Semi-OT: Report: Far-right violence on the rise in Germany

Crimes by right-wing extremists jumped 16 percent to 20,422 last year, according to the yearly report published by Germany’s Interior Ministry. It also concluded there were nearly 900 reports of injuries caused by right-wing violence in 2008, while the number of neo-Nazis rose to about 4,800.

“The number of neo-Nazis, and this is alarming, has risen again,” Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble announced during a press conference held to coincide with the report’s release.

Violent incidents were the highest in eastern Germany, when population differences were taken into account. A separate survey carried out by the Friedrich Ebert Institute last year found that one in three people in former East Germany are openly prejudiced against foreigners.