Berlin  - The German Open women's tournament in Berlin has been sold back to the governing body WTA by its Qatari owners and won't be played anymore in the German capital, it emerged on Wednesday.

According to local daily Der Tagesspiegel, the German Tennis Federation (DTB) and other officials were not informed about the move.

The daily said that WTA boss Larry Scott confirmed the sale in an email to Josef Minderjahn, head of the hosting LTTC Rot-Weiss club.

Berlin - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is to embark on a new mediation mission to the Middle East on Wednesday, a foreign ministry spokesman said.

Steinmeier planned to visit Jerusalem, the West Bank town of Ramallah and the Egyptian capital Cairo in an effort to accelerate efforts for a ceasefire in Gaza, spokesman Jens Ploetner said.

Steinmeier visited the region over the weekend and offered German assistance in improving security along Gaza's borders in order to prevent the smuggling of weapons into the coastal strip.

Berlin  - German economic growth slowed to between 1.3-1.4 per cent in 2008, heralding a sharp slowdown this year, analysts expect data to be released on Wednesday to show.

After turning in a solid 2.5-per-cent growth rate in 2007, Germany slumped into a recession in the third quarter last year. A slew of data last week showed the slowdown in Europe's biggest economy rapidly gaining momentum as the year came to an close.

Berlin  - German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives are looking for victory Sunday when voters in the state of Hesse go to the polls for the second time in 12 months to elect a new parliament.

Opinion polls give her Christian Democrats (CDU) a comfortable lead over the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), junior partner in an uneasy coalition with the chancellor's party in Berlin.

Berlin  - A whiff of countryside is coming to the German capital, as the world's largest agricultural fair opens Friday in Berlin.

Alongside cows, pigs and tractors, 1,600 exhibitors from more than 50 countries will converge on Berlin's exhibition centre for the 74th annual Green Week from January
16-25.

As many as 400,000 visitors are expected to view more than 100,000 culinary specialities from around the world, spread along eight kilometres of exhibition space.

The Netherlands, this year's partner country, receives a special focus, while newcomer Kyrgyzstan is exhibiting alongside Green Week veterans such as Italy's wine, cheese and olive oil producers.

Berlin  - Technical experts from Germany's federal police and interior ministry are to travel to Egypt in the coming days to help Egypt secure its border with the Gaza Strip, the state secretary in the ministry said late Tuesday.

August Hanning said the move would fulfill a request from the Egyptian government "to support securing Egypt's border area with German expertise."