A Job for Batman - bats save world heritage..

[AntEater]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,499284,00.html

Not really.
The row is about a road bridge over the Elbe which would spoil the classic panorama of Dresden and has caused the UNESCO to withdraw the world heritage status for downtown Dresden if build.
The state of Saxony seems hell-bent on building the bridge, for reason only known to them (corruption in the construction sector?) and alternate designs like a tunnel or a bridge elsewhere are not considered. The bridge was actually approved by popular vote in Dresden, BEFORE the UNESCO decision was made.
The city tries everything in their power to stop the bridge, so miraculously, a population of those endangered bats seem to have taken habitat at the exact spot
:D

EDIT:
I know posting articles from the english language Spiegel section is Skybird's job, but I found it so funny that I had to post it.
Also, for our american viewers, this is not european ecofascism at work, but rather a shrewd way of preserving tourist money for Dresden.

[Skybird]

Actually, the controversy over that damn bridge is much older than just some years. It leads back many decades into history, the masterplan to built that bridge was formed in 1862 (yes, eighteen-sixty-two). the petition for public referendums were ruled by courts to be suggestive in language and were rejected and declared to be invalid, else after reunification the reactivation of the plans for the bridge (which to construct even emperor Wilhelm and the Nazis already had failed) would have failed again in the mid-90s already.

Resistance to these plans need to hold out until 2008 - then the formal permission to start construction will have lost timely validity and anyone wanting to build a bridge needs to start from start again with getting formal permission, against the now strong resistance of the public's opinion. So, if construction has not started until that date in 2008, I must not fear to see it getting started during my lifetime. It is a shame that here again the sight of a beautiful landscape and nature park should get ruined by building another one of man's many mindless profanities.

[TteFAboB]

That is one butt ugly bridge!