Hamburg - At the western tip of Hamburg's harbour redevelopment, the dramatic design of the new Elbe Philharmonic Hall emerges slowly from the mists.

Expected to be completed in two years, it will bring to the northern German port not only a new concert hall, but also a 110-metre landmark visible to approaching ships from way down river.

The designers are Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, whose portfolio includes the Tate Modern in London, the Allianz Arena in Munich and the de Young Museum in San Francisco.

Hamburg - Dog breeders are calling it a "wurst-case scenario" for dachshunds as Germans are apparently losing interest in owning the stubborn "sausage dog" that has long been equated with Germany.

Dachshunds used to be as common on the streets of Germany as beer bellies and lederhosen and VW Beetles. But, like the Beetle, the dachshund has gone out of style.

Hamburg - The mournful howling of wolves is echoing these days through the forested woodlands of eastern Germany for the first time in centuries, according to conservationists who say that wolves are spreading into Western Europe now that all their natural enemies have long since disappeared.

The cunning canine is even outsmarting its most dangerous mortal enemy - man. Wolves are encroaching on urbanized areas, even being spotted on the outskirts of large cities like Berlin.

Hamburg,

Hamburg - The iPod may be the industry leader among MP3 players, but that does not mean it's right for you.

Before any major purchase, customers should consider what they want to do with their MP3 player. Christine Tantschinez of the Stuttgart-based magazine audio says a lot depends on an individual's needs. They determine the size of the device, the pre-packaged components and the price.

"If you just want music for jogging, then go for a very simple model," she says. A display might not even be necessary and you could get away with relatively little memory - just two to four gigabytes.

Hamburg - It's a bit like buying property with just a building frame on it. The dimensions are predetermined, but what kind of heating to use, wood floors or tiles, how the windows should look - that's all left for the customer to decide. Barebones PCs work on the same principle. They contain only the case, power supply and motherboard. Everything else is customer selected.

While the term "Barebones" technically applies to all PCs that do not come with a complete preinstalled set-up, the term has come to take on a different meaning. Tom Seiffert from the hardwaremaker Shuttle near Hamburg notes that the term now refers to PCs with a distinctively small physical profile regardless of whether they come fully configured.