NEWS Germany's economy is slowing and will probably stagnate in 2013, the country's central bank said Friday, sharply cutting its forecast for growth. Considering “the difficult economic situation in some euro area countries and widespread uncertainty, economic growth will be lower than previously assumed,†said the Bundesbank, which now expects G.D.P. to expand by just 0.4 percent next year. David Jolly reports.
The secretary of Italy's largest political party said Friday that the technocratic government of Prime Minister Mario Monti had run its course, paving the way toward early elections. Angelino Alfano told the lower house of Parliament that his People of Liberty party would not bring down the government, but he made clear that it would no longer support Mr. Monti, who has headed an emergency government for more than a year. Elisabetta Povoledo reports from Milan.
The death toll in the southern Philippines from Typhoon Bopha rose past 450 on Friday with more than 500 still missing, amid assertions that climate change, deforestation, poor planning and other factors had worsened the catastrophe. Floyd Whaley reports from Manila.
European data protection officials are drafting plans to censure Google over its online privacy policy if the company does not meet the demands of regulators to revise it. In a meeting this week of the E.U.'s 27 national data protection officials, the group mapped a preliminary strategy, including the possibility of testing Google's compliance with national privacy laws in countries like I reland, Belgium and Finland, where the company operates data centers. Kevin J. O'Brien reports.
WINE Some wine glasses look good on the shelf, others double as vases, and a small but growing number excel at the job for which they were intended: maximizing the enjoyment of wine. For this trend we can largely thank an Austrian glass maker named Riedel, which pioneered the concept of designing glasses for different kinds of wine. Eric Pfanner reports from Kufstein, Austria, where he visited the company.
ARTS The sensational show “Bernini: Sculpting in Clay†at the Metropolitan Museum of Art was inspired by three scholars who pooled their expertise to study 52 models that served as preliminary steps to the execution of some of the 17th-cent ury sculptor's most famous works. The exhibition and the book that tells the scholars' story break entirely new ground. Souren Melikian reports from New York.
SPORTS With the prominent performances of Germany's three Bundesliga participants in this season's UEFA Champions League, speculation about where this conglomerate of contemporary continental challengers came from has been rife. Admiration from the four corners of the sport has ascended upon the league like never before. Stefan Bienkowski reports.
