A warning for Kohl
A funereal pall hung over the wood-paneled conference room of the headquarters of the ruling Christian Democratic Party in Bonn. Even Chancellor Helmut Kohl's characteristic good humor had given way to a gloomy frown as he contemplated the party's surprising defeat the previous Sunday in local elections in the city-state of Hamburg. It was the last test of strength before the national elections Kohl plans to hold on March 6 in hopes of winning a mandate for his three-month-old conservative coalition government. Said the conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: "The result is both a disappointment and a...