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Mother said Josh Powell threatened her
BERLIN, June 19 (UPI) -- Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, statistics show what once was Communist East Germany is still lagging mightily behind the West.
Wolfgang Tiefensee, the minister responsible for the development of the former East German states, says the "gap is closing" but unemployment remains double that of western areas, The New York Times reported Friday.
The newspaper says since the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, about 12 percent of the East German population has left.
Adding to the problem is a declining birth rate that has prompted the closing of about 2,000 schools.
The city of Hoyerswerda, once a model of Communist East Germany, has seen the average age of its citizens increase from 35 in 1989 to 48 today.
To keep up with a declining population, Hoyerswerda's government has been forced to tear down apartment buildings.
"Every time I visit my parents and I drive through Hoyerswerda, there's every time a new house ... torn down," says Judika Zirzow.
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TACOMA, Wash., Feb. 9 (UPI) --
The mother of Josh Powell, who killed himself and his sons in a fire in Washington state, said in divorce papers he exhibited disturbing behavior as a teenager.
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NEW YORK, Feb. 9 (UPI) --
Macaulay Culkin is in "perfectly good health," his publicist said after the former child star was photographed looking gaunt and disheveled in New York.
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TEL AVIV, Israel, Feb. 9 (UPI) --
The Israeli government plans to build a floating liquefied natural gas terminal with a sea-based defense radar system off its Mediterranean coast while forming a naval force to protect its rich offshore gas fields against terrorist attack.
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NEW YORK, Feb. 9 (UPI) --
A New York City subway passenger won a free monthly MetroCard Thursday for taking a picture of the subway's ugliest rat, officials said.
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