Munich - Hypo Real Estate (HRE), the German finance company which nearly collapsed last month, applied Wednesday for additional equity funds from the German government's new bail-out plan.

Germany's first big casualty of the current crisis, HRE won 50 billion euros in guarantees earlier this month from the government and German banks.

It said at its head office in Munich it had now applied for a cash injection of 15 billion euros (19 billion dollars) from new federal fund.

It is the first German commercial bank to see help from Soffin, a new government agency created by parliament on October 17.

Previously, three state-owned banks had said they would seek help from Soffin.

New Delhi, Oct 29 : The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Chief Ministerial candidate for Delhi, V K Malhotra has alleged that a number of "scandals” had taken place during the Congress rule in the national capital and said these needed to be probed.

Malhotra, who is the deputy Leader of BJP in the Lok Sabha, said that during campaigning the BJP would highlight these "scams" and "failures" of the Shiela Dikshit Government, besides raising the issue of terrorism for the November 29 elections.

However, he ruled out any witch-hunting.

Malhotra identified the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) corridor project in Delhi as one of the cases requiring inquiry and promised to review the scheme.

Khajuraho (Madhya Pradesh), Oct. 29 : Visiting the world famous Khajuraho temples in Madhya Pradesh is a charm not many people around the world can avoid.

One of the most popular tourist destinations in India, Khajuraho has the largest group of medieval Hindu and Jain temples, famous for their erotic sculpture.

But over the years, a number of unlicensed and rogue tourist guides, locally referred as ‘Lapkas’ in Khajuraho, have affected the temples’ fascination among tourists.

These individuals are today looked upon as a major nuisance and have become a reason of tourists’ disappointment here.

Moscow - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said his personal savings were safe in the bank and held himself up as the example to follow in an interview published Wednesday to sooth growing distrust among his countrymen.

"I have kept all of my bank accounts. I did not withdraw any money and I did not transfer my rubles to dollars," Medvedev answered a reader's question in the Russian daily Argumenty i Fakty.

"I am sure that my savings, just like the savings of all other Russians, are not under threat," he added.

In January election campaign disclosures, Medvedev, the former chairman of Russia's largest firm, energy giant Gazprom, had 2.74 million rubles (100,000 dollars) deposited in eight bank accounts.

Male, Oct 29 : Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Asia''s longest serving leader and a campaigner against rising sea levels on Wednesday lost power to a former political prisoner Mohammed Nasheed in the first-ever democratic presidential polls in the island nation.

President Gayoom, 71, won the first round this month, but failed to secure the 50 per cent needed for outright victory

Nasheed of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) had won 54.25 per cent of the votes cast in on Tuesday''s presidential run-off as against 45.75 per cent by Gayoom, election officials said.

Warsaw - Poland marked the end of its mission in Iraq with a ceremony on Wednesday to welcome the last returning contingent of soldiers in the northwestern city of Szczecin.

Some 100 Polish soldiers landed Tuesday morning at a nearby airport, marking the end of the country's five-year mission.

"There is no good war," Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at the ceremony. "War always brings evil, blood, suffering and casualties, but the sacrifices of a soldier for his country has the deepest meaning."

Tusk said the mission served Poland's defence, and that the soldiers left Iraq safer than it was five years ago. Tusk had promised a quick withdrawal during his election campaign.