Hamburg  - Smart car-to-car communication will one day make traffic jams obsolete and significantly improve road safety. That is the vision of several major car makers who recently presented the technology under realistic driving conditions at a test track in Germany.

Several cars, motorcycles and a truck could be seen communicating with each other at the Opel test track in Dudenhofen Germany based on wireless WLAN technology.

Hamburg - Bayern Munich's Bundesliga title chances are growing in the same way as the uncertainty about the future of captain Mark van Bommel at the club.

The Bild daily reiterated on Tuesday that van Bommel could be leaving when his contract expires after the season.

Talks between the Dutch midfielder and the club are set for December, but Kicker sports magazine also suggested this week that "the tendency at the club is towards departure."

Hamburg - Germany coach Joachim Loew will have some clear words to say to the squad he names Thursday for next week's classic encounter with old rivals England.

Loew is to use the opportunity of the friendly international in Berlin to lay down some rules and guidelines on how he expects his players to behave for the rest of the qualification campaign for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.

Hamburg - Force India will be powered by Mercedes engines and use McLaren equipment as well next season, the Formula One team of Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya announced on Monday.

Mallya said in a Force India statement that the long-term deal had been set up with the help of F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone and motorsport supremo Max Mosley.

The news came a few days after Force India announced an early end of its engine deal with Ferrari which was originally due to run 2007-2009.

Hamburg - Jelena Jankovic topped the year-ending women's tennis rankings issued on Monday by the WTA, with Venus Williams climbing into sixth place courtesy of her title at the 2008 finale in Doha.

Jankovic, who was stopped in the Doha semis by Williams, tops the final list with 4,710 points. She was assured of the 2008 top spot ahead of the final week of action.

US Open champion Serena Williams is second with 3,866 points, swapping positions with Dinara Safina, who has 3,817 points.

Venus Williams climbed from eighth to sixth place after her three-set win Sunday over Vera Zvonareva. The Russian finalist also rose two places, from nine to seven.

Hamburg - Five wins in a row have taken champions Bayern Munich to within a whisker of going top of the Bundesliga table for the first time this season.

It seems to be a case of normal service resuming in German football after Bayern under Juergen Klinsmann took a long time to find their feet and little Hoffenheim were the unlikely team to beat.

On Sunday, however, the club which won promotion in successive years saw its five-game winning series come to an end in a 1-0 defeat at Hertha Berlin.

Meanwhile Bayern defeated Schalke 2-1 in a crucial game in Gelsenkirchen to move to 24 points from 12 games.