Berlin  - Germany rejected Thursday criticism from Israel over a deal to export gas-liquefaction equipment to Iran.

Officials in Berlin said Steiner Prematechnik Gastec had won export clearance at the end of February for the deal, reportedly worth 100 million euros (160 million dollars).

The three systems are to cool and compress natural gas into liquid form so it can be transported by ship to export customers.

Berlin  - German Chancellor Angela Merkel has told Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan she was relieved that his ruling party had escaped a constitutional ban, her spokesman said Thursday in Berlin.

The proposed ban on his AKP group failed by a slender margin to win confirmation Wednesday in an Ankara court.

Merkel spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said stability and democratic order in Turkey were central concerns for the chancellor and she had conveyed her relief about the outcome to Erdogan.

Turkey was a major partner for Germany and the European Union and a NATO ally, he said.

Berlin - European economic confidence recorded its biggest fall since the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, a key survey released Wednesday said as concerns set in about the economic out

Berlin - The German airline Lufthansa AG cancelled long-haul flights Wednesday for the first time as a pay strike by ground and cabin staff entered its third day.

The services union Verdi said about 5,000 workers had joined the strike Monday and Tuesday, causing the cancellation on Tuesday of 70 domestic and European flights.

Lufthansa said it expected eight long-haul flights to be cancelled Wednesday. In addition, 70 shorter flights would not take off because the required aircraft had not received necessary maintenance, it said.

Nine of the airline's fleet of 520 aircraft are out of action.

Berlin  - Germany voiced disappointment Tuesday at the collapse of World Trade Organization (WTO) talks on the conclusion of the Doha Round, saying it would press for the talks to reopen.

"An agreement at the multilateral trade negotiations would have been been an important boost at the right moment for the world economy," said Bernd Pfaffenbach, state secretary at the Economics Ministry in Berlin.

He said the German government would work insistently on a resumption of the talks as soon as possible.

Berlin - German consumer prices edged up again in five key states during July, data released Tuesday showed, with analysts expecting annual inflation in Europe's biggest economy to reach 3.4 per ce