Berlin  - Germany's postal delivery company Deutsche Post has been hit by losses of 1.69 billion euros (2.16 billion dollars) for 2008, the company reported Wednesday.

This is the first time the company has posted an overall loss since the privatisation of Germany's postal industry in 1995.

The high losses were largely a result of the company's loss-making US business arm, as well as deficits at the company's Postbank subsidiary.

Berlin  - Berlin's help for the German auto industry by offering a trade-in fee for new car purchases could see higher car sales this year, the German Car Industry Association (VDA) said Wednesday.

Instead of sales declining to 2.9 million this year, VDA chief Matthias Wissmann said he now expects auto sales to reach 3 million, after the government launched its plan to encourage passenger car owners to abandon their old models and buy new ones.

Berlin  - A sharp slump in German exports in the final three months of last year helped to send Europe's biggest economy deep into recession, data released Wednesday showed.

Exports tumbled by 7.3 per cent quarter on quarter in the last three months of the year with company investment in plant and machinery falling by 4.9 per cent, the nation's statistics office said. Consumption slipped by 0.1 per cent.

Announcing the figures, the statistics office confirmed German economic growth contracted by 2.1 per cent in the fourth quarter.

Berlin  - Tibetan exiles in Germany said Tuesday they were calling off celebrations of the Tibetan new year this week to protest at China's actions last year in their homeland.

The Tibet Campaign of Germany (TID) and the Association of Tibetans in Germany (VTD) appealed to the German government to speak out on behalf of Tibetans.

Berlin  - A major study of 30 nations has come to the surprising conclusion that it is not rich countries which are proving best at beating poverty, but the well-governed, democratic states.

Norway won first place in the study, the Sustainable Governance Indicators (SGI), published Tuesday by the Bertelsmann Stiftung in Germany, with other Scandinavian nations, New Zealand, Canada and the Netherlands near the top in most categories.

Not only were their democracies robust, but they also posted good results in employment, education and environmental protection.

Berlin  - Germany's publicly owned HSH Nordbank AG became on Tuesday the latest bank in the country to receive state aid to help it through the current global financial crisis.

Two German state governments - Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg - agreed to to throw HSH a 13 billion-euro (16.6 billion dollar) financial lifeline to cover future losses incurred by the shipbuilding financier.