In a surprise move, Welfare Senator Helgrid Fischer-Menzel of the SPD has resigned from her post. The 49 year old took the step in response to allegations that she had illegally allocated millions of government money to the Alida-Schmidt Foundation for the treatment of alcoholics. Mrs. Fischer-Menzel's husband is the president of that foundation. The money had first been promised to the Order of Good Templars, but was given to the Alida-Schmidt Foundation after the Welfare Ministry intervened. The Hamburg Court of Auditors is investigating the legitimacy of what happened.
Telephone calls become cheaper today Bonn.
Telephone calls with the German Telecom become cheaper today. While monthly charges and charges for local calls remain unchanged, charges for long distance and international calls have been reduced by an average of 4.5 percent. The reductions will save customers almost 2 billion marks annually. Some of the savings will be recouped by the increase in value added tax on April 1. EU Commissioner for Competition, Mr. van Miert, expects further declines in telephone charges in Germany.