Berlin  - German Chancellor Angela Merkel will visit Tbilisi on Sunday for talks with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, Berlin confirmed Thursday evening.

A government spokesman said the visit would last just a day.

Merkel's visit would follow shortly on her trip starting on Friday to Russia, when she is to meet with President Dimitry Medvedev. That meeting, with the talks expected to focus on the Caucasus conflict, is to take place in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi.

Berlin - A cell phone's ringtone can be just about anything. It can imitate the ring of an old-fashioned telephone, reproduce a snappy 1980s pop song or even sound like a frog ribbeting.

But in particular social situations it's best to play it safe when setting the ringtone. While out with a group of friends or business associates, a straight-forward ringtone or a silent vibration are stylistically the most elegant choices. It could put others off, if the ringtone sounds like a toilet flushing.

Berlin - German economic growth slumped by 0.8 per cent during the second quarter, analysts' forecast data to be released Thursday will show, amid deepening gloom surrounding the outlook for Europe's biggest economy.

A sharp contraction in the three months to the end of June would represent a dramatic reversal of the first quarter when Germany grew at its fastest pace in 12 years, chalking up an expansion rate of 1.5 per cent on the back of a two-year economic upswing.

Berlin  - Germany's largest Jewish organization called Wednesday for the youth organization Heimattreue Deutsche Jugend (HDJ) to be banned, saying it propagated Nazi ideas.

The Central Council of Jews in Germany accused the organization, whose name translates as "patriotic German youth," of using its camps to promote ideas in conflict with the German constitution.

German police raided a camp held by the organization in the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania last Friday, finding swastikas and other right-wing materials.

Berlin  - German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to travel to Tbilisi to lend her backing to efforts to end hostilities in Georgia, her official spokesman said Wednesday.

Merkel also said that the time was not right for allocating blame in the conflict that erupted in the breakaway region of South Ossetia last week.

"The chancellor is firmly convinced that this is not the time for looking into motives, for allocating blame, for denouncing anyone or for making final judgements," Merkel's official spokesman, Thomas Steg, said.

Berlin  - Europe's biggest rail company Deutsche Bahn AG is considering investing in Italy's passenger train operations, Germany's daily Die Welt reported Tuesday.

The newspaper reported that the German-based Deutsche Bahn has been holding talks with Fiat and Ferrari president Luca Cordero di Montezemolo's newly formed private high-speed rail service group Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori (NTV).