Sven Koerppen and his father Rainer are accused of blackmailing and kidnapping. Rainer Koerppen is also standing trial for murder and his son for aiding and abetting.
Unemployment rate decreases slightly Nuremberg.
Unemployment in Germany fell slightly in September. According to several news agencies which obtained the numbers before the official release of the September job market report, the rate decreased from 11.4 percent in August to 11.2 percent, bringing the number of registered unemployed to 4.3 million. Experts anticipate that continuing mass unemployment will force the federal government to spend at least five billion marks more this year than are designated in the 1997 budget addendum. According to the newspaper Handelsblatt, the federal government now anticipates an annual average of 4.45 million unemployed. 50,000 young Germans still unable to start apprenticeship Four weeks into the new job-training year, almost 50,000 young Germans still have not found a place to begin an apprenticeship.