NEWS It’s as if Leipzig, Hanover and Dresden had disappeared in the blink of an eye, statistically speaking. Germany, which has been deeply concerned about its rapidly dwindling population, released the results of its first census in nearly a quarter of a century on Friday and found 1.5 million fewer inhabitants than previously assumed. Chancellor Angela Merkel was already worried about the shrinking numbers of taxpayers and able-bodied workers. How future smaller generations will repay German debts, much less the mounting liabilities and guarantees meant to contain the euro-zone debt crisis, is a central question here. Germany had not conducted a single census count since reunification, not even an effort to tally those in the former East Germany after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. The disappearance of 1.5 million people, equal to almost 1.9 percent of the population, only exacerbates the longer-term downward trend. Nick Kulish and Chris Cottrell report from Berlin.
Inside a small government laboratory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, there are about 300 test tubes, each labeled with masking tape and containing an extracted tooth or a shard of bone. Day and night, dozens of these tubes rest on metal trays that vibrate with a motorized monotony. The shaking decalcifies the bone in a process that requires two weeks before material can be gleaned for a DNA profile. Outside the laboratory, people are waiting. There are at least 301 unidentified victims of last month’s horrific collapse of the Rana Plaza factory building. Those test tubes represent the only chance of identifying them. More than 500 people have given blood samples in the hopes of finding a DNA match. On a recent morning, Hasibul Islam Reaz, 10, placed a spindly arm before a needle, his eyes widening as his blood drained through a thin tube into a syringe. Jim Yardley reports from Dhaka, Banglaesh.
Unemployment in the euro zone continued its relentless march higher in April, according to official data published Friday, hitting yet another record, amid a prolonged recession and the absence of a coordinated response by policy makers. The jobless rate for the 17 countries that use the common currency rose to 12.2 percent, from 12.1 percent a month earlier, with 19.4 million people out of work, according to Eurostat, the European Union statistics agency. Some analysts said the number of people without jobs could hit 20 million by the end of the year. Despite the rise, most analysts do not expect the European Central Bank to cut interest rates or take other action to stimulate growth when its policy-making council meets in the coming week. Jack Ewing reports from London.
Japan is inching closer to the end of deflation and its factory output has picked up, data showed Friday, offering evidence that the country’s economy is slowly catching up with the high expectations set by the government’s bold economic policies. Core consumer prices, which exclude fresh food, fell 0.4 percent in April from a year earlier, the sixth consecutive month of decline, though the clip was slower than the 0.5 percent decline in March. Prices were supported partly by rising energy costs, as the weak yen added to Japan’s fuel import bills. Consumer prices in Tokyo rose 0.1 percent in May from a year earlier, the first increase in more than four years. It was a sign that nationwide prices could soon follow suit, ending the deflation that has long weighed on Japan. Hiroko Tabuchi reports from Tokyo.
ARTS Once in a blue moon, sheer necessity, caused by a lack of funds, inspires some of the most brilliant shows in the world’s great museums. “Birds in the Art of Japan,†showing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through July 28, was put together by John Carpenter, who became curator of the department of Japanese art in 2011. Drawn from the department’s own collection, 125 works of art, supplemented by 15 others on loan from private U.S. collectors, are assembled in one of the most admirable displays ever seen in the museum. Sadly, there is no catalog. Souren Melikian reports from New York.
SPORTS Rafael Nadal has certainly done his part to spice up a rain-interrupted, so far shock-free week at the French Open. After losing the first set in his first-round match against Daniel Brands, Nadal did something unprecedented Friday at Roland Garros: He lost the first set in his second-round match, too, looking in dire need of a café solo on the changeovers. It is not often that one of the game’s greats gets an 11 a.m. start at a Grand Slam tournament. On another gray day in Paris, whose City of Light label clearly does not apply to the weather, there were big blocks of empty seats on the Suzanne Lenglen Court. But then Nadal, the seven-time French Open champion, did not think he should have been there either, a feeling he made clear after his four-set win over 35th-ranked Martin Klizan. Christopher Clarey reports from Paris.
