Berlin - German couples will soon be able to get married in church without first going through a civil ceremony in the registry office for the first time in 130 years.

The daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung uncovered the detail in a little-noticed piece of legislation that becomes law on January 1 next year and published details Thursday.

Previously, priests had faced the possibility of jail or being fined for marrying couples who had not concluded a civil marriage before going to the altar, although in recent years the offence has been treated as a minor misdemeanour.

Civil marriages were introduced in Germany in 1875, the relevant legislation providing for a three-month jail term for priests who married couples without first going to the registry office.

Berlin - German retail sales are set to fall this year as surging inflation hits household spending in Europe's biggest economy, the nation's retail traders' organization (HDE) said Wednesday.

After a disappointing first half of the year, the HDE is not expecting much improvement in the coming months with the group revising down its retail sales projection to a slump in real terms of about 1 per cent as rising inflation eats into consumers' purchasing power.

About three months ago, the organization had predicted a marginal 0.5 per cent increase in retail sales.

The cut in the HDE's retail sales projections is despite the prospects of rising wages in Germany and a trend to lower unemployment.

Berlin  - A German youth charged with having sex with an underage English girl in a Turkish holiday resort last year will not return to Antalya when proceedings restart this week, his lawyers said Wednesday.

Marco Weiss, who was 17 at the time of the incident, would not fly out to Turkey for Friday's proceedings, nor would his parents, the lawyers said.

The defence lawyers predicted the case would be adjourned once more, as certain documents had not yet been made available to the defence by the court.

The documents concern a psychological evaluation of the alleged victim by Turkish forensic experts.

Berlin  - Europe's industrial producer price index surged in May, data released Wednesday showed, adding to the prospects of the European Central Bank delivering its first rate hike in more than a

Berlin - German key machinery and industrial plants orders slumped by an annual 12 per cent in May, the industry association said Wednesday.