Dresden, Germany  - Leftists battled Saturday with riot police escorting a march by far-right protesters in Dresden, Germany.

Much of the German city was destroyed and thousands of Germans burned to death by Allied firebomb raids late February 13 and early February 14, 1945. German neo-Nazis claim the Allies committed a war crime. Left-right clashes are common on the anniversary.

An estimated 6,000 far-right activists, some from outside Germany, marched through Dresden. They were cordoned off by police to prevent any brawling.

Eyewitnesses said several hundred leftists tried to attack the neo-Nazi participants, hurling bottles at the police lines and damaging parked cars. Several people were injured in the violence.

Dresden, Germany  - Leftists battled Saturday with riot police escorting a march of far-right protesters in Dresden, Germany.

Much of the German city was destroyed, and thousands of Germans burned to death, by Allied firebomb raids late February 13 and early February 14, 1945. German neo-Nazis claim the Allies committed a war crime. Left-right clashes are common on the anniversary.

Eyewitnesses said several hundred leftists who objected to the far right holding a procession tried to attack neo-Nazi participants, hurling bottles at the police cordon and damaging parked cars.

Separately, thousands of pacifists took part in processions to both denounce the neo-Nazi threat and remember the city's dead.

Dresden, Germany - A human rights group criticized plans by a German cultural organization to present an award to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in the eastern city of Dresden on Friday.

"He doesn't deserve to be honoured," the German-based Society for Threatened Peoples said, blaming Putin for human rights violations by Russian troops in Chechnya.

During his time as president, the Russian leader was responsible for the deaths of around 80,000 men, women and children in the breakaway republic, the society said in a statement.

Dresden, Germany - Struggling chipmaker Qimonda is to receive a major cash injection to help keep it afloat, officials said Sunday in the German state where the company has its main production plant.

The Infineon subsidiary will receive 325 million euros (455 million dollars), said Thomas Jurk, minister of economics in the east German state of Saxony.

Saxony will contribute 150 million euros and Infineon 75 million euros, with the remainder coming from Portugal where Qimonda has a plant near Porto.

The government in Saxony had been in negotiations with Infineon to Save Qimonda, which has suffered from a dramatic fall in prices for computer chips.

Dresden, Germany - Bird flu has returned to Germany, with the H5N1 influenza virus breaking out among farm ducks in the eastern state of Saxony, officials said Thursday.

It was the first proven appearance of the disease this year in Germany. Officials were preparing to slaughter the whole flock of ducks at Goerlitz, near the Polish border.

Dresden, Germany - A low-cost electronic display made of plastic went into production in Germany Wednesday with the prospect of replacing magazines and newspapers.

British-registered company Plastic Logic said it would make more than 1 million of the displays annually at the plant in Dresden. They are about the size of a large exercise book and weigh less than 500 grams.

The device comprises transistor arrays on a flexible plastic surface, unlike silicon-based systems in current e-books and digital photo frames. It has been dubbed electronic paper, though it cannot be folded or rolled up.

The company's chief executive, Richard Archuleta, said it was both bigger and thinner than competing products.