Berlin - Germans have retained their lust for travel, despite the deepening world economic crisis, a study released Wednesday showed.

Drawn up by the German motorists' association ADAC, the study said 64.5 per cent of Germans planned at least one vacation this year.

This represented a fall of only about three per cent, compared to 2008 with Germans long considered to be the world champions of global travel.

The ADAC study was released ahead of the opening of the world's leading travel trade fair, the ITB in Berlin. The study was based on the responses of 4,000 of ADAC's members.

Berlin - Orders for Germany's key machinery and mechanical engineering industry plunged 42 per cent in January, data released Wednesday showed, as the global recession tightened its grip on Europe's biggest economy.

Germany's Machinery and Mechanical Engineering Association (VDMA) said the fall came after a 31-per-cent slump in domestic orders and a 47-per-cent drop in foreign orders.

Berlin, March 4 : A new Hubble image shows three galaxies locked in a gravitational tug- of-war that may result in the eventual demise of one of them, and merger into a giant `island universe'.

About 100 million light-years away, in the constellation of Piscis Austrinus (the Southern Fish), three galaxies are playing a game of gravitational give-and-take that might ultimately lead to their merger into one enormous entity.

A new image from the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope allows astronomers to view the movement of gases from galaxy to galaxy, revealing the intricate interplay among them.

Berlin - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier described Monday a policy of "eastern partnership" underpinning the European Union's discussions over financial aid for Eastern Europe.

This policy, Steinmeier said at a meeting with his Romanian counterpart Cristian Diaconescu, was aimed at providing "economic and political support" to the countries of Eastern Europe.

Berlin - Lance Armstrong will return to Europe later this month to continue his comeback season with races at Milan-San Remo and Spain's Vuelta a Castilla y Leon, his Astana team has confirmed.

Armstrong will ride the Milan-San Remo spring classic on March 21 before competing in Spain where he will race with co-captain Alberto Contador and where Astana say the American will focus on the time trial and two mountaintop finishes.

The decision means the seven-time Tour de France winner will not race in the Tour of Flanders one-day classic.

Berlin - Voting booths in Germany can no longer be equipped with electronic "vote computers", the German Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday.

At this year's general election due in September, voters can expect to use pen and paper, after the Karlsruhe-based court ruled that the machines contradict the public nature of elections.

The terminals, which electronically register a voter's choice,

have been used in German elections for 10 years, including the 2005 general election when 2 million people voted by button.