Berlin  - Films by prominent directors such as Constantin Costa-Gavras, Stephen Frears, Andrzej Wajda and Bertrand Tavernier are among the 26 entries in the competition section of the Berlin Film Festival next month, organizers said Thursday.

Among the movies to have their world premiere are British director Sally Potter's Rage, starring Dame Judi Dench and Jude Law, as well as French director Rachid Bouchareb's London River, which stars Brenda Blethyn and Sotigui Kouyate.

Berlin  - The Chief Executive of Deutsche Bank, Josef Ackermann, has recovered following a dizzy spell, a spokesman for the bank announced Thursday.

"I can confirm that he went to hospital for a brief medical check," spokesman Ronald Weichert said, adding that Ackermann was now back at work.

At a reception Wednesday evening in Berlin, the 60-year-old briefly felt unwell, possibly as a result of food he had eaten. An ambulance took him to hospital at around 9 pm, according to Berlin's emergency services.

Berlin - Germany is to train security forces in Mali to stop people traffickers from moving illegal migrants northwards from Africa to Europe, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday.

She was speaking after talks with Mali's President Amadou Toumani Toure, in Berlin.

Germany would assist in training and also provide technical aid so that the forces could counter the drug smugglers and people smugglers, Merkel said.

Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel paid her first visit Thursday to the archives of former East Germany's secret police, the Stasi.

Merkel spoke favourably about the work being carried out at the archives, which documents surveillance carried out by the former East German socialist state on its citizens.

"It has been shown that the opening of the Stasi files has contributed to reconciliation, and not division" the chancellor said during her first visit to the former Stasi-headquarters, situated in east Berlin's Lichtenberg area.

Berlin  - Couples need not wear matching balloon-silk jogging suits to be an eyesore, fashionistas warn. Identical pullovers or outdoor jackets are off-putting as well. Matching clothes make couples look too similar and interchangeable, which runs counter to style sense.

"Men and women have been wearing different clothes for centuries. Though women wear trousers nowadays, the desire to blur differences with matching outfits results in one of them no longer looking like a man, or no longer like a woman," explained Berlin fashion expert Bernhard Roetzel.

Berlin  - The German city of Bonn is vying to host a new global energy organisation, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the government announced Wednesday.

IRENA, whose purpose is to promote renewable energy, will advise industrialised and developing nations on ways of reducing their dependency on oil, coal and gas.

The organization will come into existence January 26 at a conference in Bonn. Around 80 countries have announced their intention to join, half of whom plan to attend the signing of the founding articles in the former German capital.