Berlin - A separate room for an office and wiring that can handle all of today's multimedia devices are factors that will make a big difference for people who are looking for an apartment in future, a study conducted by Germany's Berlin-based association for apartment and real estate businesses showed.

In addition, the energy use standard within the apartment must be correct, according to the study, which collected data from
1,500 households throughout Germany about people's living preferences.

Berlin  - Emerging from talks with visiting Serbian President Boris Tadic, German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected Wednesday proposals for an ethnic division of Kosovo.

Reports from Belgrade the previous day suggested that Tadic himself had suggested division as a compromise, but in Berlin, Tadic said that he had been misunderstood.

The interpretation of what he said had been "politically wrong,"

he told reporters.

About 50 nations, including Germany, have recognized Kosovo as independent, whereas Serbia insists Kosovo still belongs to it.

Berlin/Hyderabad, Oct 1 : Infotech Enterprises Limited signed with Bombardier Transportation a new long term contract to continue to provide engineering, electronic design, technical publications and IT-related services to Bombardier Transportation divisions worldwide.

The contract builds on a relationship that started in 2003 and now Infotech supports all Bombardier divisions across multiple technologies and projects in a real-time engineering environment.

Berlin, October 1 : A thorough survey using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has observed around 14 million stars in 69 galaxies, which has given astronomers clues about how stars form.

The detailed study, called the ACS Nearby Galaxy Survey Treasury (ANGST) program, explored a region called the Local Volume, where galaxy distances range from
6.5 million light-years to 13 million light-years from Earth.

Some galaxies were found to be full of ancient stars, while others are like sun-making factories.

A typical galaxy contains billions of stars but looks smooth when viewed through a conventional telescope because the stars appear blurred together.

Berlin  - Moscow will not let itself be drawn into a confrontation with the West, a senior Russian diplomat said Wednesday, one day before a top-level Russian-German meeting.

"We haven't broken off dialogue. We haven't pulled back the hand (of friendship)," ambassador to Berlin, Vladimir Kotenyev, said in an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"We favour cooperation at international level with all players. Russia is not going to let itself be drawn into a confrontation."

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel was set to meet with Russian leaders on Thursday in St Petersburg, Russia for annual talks.

Berlin  - The financial turmoil that has brought down a series of US and European banks is making a world climate-change accord difficult to achieve, Germany warned Tuesday at the start of a conference in Berlin.

"You can't rule out that interest in saving the climate will change," said Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, making a point that US state governors at the meeting confirmed.