Hamburg - The Playstation Portable (PSP) and Nintendo DS have been on the market for over three years now, but the wave of new titles is not slowing down at all.

While perhaps this applies more to the DS than the PSP, there's plenty of new games to go around as stores gear up in November for the Christmas season. This month's titles include murder and manslaughter, crazy rabbits, sing-crazy wobbly creatures and even tips on how to cook.

One DS title that was a hit at the trade fairs is now finally coming to stores: Unsolved Crimes, set in 1970s New York, a vibrant backdrop for exciting mobster hunts. And that's exactly what the player has to do, stepping into the role of a freshly commissioned member of the homicide department.

Hamburg  - TSG Hoffenheim kept their cool in a heated Cologne atmosphere to reclaim the Bundesliga lead from Bayer Leverkusen who were caught out cold in Bielefeld on saturday.

As winter weather hit Germany, league top scorer Vedad Ibisevic struck twice and fed Demba Ba for the other as promoted Hoffenheim won 3-1 in Cologne in a tense match which both teams ended with 10 men.

Hamburg - Snow and ice played havoc on German roads, causing numerous accidents that left two dead and more than a dozen injured, police said Saturday.

The abrupt arrival of winter turned roads in skating rinks, forcing police to close the A4 autobahn near the eastern city of Dresden for several hours after it was blocked by trucks unable to move forward.

Hamburg  - A positive test by the Italian rider Leonardo Piepoli for CERA, the third generation of the blood booster EPO, at this year's Tour de France has been confirmed by a French laboratory.

Hamburg - Accidents snarled high-lying snowed-over roads Friday in Germany as Alpine countries stood by for high winds, sinking temperatures and heavy snow.

In the upland central state of Thuringia, a highway maintenance vehicle spreading salt to melt the snow was struck by a skidding truck, destroying both vehicles, police said. The drivers suffered only minor injuries.

Further north in the Harz mountains, trucks became immobilized when they could not climb steep grades on a snow-covered federal highway and had to be towed free.

Germany's first snow of this winter at sea level, a couple of centimetres deep, covered parts of northern Germany early Friday. The weather front, which marked the shock arrival of winter, was moving south.

Hamburg  - Celebrating Christmas with family remains very important to young people even in times when attending the traditional Christmas Eve religious service has lost its meaning for many people. Some don't even know what the holiday is all about.

"In a mobile world the family is an anchor," said Sabine Koppe of a Hamburg-based organization that follows trends in an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. That's why holidays such as Christmas carry a lot of weight.