighting has been less intense than expected. Fears are growing, however, that resistance leader and Iraq's most-wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, may have slipped out of the city with the resistance leadership. According to the UN High Commission for Refugees, the rebels aren't the only ones bailing. Most of the city's civilian population has fled Fallujah and now urgently need food, shelter, water, and medication. The UN, which pulled out of Baghdad after its headquarters was attacked in August 2003, is, however, not in a position to help. (12:10 p.m. CET)

Cookie Monster Counting Calories

Sesame Street's Cookie Monster eats too many cookies. For those who grew up with the children's show, celebrating its 35th anniversary on Wednesday, this comes as no surprise. But now, with an eye toward the explosive rise of child obesity in the United States and elsewhere, the cookie-addicted blue beast is being transformed into a nutritional expert. Sesame Street has named the initiative "Healthy Happy Monsters." (11:45 a.m. CET)

Religious Violence Flairs in Holland

Religious violence continued in Holland on Tuesday night. Yet another Islamic school was set afire just hours after the Tuesday burial of Islam-critical filmmaker Theo van Gogh, murdered last week by Muslim extremists. "Theo rest in peace," was written on the walls of the burning building. The arson attack is just the latest event in escalating violence between Christian and Muslims in normally peaceful Holland. Over a dozen churches and mosques have been attacked since last week. Van Gogh was disliked by many in Holland's one-million-strong Muslim population for making a film heavily critical of Islam and a note, characterized by investigators as a "declaration of a holy war," was found on his body. At van Gogh's funeral earlier in the day, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende urged the country to maintain calm and to "break the spiral of violence and fear." (11:25 a.m. CET)

Right Wing Clipped in Belgium

Belgium's highest court decided on Tuesday that the right-wing, racist political party Vlaams Blok is indeed right-wing and racist -- and as such is no longer entitled to state funding. The decision effectively shuts down the party, the biggest in Belgium's Flemish region according to recent surveys, since private donations to political parties are for the most part illegal in Belgium. The party saw the ruling coming and has already made preparations for the founding of a new political party with the same agenda. "Even if we are considered criminals by the court system," said party head Frank Vanhecke, "we will be back. The courts should take into account for whom the citizens vote." October polls show that the party -- founded in 1991 -- is supported by 26.9 percent of Flemings. Flemings account for 58 percent of the Belgian population. (11 a.m. CET)

Pizza for the Heart, Caterpillars for the Bones

The science world likes to hide its good news. Consider the following headline from the November issue of the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition: "Pizza and Risk of Myocardial Infarction." An excerpt: "The multivariate odds ratios were 0.78 for occasional, 0.62 for regular and 0.44 for frequent eaters. The estimates were similar across strata of age, sex, smoking and other major covariates." Here's the translation: Eating pizza (the thin-crust, Italian kind at least) is good for you. Not only that, but scarfing pizza can lower your risk of heart attack by up to 56 percent if you are disciplined about eating pizza at least twice a week. The study did not attempt an explanation for their findings.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has come up with a new solution to perennial hunger in central Africa: Eat more insects. A serving of caterpillars and grubs can apparently provide more than 100 percent of daily requirements of a number of important minerals and are also a good source of protein, the FAO said on Monday. Many in Africa, including 91 percent of Botswana already eat caterpillars regularly according to the FAO. (10:45 a.m. CET)

Terror Suspect Tried Again

The president of the German high court, Heinz Fromm, affirmed on Tuesday that the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States were likely not planned in Hamburg, thereby lessening suspicion that suspected accomplice and Hamburg resident Mounir el Motassadeq was directly involved. Both the court and the 9/11 Commission in the US say the attacks were probably planned in Afghanistan and the hijackers recruited outside of Germany. Motassadeq was convicted of involvement in the attacks in 2003 and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, but the conviction was later overturned by federal courts and he was released in April of this year. He is now being retried in light of new evidence and testimony from the United States and from terror suspects being held by the US. (10 a.m. CET)

Berlin Solemnly Commemorates Fall of Wall

Berlin's Traenenpalast (or "Palace of Tears") is a painful reminder of the Wall that divided East and West Germany, a literal iron curtain. The Traenenpalast was the main place where Eastern Germans were allowed to visit relatives who had fled the Communist country to the East. The reunions were short and often ended in tears, hence the name. Today it's a cabaret theater, but on Tuesday night, it was where one of the biggest players of German reunification, former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, commemorated the Wall's disappearance from Berlin on Nov. 9, 1989, 15 years ago. But Kohl didn't just reminisce with happy talk about reunification -- he also lamented the very alarming fact that one out of three Germans doesn't know what happened on that fateful day. If history is not taught properly, he warned, Germans will have to "pay bitterly" for it some day. (Is Kohl, perhaps worried he won't be remembered in history books?) The former chancellor also attacked last week's short-lived proposal by his successor, Gerhard Schroeder, to cancel the Oct. 3 Reunification Day holiday in order to increase federal tax revenues. Kohl described the proposal as "hare-brained" and an insult to the schnapps Schroeder must have been drinking when he thought of it.