Friday, October 23, 2009 BERLIN: A group of wealthy Germans has called for the resumption of wealth tax to help the country bounce back from an economic crisis. The petition has been signed by 44 people who want to convince the government of the newly re-elected Chancellor, Angela Merkel, to raise taxes. Peter Vollmer, a signatory to the group's online petition said he had inherited "a lot of money I do not need". Dieter Kelmkuhl, a 66-year-old retired doctor and signatory, said it was time for the wealthy to come to the aid of their country. He claimed that if the 2.2 million Germans who have personal fortunes of more than £450,000 paid a tax of five per cent this year and next, it would provide the State with €100 billion.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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