She produced her first film on tick in 1973 and straightaway it won her a German Film Prize. Now, in 2008, Regina Ziegler is considered Germany?s most successful film and television producer, and this year marks her production company?s 35th anniversary....
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Supposedly wiped out after September 11, 2001, Taliban once again control half of Afghanistan. The group's leaders have issued a new book of rules. In a worldwide exclusive, the Swiss weekly Die Weltwoche published the text of the new Taliban codex which addresses behaviour towards "infidels" and enemies of Islam, the administration of justice, and rules of daily life. It is published in English here for the first time.
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The Taliban once again control half of Afghanistan. The group's leaders have issued a new book of rules. In a worldwide exclusive, the Swiss weekly Die Weltwoche published the text of the new Taliban military codex and an interview with Mullah Sabir, one of the hard core of the Taliban cadre. By Sami Yousafzai and Urs Gehriger.
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Amid reports of brutal sexual abuse in broad daylight - linked with political intimidation - there are also stories of courage and creativity in an Egypt whose ties with Europe remain strong. In her letter from Cairo, Mariam Lau writes about despair and hope in the streets of the capital.
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Jürgen Habermas laments the swelling feel-good patriotisms in Europe and the flagging communal European spirit. The EU will only be able to fulfill its international mandate if Europeans learn to form a common front, and to recognise that the Polish plumber and the Portugese winegrower are key to European unity.
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I decided about a year ago to live without a headscarf. It makes a difference if you're obeying duties outlined by others or those based on your own conclusions. But calling for Muslim women to remove their headscarves is as futile as calling on Germans to stop drinking beer, because it must be the result of genuine consideration. By Emel Abidin-Algan
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West Germany casts a mistrustful glance at Berlin, the city of lazy pleasure-seekers. And it comes down to this: the exhausted are envious of the detached. A polemic by Jens Jessen
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In a recent speech in Israel, singer, song-writer and polemicist Wolf Biermann castigated Germany for misjudging the tragedy in the Middle East conflict and sympathising with radical Muslims out of patronising contempt. (Photo: Hans Weingartz)
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The murder of Anna Politovskaya shocked not only the world, but critical voices in Russia as well. Philosopher Michail Ryklin talks with Caroline Fetscher about the new degree of fear in Russia.
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In one of the last articles she wrote for the Novaya Gazeta before being murdered on October 7, 2006, Anna Politkovskaya paid tribute to the recently fallen Buvadi Dakhiev. A warlord with humanity, he was a rare find in Chechnya.
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The Arab intellectual behaves like a despotic father. No internal family matter may be exposed to the outside world. Regardless of what the reality may be, a facade of unbroken unity must be maintained. In private talks you hear opinions that are radically different from what is published in the newspapers the next day. By Khalid al-Maaly (Image © Brigitte Friedrich, Cologne)
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In response to the uproar caused by Benedict XVI's speech in Regensburg, Abdelwahab Meddeb, one of France's most respected Arab writers, considers why peaceful disputes between Christians and Muslims were possible in the Middle Ages but not today. An interview with Michael Mönninger.
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The cancellation of the Mozart opera "Idomeneo" in Berlin's Deutsche Oper for fear of reprisals from the Muslim community has unleashed a storm of protest. Harald Jähner, feuilleton editor of the Berliner Zeitung, finds the opera house's decision not only cowardly but dangerous.
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On the fifth anniversary of 9/11, George Bush has become the perfect scapegoat. When attacks and threats increase, he is to blame. But the rise of international terrorism is not Bush's doing. We are not seeing a new Vietnam, but a new Chicago, an ethnic-theological Mafia and gang war. To accept, or not to accept, the law of the human bomb? That is the question facing our fledgling century. By Andre Glucksmann
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Pope Benedict XVI's Regensburg speech gives no rational ground for the commotion now being stirred up from Pakistan to Europe. In our globalised, individualised and thoroughly economicised world, the purely technical use of reason threatens to bring about a value gap. That the Pope should try to close this gap with religious means may not have proved effective, yet this is exactly where all believers should find common ground. By Stephan Hebel
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The German housewife is the pillar of the nation - she cleans, organises, supports, nourishes and forgets that at one time, she had professional aspirations. Susanne Mayer takes a look at the employment situation of German women and concludes that the state is investing far too much in folded underwear.
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