Berlin - Tuition and fees usually take a heavy toll on every student's budget. Rent and cell phone demand another chunk, and then there are still costs associated with computers, especially the software.

The standard tool for the job, Microsoft's Office suite, costs around 460 dollars. Graphics students may also require expensive applications like Adobe's Creative Suite for a cool 2,400 dollars. Yet there is some relief in sight: Many manufacturers are now offering rebates.

It's possible to save up to 85 per cent in this way, a test by the Munich-based Chip magazine recently showed. Creative Suite 3 Design Premium was made available for 

Berlin - Bertram Meyer leans over his desk and tugs at his computer's monitor cable. He disconnects the keyboard and packs up his computer mouse. A case of energy drinks are waiting in the hallway of his Berlin apartment. He packs a sleeping pad, sleeping bag, and inflatable neck rest.

"I'm taking that along in case I get tired," he says. The question of whether he'll sleep at all remains open, since Bertram is on his way to a network party. If everything has been properly organised, he'll probably have little down time - but all the more gaming fun instead.

Berlin  - The small southern German town of Wunsiedel held a Festival of Democracy Saturday to register its opposition to neo- Nazis who have demonstrated in the town in years past to commemorate Nazi leader Rudolf Hess.

In nearby Warmensteinach, around 2,000 gathered for a more general protest against the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) and to demonstrate against the sale of a local cafe to the NPD.

Berlin - Berlin's memorial to gays and lesbians persecuted during the Nazi era has been vandalized less than three months after it was inaugurated, police in the German capital said Saturday.

The vandals broke a viewing window and pushed over a fence, in the first time the memorial has been damaged. The damage was seen by a passer-by on Saturday.

The simple grey rectangular stone across the street from Germany's national memorial to Jewish victims of the Holocaust was inaugurated on May 27 after years of controversy.

Berlin- More than 90 people were harmed Saturday when carbon dioxide gas was released following a fire at a paint factory in the western Germany city of Moenchengladbach.

The accident happened as a result of a defect in the fire extinguishing system, which uses the gas to douse fires.

Thirteen people were treated in hospital. Those affected included factory workers, fire officers and local residents, who reported symptoms of dizziness and nausea.

Berlin - Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has accused Georgia of provoking the recent hostilities with Russia by sending troops into South Ossetia and described President Mikheil Saakashvili as a "gambler," in an interview published Saturday.

"The moment that initiated the current hostilities was the Georgian invasion of South Ossetia," Schroeder told the German weekly Der Spiegel.

He declined to be drawn on whether Russia's response was disproportionate, saying that military conflicts developed their own dynamic.