Berlin - Germany faces an increased risk of Islamist terror attacks ahead of national elections in September, security chiefs warned Saturday.

The head of the domestic intelligence agency, Heinz Fromm, said the probability of a terror attack is especially high, in an interview with the daily Hamburger Abendblatt.

In Germany's general election set for September 27, the country's troop presence in Afghanistan, opposed by the majority of German citizens, is likely to be high on the agenda.

Berlin - Hertha Berlin announced Friday that it has extended coach Lucien Favre's contract by a year until 2011 while Arminia Bielefeld have agreed an extension until
2010 with their coach Michael Frontzeck.

"It is a sign of how we value him and of our confidence," Hertha general manager Dieter Hoeness told a press conference.

Hertha, who currently lie third in the Bundesliga two points behind leaders Hoffenheim and Bayern Munich, also presented new signing Leandro Cufre.

Berlin - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier welcomed Friday Russia's decision to suspend the deployment of short-range missiles along the Baltic Sea.

Speaking in the German parliament, Steinmeier called the Russian move a "good sign."

He said US President Barack Obama's arrival in office gave an "opportunity, which we must now use," to push forward disarmament.

"I believe that the course will be set this year for disarmament policies over the next 10 years."

Berlin - The captain of a German Navy warship on an anti-piracy mission off Somalia said Friday the mission was succeeding, even though a German-owned gas tanker was snatched by pirates the previous day elsewhere on the coast.

The 3,415-gross-ton Longchamp reached Somali waters Thursday evening under pirate command, said Cyrus Mody, a spokesman for the International Maritime Bureau
(IMB) in London.

The pirates are expected to demand a ransom for the vessel, its crew and its Asia-bound cargo of liquefied gas. German defence officials say the Longchamp was not part of a convoy under military supervision when it was hijacked.

Berlin - Scrap yard workers in the German town of Henningsdorf couldn't believe their eyes when they found a safe containing 170,000 euros (222,500 dollars) which had been dumped on the scrap heap, a newspaper reported Friday.

The safe arrived as part of a weekly lorry load of scrap metal from Berlin, according to the daily Henningsdorfer Generalanzeiger.

Employees made the discovery on January 14, when they opened the discarded safe and piles of cash fluttered out.