Berlin  - German school pupils demonstrating in Berlin Wednesday damaged a Holocaust-related exhibition, officials at Humboldt University in the capital said.

About 1,000 young people - school attenders in Germany are sometimes 20 or even older - swarmed inside the main building of the university to "occupy" it, climbing onto ledges above its grand portico.

The university said, "parts of the main building were damaged in the rioting." It said the parts included panels of a display about Jewish businesses and how they struggled on under the Nazis.

Berlin - German peacekeeping troops in remote parts of Afghanistan were supplied with 1 million litres of home-brand beer and wine last year, Berlin confirmed Wednesday.

An opposition politician, Elke Hoff, told the newspaper Bild: "It seems alcohol plays a worryingly big role in camp life."

But officials insisted the troops were not drunk. Each man was allowed under regulations to drink up to 1 litre of beer daily. The camps are largely supplied by air via camps in Tajikistan.

Berlin - Football's ruling body FIFA and streetfootballworld presented a joint project "20 Centres for 2010" Wednesday in Berlin, which will involve the building of 20 football centres in Africa.

The project will take place around the 2010 World Cup in South Africa with each centre having a football pitch and rooms for education and dissemination of health information.

Berlin - The Berlin Academy for the Arts plans to offer a speaking engagement to Roberto Saviano, the Italian author who is in hiding for fear of retribution by organized crime, an official said Wednesday.

Klaus Staeck, the academy president, said he had offered a year ago to engage Saviano to speak at a seminar on the Mafia, but the author had ruled he could not travel safely. Staeck said he would try again to book him.

Berlin - The German government's panel of economic advisers roundly criticized as inadequate Berlin's plans for spurring growth in Europe's biggest economy, in a report released Wednesday.

In their report presented to Chancellor Angela Merkel, the so-called "five wise men" said that after emerging from a protracted economic downturn three years ago, the German economy will slump into recession in 2009.

This is likely to come amid rising unemployment and a contraction in exports with the advisers calling on the government to press on with much-needed reforms.

Berlin - Germany condemned Wednesday the sentencing of 14 activists in Myanmar to lengthy prison terms, calling the verdict "politically motivated."

A foreign ministry spokesman said the reason given by the court in handing down the verdict was "totally unacceptable" as were the "very long" prison sentences of 65 years.

The spokesman said the military rulers of Myanmar were sending "the wrong signals" and called for the release of all political prisoners in the country.