Merkel's new choice

Chancellor Angela Merkel has nominated Christian Wulff as her choice for Germany's next president, after being forced to drop plans to give the post to a woman in the face of strong opposition from the right flank of her party.

Merkel had earlier indicated that Ursula von der Leyen, her popular conservative Employment Minister, was her preferred candidate.

Catholic right-wingers within her Christian Democratic party reportedly opposed the idea of "two Protestant women running the country".