The German government rejected Tuesday a plea from General Motors (GM), the world's biggest carmaker, for targeted aid for German car factories.

Separating three protesters from a German railtrack was slow work
Saturday for a team of police after the anti-nuclear activists used an
ingenious method to lock themselves in place.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US president-elect Barack Obama agreed in a telephone call to work together to help solve global challenges, a Berlin government spokesman said Friday.

The new James Bond film, A Quantum of Solace, is action-packed and has no time for Miss Moneypenny and Q, but lead actor Daniel Craig said he could imagine the secretary and gadget genius making a return in the next adventure.

Plans for a provincial alliance between Germany's co-ruling Social Democrats (SPD) and the small opposition Left party foundered Monday, with four dissenting legislators in the state of Hesse withdrawing their support.

The fragile link-up, drafted by the state SPD leader Andrea Ypsilanti,
had been described by opponents as possibly a model for a federal
government after a general election in September next year.

A national phone-in number set up by citizens' advice bureaux in
Germany has fielded 111,000 calls from Germans worried about the global
financial crisis in just over a week, organizers said Monday.

Gerd Billen, head of the national advice bureaux association VZBV,
appealed to the government to provide more funding for the service,
established October 24.

Germany plans to contest an Italian court ruling in order to head off new claims for damages arising from Nazi atrocities during World War II, officials said Saturday.

"The government intends to obtain a clarification on the issue from the
International Court of Justice," a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said in
Berlin.

Berlin is locked in art fever, with four powerful exhibitions going ahead including work by Jeff Koons and Paul Klee.