With analysts predicting there will be little good news on the economic front until the summer, Mr Schroeder will have to run a tighter ship politically if he hopes to swing the vote his way in September.

BBC: Jobless put Schroeder on the line

It's a ship that brings containers from Canada to Liverpool - it's quite a sizeable ship - it's about 210m long and it's about to swing to go through a passage way in order to gain access to the lock.

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Down at the docks in Rotterdam, the largest port in Europe, cranes swing into action, unloading "Edith" - the world's biggest container ship, which has just come into the port.

BBC: Dutch show growing annoyance with EU