It has been almost five weeks since the unicef children’s festival in mitwitz castle park attracted about 1200 visitors. Now the head of the unicef working group in upper franconia, gisela schardt, has announced that the amount has been raised: 11,057 euros have gone to unicef emergency aid. "Every cent of it will go to the victims of the cyclone "idai" the earthquake that struck mozambique, zimbabwe and malawi in march of this year. So we can always do something good twice at the same time. At the unicef children’s festival, we make the children who come to us happy, and then our donations go to needy children all over the world."

Gisela schardt also provided information about the challenges facing aid organizations: "it was a great misery when the cyclone hit, but unicef, with its many years of experience, is networked all over the world, and its staff can be deployed very quickly." Unfortunately, in order to be able to help adequately, much more is needed than just medical care, clean water and something to eat. "Children should be able to go to school again, they should feel safe and secure in their free time, protected in their home environment." After the disaster pictures that everyone immediately had in mind, gisela schardt also drew more pleasant pictures of children who have enough to eat and drink and a place to sleep safely. "And if we can contribute something to this, then that makes me and my team infinitely happy."

Her team, a team of fifteen, are also the people who support this children’s festival every two years. They, their families and many volunteers are making children happy again. What was still burning on gisela schardt’s soul were the words of thanks: "i would like to express my thanks once again to all the helpers, donors, musicians, actors, moderator joffrey streit, the county, the municipality with its mayor, the building yard and the fire department."

Mayor hans-peter laschka has additional words to say about this successful concept: "perhaps it is also due to the wonderful surroundings, the castle with its park, and the fact that this festival has a very special character. It’s not about just eating and drinking and spending money, it’s about combining your stay with a good deed. Donations help to alleviate the hardship and misery of the world. From the bottom of my heart, a big thank you to everyone who has contributed to this project."

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The neustadt museum and local history society, now a forderverein, has been paying since 1. June to the five members of the newly founded association "museums in the coburg region. His new board is already full of ideas: with remarkable offers small and coarse museum visitors are to be inspired.
Chairwoman hannelore muller had come up with something special for this occasion: everyone who was interested in the museum with the toy industry was invited to a cozy coffee afternoon at the museum of the german toy industry. "Today we meet in a different way in the neustadt museum. We wanted to "collect ideas" in a relaxed round of talks, wished muller. May the club experience a bit of revival. "I would also like to get the members to come to the museum again in this way. And i also liked to bury new members in this cozy atmosphere."
Maybe we should dock to the monthly meetings of the costume group, a proposal of muller, which was buried spontaneously. During the discussion, topics and ideas for the design of offers came up: perhaps a course on traditional costumes could take place in cooperation with the adult education center "which could perhaps also arouse interest among young people", said muller, said muller. One could join the alpine club to hike in the home country, the region and thuringia. "We are also a museum and local history association", reminded muller. Also the contact with the museums in the region like the sheep museum in ahorn could be cultivated as a partner exchange. Museum employee mandy dollas-brandner reported on the museum pedagogy already taking place for children, young people and adults. "We have a museum educational program also for u-classes (transitional classes middle school) with an extra program for schoolchildren, with the emphasis on learning the german language", informed dollas-brandner.
New is also the discovery tour from this school year for school groups, which are guided through the museum. There is also a vacation care program with the youth help center in neustadt. There is also a monthly children’s creative workshop and much more. A brand new feature for all visitors this year is the "museum out of the bag" with exciting content to explore. "At the same time, history is packaged in an exciting way", said dollas-brandner.
Museum director udo habner-leidner reported that the main focus was on guided tours of the museum, which mainly went through the industrial department. This could be combined with other events.

It’s all about love money

Third mayor martin stingl (SPD) reported on the major upheaval in the museum and local history association. "We have had a forced restructuring, have had the gross insecurity for the museum staff and employees. Everything costs a lot of money, and everything that happens here in the museum does not happen on the basis of this new financing by the county", according to stingl. Much more money is not available than before. Mvn

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They are young, they have work in the region, and they want to stay. About 20 employees of the "dorint resort& spa" held a rally yesterday afternoon on the old town hall square. Some brought their children, even older employees were there, but the core of the demonstrators were young people. "We came out of solidarity with those who had to leave", says one of them. "And we are afraid that we will soon lose our jobs too", says another.

On monday, the hotel operator "new dorint gmbh" had with headquarters in koln the furstenhof with 51 rooms closed and ten employees announced (we reported). The company cited a lack of fire protection as the reason for the fire. The fact that the risk has become too great is understood by the employees: "we are fully booked for the next four weekends. The dorint would not put up with the trouble with the guests if everything was in order", says a young woman.

Testimony against testimony
Change of location. The furstenhof is idyllically situated in the castle park at the state baths. Colorful foliage is everywhere. Oliver fiege climbs the stairs to the property. From here, the hotel manager, who took over the dorint in september 2012, can look out over the entire complex. The view stretches all the way to the dreistelz.

But one thing disturbs the idyll: since wednesday a construction fence seals off the furstenhof. Fiege opens the door, goes upstairs past the empty reception desk. There are no smoke detectors in the rooms and in the corridors, the doors to the staircase are not fire resistant. Then fiege shows a window that is 70 by 70 centimeters small. Too small, says dorint's fire safety expert. Rough enough, say the experts of the state of bavaria.

"We have the assurance of our experts that there is no danger to life and limb at the furstenhof," assures spa director andrea scholz, spa director andrea schallenkammer assures the demonstrators. "The free state of bavaria has taken a lot of money into its own hands to modernize fire protection", she continues. These inspections have been going on since 2005 (see info box). But this does not convince the demonstrators. Too many questions remain unanswered for them.

Conflicts in the background
For example the question about the fire protection certificate for the furstenhof. The dorint requested the paper several times but never received it, says fiege. "We have to assume that there may be even more serious deficiencies in fire protection", he insists on safety for the guests. Before the closure of the furstenhof – fiege doesn't call it a closure, he says "preliminary closure" or "non-occupancy" – a fire protection company has assigned a security guard day and night for the safety of the guests. "If the furstenhof burns tomorrow…", kaspar muller-bringmann, press spokesman for dorint, raises the question that is also on the minds of dorint employees.

It is true that the requested document has not yet been handed over to the dorint, says schallenkammer. "But that was not due to the content of the certificate; there are other reasons at play between the contractual partners", the spa director looks on fondly. This background, however, remains hidden from the demonstrators. As one of their protest posters read? "Power play at the expense of small employees…"

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The entire weitramsdorf community area gets fast internet via fiber optics. To this end, the municipality will participate in the demand program for the construction of gigabit-capable broadband networks in the free state (bavarian gigabit guideline). Both decided the municipal council in its meeting on tuesday evening in the gymnasium of the rudolfreibenweber school in weidach unanimously.

Previously, joachim forst of forst consult had reported on the current status of broadband expansion in weitramsdorf. So far, the municipality does not have a network that can reliably transmit 100 mbit/s for private and 200 mbit/s for commercial connections, or that allows commercial properties to download 500 mbit/s. According to the directive that came into force in march, this means that it fulfills the requirements for a 90 percent subsidy in the entire municipality, which may not, however, exceed eight million euros per municipality.

The demand program provides for up to 6,000 euros per connection and even up to 9,000 euros for a current supply with less than 30 mbps. Another 50,000 euros will be granted for inter-municipal cooperation. In return, the municipality must make its network "non-discriminatory" making the network available to other network providers. Even an own empty pipe network can be subsidized, said dr. Forest from.

A total of 1258 connections are required: 590 in weitramsdorf, 427 in weidach, 117 in neundorf, 88 in altenhof, 22 in vogelherd, 10 in tambach and 4 in gersbach. The costs per connection vary from around 5900 euros for weidach to almost 43,000 euros in gersbach and add up to a total of just over 8.5 million euros. With a budget of 7,584,000 euros (including 36,000 euros for gersbach), weitramsdorf’s own share is just under 930,000 euros. The estimation did not take into account any empty tubes that may have been present.

Selection process starts

With the end of the market survey and the identification of the development area, the municipality can now enter the selection process. After evaluation and recommendation for the award of the contract, the request must be submitted to the district government. Once the notice of subsidy has been issued, the municipality can conclude a cooperation agreement with the selected network operator (economic gap model) or apply for the construction of the passive network infrastructure (operator model). At the end of the meeting, a research brief and the final project description were published. "This will be a long-term process in which repeated coordination discussions with the network operator will be necessary", so forst. For example, ongoing tree removals should be coordinated to take advantage of synergies. The municipality does not have to advance the entire money over five years. She could create interim use and thus already apply for claim funds.

Dominic juck (SPD) asked whether the installation of broadband to the home was eligible for funding. Up to the house transfer point yes, according to the expert, only the distribution in the house not. If a homeowner does not want to be connected, the network operator will reimburse the costs. However, he pointed out, a speed of 30 or 40 mbit/s might be sufficient today, but certainly not in a few years’ time.

The council finally followed forst’s recommendation "to use the offer with a demand quota of 90 percent". Mayor andreas carl (DGN) was pleased that weitramsdorf was one of the few communities that had already come this far and that, on top of that, it would receive the full demand.

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Residents of the city's suburbs and the outer areas of the city center will be able to do their last christmas shopping with the new burgerbus. Next week, it will be in operation for the first time on three days. "It all has to settle in first, we have to gather experience first", says manuela hafner of the munnerstadt city administration. It is possible that the bus will be a few minutes late in the test phase, passengers should just wait a little bit.

The city has now leased the minibus. About half of the leasing costs will be covered by the company wotan, explains mayor helmut blank (CSU). After the test phase in the next week, the bus should run regularly from the second week of january. Then the mayor also wants to approach local companies that can place their advertising on the bus, so that more money comes into the burgerbus coffers. By then it should be decorated with the city's coat of arms in any case.

The first tour
On wednesday, 18. December, petra hesselbach will drive the first tour. From 8.30 o'clock it goes from reichenbach, windheim and burghausen in the direction of the city center, from 9.30 o'clock are the auberen areas of the core city at the row. End points are the marketplace, the edeka, and the netto. From 12.30 o'clock it goes back to the villages, from 13.35 o'clock in the ouber areas of the core city. The exact departure times are posted in all parts of the city and can be found on the city's website. Petra hesselbach, who has a marginal job, had read about the burgerbus in the newspaper and spontaneously volunteered to take over a tour. "I have the time", says the brunner.

Pensioner gerhard kronewald from fridritt has time too. He will be on the road on two days. On thursday (for the first time at 19. December) it will first call at fridritt, kleinwenkheim, brunnn and althausen, then wermerichshausen, seubrigshausen and grobwenkheim. On friday the residents of maria bildhausen will be driven to munnerstadt.

"The original idea came in 2009 from the redevelopment officer dag schroder", reminds the mayor. The situation became really acute after a conversation with the general manager of maria bildhausen, rainer waldvogel. The interest there is so great that a separate line is set up on friday.
Helmut blank is very grateful that petra hesselbach and gerhard kronewald, two residents of munnerstadt, have volunteered to drive the bus. There is only a small compensation for the loss. We would also like to welcome other interested parties, who can simply contact the city administration.

Club foundation possible
"If everything goes well, we can also talk about a burgerbus club", says the mayor. The city will then also issue a corresponding brochure. In a second step, the burgerbus will also be used by the city's clubs on weekends. The head of the city paid great tribute to the head of the building yard, stefan sluzar, and to manuela hafner from the city administration "who did all the work". "That is what we are here for", she says.

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Consumers and travelers in europe shall in the future be better informed about the costs of payments involving several eu countries.

The eu commission presented a proposal in brussel to eliminate hidden additional costs. EU member states and the european parliament still had to approve it. Consumer users, however, were already very enthusiastic.

Until now, customers traveling abroad in europe or making online purchases with card payments have often been able to choose between local currency and their home country. If they decide to pay locally – in poland, for example, in zloty – the bank converts the amount to be paid, and consumers find out a few days later from their account statement how much they ultimately paid.

However, if you choose your home currency – e.G. Euro – the payment service provider will immediately convert the amount and charge additional fees for it. This often makes payments in euros more expensive in non-euro countries.

"Currency conversion must be fully transparent when consumers pay with their bank card in a country where the currency is not the same as in their country of origin," EU finance commissioner valdis dombrovskis now demanded. The costs associated with the various options for maintenance had to be clearly understood. This should also apply to online payments.

Consumer users complain that the costs here have so far been opaque. According to estimates by the european consumer protection association beuc, customers pay more than a billion euros a year on top of the bill.

The EU commission also has another proposal for cheaper euro payments in europe. According to these guidelines, it should no longer make a difference whether a transfer is made between two euro states or outside the common currency area, dombrovskis explained.

At present, banks and credit companies sometimes charge high additional fees for euro payments in EU countries that have not adopted the common currency. 10-euro transfers from bulgaria to a euro country can cost up to 24 euros on top. In the uk it’s around 11 euros, in poland 1.90 euros.

In the future, the same price as for domestic payments in the local currency is to apply here outside the euro area as well – depending on the country, these are low or no additional costs at all. According to the EU commission, this did not impose any burdens on the banks, but only reduced their income. Companies and consumers could save around one billion euros a year.

The proposals have met with approval from consumer protection groups and the european parliament. "It is high time that the fog surrounding this practice is lifted," said beuc’s consumer users, referring to the currency conversions. "Customers prefer to pay in the currency they are used to, but are unaware that they are paying more in the process."

"This is good news for consumers in europe. The eu commission is thus curbing fee usury," said green european deputy sven giegold. "Especially on vacation trips, it is good that you can be sure of certain minimum standards with regard to the fees for withdrawing money," said CSU financial expert markus ferber.

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On the tables in the inn "hauckensepper" in rothenkirchen there are several bottles of exquisite wines, cashew cubes and a bread basket with delicious baguette. It is unmistakable that today is the day for wine tasting – and a very special one at that, since the new "konigintropfen" is to be created from the various grape varieties will be chosen in 2012. And who would be better suited for the wine tasting than the candidates for pressig's "grape throne"?, melanie hofmann, anna schuberth and anja zwosta.
Together with the currently reigning wine queen anna stadelmann and her two princesses linda fiedler and nina hempfling as well as board members of the pressig action group, the three young ladies from posseck are testing the fine grape juice. After the choice of a red wine last year, this year they decided on a female wine, a dry rivaner 2010.

Like something out of a picture book

All three candidates were a picture-perfect royalty: young, hunky and open-minded. The three also like to drink a sip of wine, but they all prefer red wine. The fact that this year a young lady from posseck will be wine queen is also thanks to melanie hofmann. "The previous wine queen anna stadelmann infected me with her enthusiasm and really made me want to do it.", betrayal the 19-year-old. Since the majesty is supposed to come every year from another part of the municipality of pressig and posseck has not yet had a turn, she asked the mayor if it would be possible this year. "When it was decided that posseck would be the new queen, I immediately asked my friends who would run for the post. One girl canceled, but anna and anja are going to participate", explains melanie hofmann. Since there will be two princesses this year in addition to the wine queen, we will form a royal trio, so to speak. "I am particularly pleased that all three of us will be appearing together at the events. I think it will be a very fun and exciting time. I'm looking forward to meeting lots of new people", explains the nursery nurse full of anticipation.

Schnapidee

17-year-old anna feels the same way. "It was literally a crazy idea for me to join in. Melanie told me about it at the st. John's bonfire. I joined right away because I thought it was a funny idea and because she simply infected me with her joy. I thought I could like that too." Anja was also asked by melanie. The 19-year-old insurance and finance trainee was skeptical at first, however. "I don't really like to be the center of attention. But finally melanie has convinced me."

An honorable task

They agree that being wine queen is an honorable task. But the three candidates were also able to make friends with the office of princess.
The election will take place on open sunday in the shops and restaurants, where the candidates will introduce themselves. There are also ballots ready. The crowning will take place on sunday at 7 pm in the hauckensepper guesthouse.

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This was reported by the EU authority on wednesday in brussels during the assessment of the national budget plans of the EU states. So in the coming months, additional savings steps had to be taken for the next and the following year.

In view of the renewed debt and banking crisis in the euro zone, the commission wrote that the economy must get going in the short term. Savings must continue, but not excessively at the expense of growth.

On spain, shaken by a banking crisis, the brussel watchmen reported, the regions of the country had to put their budgets in order. "The banking sector remains fragile due to high levels of private and public debt."EU commission president jose manuel barroso and european commissioner olli rehn were due to appear before the media in the early afternoon. Spanish media speculated that, in view of the crisis, the commission could give madrid a year longer – until 2014 – to bring the deficit below the 3 percent of economic output mark.

The report on greece states: "the risks of implementation will remain very high. The success of the second aid program depends above all on greece." Political uncertainty in greece – for the 17. New elections are planned for june – also weighs on the 130 billion euro program.

According to the commission, it is not yet clear whether the "troika" experts will be able to review the books in athens as planned at the end of june/beginning of july. Without a green light from the troika, no new aid money can be disbursed.

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