Berlin - Germany's economy is set to contract by 0.1 per cent in the current, third quarter, a leading Berlin economic research institute, DIW, said Wednesday.

Berlin, September 10 : An international team o

Berlin, September 10 : A team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany, has discovered how aerosols affect the when, where and how much of rainfall, basically their effects on precipitation.

The approach used by the scientists is observing how aerosols change the flow of energy in the atmosphere and thus air circulation, the way drops form and the way they fall.

Because the role of aerosols has to date been very much a subject of dispute and a source of great uncertainty in climate predictions made by researchers, this work removes one of the largest obstacles to the development of more accurate climate forecasts.

Berlin - Attackers believed to be neo-Nazis drew swastikas with felt-tip pens on the face and back of a 21-year-old handicapped man in Germany, police said Tuesday.

Police said relatives had helped the man clean the ink off after the August 26 attack, but did not report it to police. Last week, a welfare worker told police, who have begun a hunt for two assailants.

Neo-Nazi slogans were also scrawled on the victim's T-shirt, said police in the northern city of Schwerin.

Berlin - Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta Tuesday accused Pakistan of being responsible for instability along their mutual border, but also acknowledged Afghan mistakes, during an international security conference being held in Berlin.

Spanta said Pakistan was assisting international terrorism through its ISI intelligence agency and through its military.

But he also noted a "culture of impunity" within Afghanistan, where former warlords continued to hold sway in many areas and drug lords were gaining the upper hand in others.

Berlin - The German cabinet decided Wednesday to extend the mandate for German troops serving with the UNIFIL peacekeeping mission in Lebanon.

The deployment of naval personnel and ships to halt arms smuggling from the Mediterranean would be extended for 15 months, rather than the usual 12, to take it past the German elections at the end of September next year, government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said.