Berlin  - Horst Tappert, the actor who played a stubborn police detective in the long-running German television series Derrick, has died at the age of 85.

His wife, Ursula, said Tappert, who had lived in seclusion in recent years, died in a Munich hospital on Saturday. He had been well until a few days earlier. She declined to describe his illness.

Tappert's jowly, thick-lipped face personified senior inspector Stephan Derrick, the compassionate cop who seemed to have seen every facet of evil in his long career.

Paris  - Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovich on Monday handed over his country's official EU membership application to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the current EU president.

Also present at the meeting was EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, who said, "the European perspective given to the Balkan countries is essential for the stability and prosperity of the region and the EU."

San Francisco  - Google has approached major internet service providers in the US with plans for its own fast lane that would send its traffic to users at higher speeds than other internet content, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

The proposal would appear to violate the widely accepted principle of net neutrality whereby the operators and owners of the network treat all traffic the same. Large network providers have long lobbied for the ability to charge companies for providing higher speed for their web traffic, but were bitterly opposed by Google and other large web companies like Yahoo and Microsoft.

Geneva/Jerusalem  - A UN expert on human rights in the Palestinian territories was deported by Israel Monday, after being refused entry to the country.

Richard Falk had arrived on Sunday to conduct a field visit to the Palestinian areas, but was detained by the Israeli authorities at the airport and never let into the country, a UN official said.

The official said Falk's phone was also taken away and contact with him was limited until he was sent on a plane to the United States.

New Delhi, Dec. 15 : Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chauhan met Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh here on Monday.

Manmohan Singh has assured Shivraj Singh Chauhan of full support on all development issues saying that is what the people expect.

Dr Manmohan conveyed his best wishes to Chief Minister Chauhan Madhya Pradesh who called on him and urged him to continue the development process with particular focus on power generation.

Chauhan apprised Dr. Manmohan Singh on the status of various power projects specially thermal power projects in the state and said they are dependent on a regular supply of coal.