Berlin - German investor confidence could edge up again this month, a key indicator to be released Tuesday is forecast to say, amid efforts from governments and central banks around the world to halt the downturn underway in the global economy.

Drawn up by the Mannheim-based Centre for European Economic Research, the ZEW index is forecast by analysts to post a marginal increase to minus 44.5 points in January after posting a bigger- than-expected rise to 45.2 in December.

An increase in January would represent the third consecutive rise in the index.

Berlin  - Colourful posters, brochures and travel books, some dating back to the 17th century, line the shelves of Germany's biggest tourism archive.

Germans have long been prolific travellers, and it's easy to see why when you comb through the literature at the Free University's Willy-Scharnow Institute for Tourism in south-west Berlin.

It contains a trove of travel literature, much of it related to 19th and 20th century travel, and to the phenomenal growth of the German tourism industry in the past 80 years.

Munich/Berlin  - Travellers to the United States have been advised to check the new regulations about online registration as early as possible.

Since January 12, travellers to the US from countries that are part of the Visa Waiver Program must go to https://esta. cbp. dhs. gov and obtain pre-authorisation by filling out an online form.

Berlin  - The mood at the 2009 International Green Week agricultural fair in Berlin is upbeat despite continuing concerns at the world food situation and the crisis in money markets.

Some l, 610 exhibitors from 52 countries are participating in the event, with Russia - for the second year running - again the largest foreign exhibitor, occupying more than
6,000 square metres of space.

Held annually since the 1930s, the Green Week offers a unique opportunity for the farm world to gauge trade fluctuations and trends.

Berlin  - Germany is at the ready to send four border police experts to Egypt with equipment to detect secret tunnels under the border to the Gaza Strip, a senior official said in Berlin on Monday.

Israel's invasion of Gaza was aimed at stopping a bombardment by rockets which are mainly smuggled into Gaza via the tunnels.

August Hanning, a state secretary at the Interior Ministry, said Egypt had asked for the detection equipment and technical skills.

Berlin - German security services have identified the man who appeared in an al-Qaeda video directed at Germany, Interior Ministry sources said in Berlin on Monday.

The man was born in Morocco in 1977, has German nationality and lived in the area around the former West German capital of Bonn for a while, the sources said.

Known to be active in Islamist circles, the German-speaking man has been in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region since 2007, they added.

The man, wearing a black turban and facecloth that left only his eyes visible, demanded Germany withdraw its troops from Afghanistan in the video that was posted on an Islamist website on Saturday.