Germany in Brief

Dresden church bells ring again

"Jesaja," "Johannes," "Jeremiah," "Joshua," "Philippus," "Hanna" and "David" rang out over Dresden on Sunday to an audience of 16,000 people. Seven newly cast bells were installed in the Protestant Church of Our Lady, or Frauenkirche, whose reconstruction is nearly complete. The 18th century Frauenkirche was destroyed by U.S. and British forces when Dresden was carpet-bombed in Feb. 1945. Seven of the eight original bells had already been removed and melted down to make weapons. The church ruins became a symbol for the East German peace movement in 1982. Ten years later the city of Dresden decided to reconstruct the building, which is expected to be inaugurated on Oct. 30, 2005. Its reconstruction is costing around €127.8 million ($143.5 million).

Boost to bilingualism along German-French border

French will become the second official language in Saarland, state Premier Peter Müller told Saarland Broadcasting on Monday. The aim is to cultivate bilingualism in the German-French border region. Public agencies will provide forms and documents in both languages in the future, Müller said.

Germany not involved in Iraq security force

The German government sees no reason to participate in U.S. plans for a multinational force to ensure stability in Iraq. A government spokesman said the country would not join Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Denmark, the Netherlands and the Ukraine in sending soldiers postwar Iraq. Spokesman Bela Anda said it was apparent that the U.S. wanted to make other countries responsible for stability in the country. Anda said Germany had assumed responsiblity for securing peace in Afghanistan and in the Balkans. Its contributions to international stability were "extensive, numerous and well-known," he said.

Conservative opposition offers reform proposal

After expressing their willingness to support the government's labor market and social policy reforms, Germany's largest political opposition bloc has said the changes must go even further. The Christian Democratic and Christian Socialist Unions put forward additional suggestions to cut unemployment benefits and social welfare aid for people "unwilling" to work, to put an end to provisions to protect employees against dismissal in medium- and large-sized firms and to introduce measures to discourage people from retiring before 65. Leading Social Democrats have criticized Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's reform agenda for not going far enough. The plans were inadequate, Sigmar Gabriel, an SPD parliamentary group leader from Lower Saxony, said on a talk show on Sunday. On an agenda of 30, five points - such as merging social welfare and unemployment benefits and limiting measures to protect employees from being fired - remain heavily debated, according to an SPD official.

Compiled with material from wire services.