Preparations for Passion Play take over German town
It′s unlikely that anyone would confuse the Bavarian town of Oberammergau with the lot of a Hollywood film studio.
But still, as the May 15 kick-off for this year′s Passion Play creeps closer, a visitor can sense the buzz in the air. Rarely a night goes by without some choral or dramatic rehearsal. And with 2,200 residents involved - almost half of the town′s population - that equals a lot of hustle and bustle.
"It brings people together," says Mayor Arno Nunn, who does not participate directly in the play, but is responsible, thanks to his job, for much of the budget and decision-making around the play.
"They′re not just acting together, they′re living together."
Christa Hecht, whose children will appear in crowd scenes, agree. "It′s amazing. It′s like the whole town becomes one big family."
That sense is what, some say, visitors feel upon entering the town in a Passion Play year.
Can the EU dig itself out of its economic hole?
Ten years ago, the European Union wanted to make itself the world's economic leader; now it is just trying to survive in an increasingly competitive world.
On Wednesday, the EU's executive, the European Commission, is set to suggest how the EU should modernize its economy to make it more competitive by 2020, amidst fears that the bloc is about to be eclipsed in the wake of the global downturn.
"The crisis has wiped out progress ... Europe's growth was severely hit ... Unemployment has spread ... Europe must react to avoid decline," the head of the commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, wrote in a briefing to EU leaders on the 2020 strategy.
EU leaders are expected to debate the strategy at a summit this month and finalize it in June.
The EU is currently struggling to pull out of the economic downturn, with its rebound showing none of the recent vigour recorded in the US and Asia - sparking fears that political decline may follow its economic slump.
Vancouver Games say farewell, pass the flag to Sochi
Vancouver said farewell to the winter Games at a boisterous closing ceremony on Sunday, passing the Olympic flag on to the Russian resort of Sochi before the cauldron was extinguished.
It was a star-studded night at Vancouver's B.C. Place Stadium, where the opening ceremony had been held 16 days earlier.
A host of Canadian celebrities on the bill included rock legend Neil Young, actor Michael J. Fox, pop singer Avril Lavigne and singer-songwriters Michael Buble and Alanis Morisette.
Sochi also brought in plenty of big names from the worlds of sport, culture and entertainment including supermodel Natalia Vodianova for an eight-minute presentation of what the Games can expect in 2014.
The Sochi show featured dancers from the Bolshoi Theatre and the Marinsky Theatre joining for the first time alongside emerging talents from two other theatres and incorporated live broadcasts from the city and the capital Moscow, where the 1980 summer Games took place.