Berlin - The German Defence Minister, Mr Rudolf Scharping, has come under fire for letting a magazine publish pictures of him frolicking in a pool with his girlfriend in Mallorca just as his troops prepare for a risky NATO mission.
Members of his own Social Democrat party (SPD) are incensed at the gaffe as the German parliament holds what may be a close vote tomorrow on whether to allow the deployment of up to 500 soldiers to collect weapons from rebels in Macedonia.