German election race draws to rancorous close

Germany’s tightly-fought election campaign drew to a rancorous close today under the shadow of mounting tensions with Washington over an oblique comparison between the US president and Adolf Hitler reportedly made by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s justice minister.

Schroeder moved to calm the storm Friday, writing a conciliatory letter to US President George Bush shortly before Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin again denied remarks attributed to her by a German newspaper, which quoted her as saying Bush, like Hitler, was threatening war to distract attention from domestic problems.