Berlin - Germany's Finance Ministry said Sunday it is working on a new attempt to save Hypo Real Estate (HRE), the German mortgage lender caught up in the wave of Western bank failures.

"We'll have to see how we can sweep together the pieces that have been dumped on our doorstep," spokesman Torsten Albig said a day after HRE disclosed the collapse of a hoped-for government-backed bail-out.

The German government and the banking industry had announced on September 29 a 35-billion-euro (50-billion-dollar) set of guarantees to enable HRE to resume short-term lending.

Berlin - Recently deceased Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish is to be remembered with a world-wide day of readings of his work on October 5, including at the 2008 International Literature Festival in Berlin.

Darwish died on August 9 following heart surgery.

He was one of the best-loved Arab poets of recent times and is known for his evocations of the Arab-Israeli conflict and his commitment to promoting peaceful and fair coexistence between Arabs and Israelis.

Berlin 

Berlin  - A US court martial on Thursday jailed a soldier, Steven Ribordy, 25,

Berlin  - Economists appealed Thursday for European Union governments to mount a joint bail-out of troubled banks rather than each nation acting for itself when banks stumble.

"Last week's US experience showed that saving one bank at a time won't work. A systemic response is needed and in Europe that means an EU-led initiative to recapitalize the banking sector," they said.

The call to action was issued in Berlin by the DIW German Institute of Economic Research.

The 10 signatories included DIW chief Klaus Zimmermann and economists from the Italy, the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels, the London School of Economics and Harvard University.

Berlin - Callers to Linda Eilers Berlin cafe should expect to raise their voices to compete with the sewing machines in the background.

Many of Eilers' customers opt to man a machine for 5 euros an hour (7 dollars), sewing handmade T-shirts they wear home after coffee.

"There's always more people coming," says Eilers.

But T-shirts are only part of a larger trend toward handicrafts that's picking up steam.

"Instead of being passive consumers, people in all sectors are simultaneously producing and consuming original products they make themselves," says Melani Rollwage of Trendbuero Hamburg, a business consultancy.