Berlin - The European Central Bank (ECB) is likely to face growing pressure for further rate cuts after data released Thursday showed unemployment in the
16-member eurozone rising and inflation remaining at low levels.

While the European Union's statistics office said in a preliminary report that inflation in the eurozone came in at 0.6 per cent in April, it also released data showing unemployment ticking up to 8.9 per cent in March as the global recession hits the currency bloc's

labour market.

Berli

Berlin - German unemployment edged up again in April, official data released Thursday is forecast to show, amid expectations that the nation faces a surge in the numbers out of work as global recession hits the jobs market in Europe's biggest economy.

Analysts expect the Federal Labour Agency will say seasonally adjusted unemployment, which reflects overall trends in the job market, climbed by another 60,000 this month after rising 69,000 in March.

Berlin  - A group of ten former African presidents agreed Wednesday to a communique calling for land reform, at an event in Berlin marking 125 years since Europe's colonial powers set off the "scramble for Africa".

Former presidents of Tanzania, Ghana, Cape Verde, Mauritius, Benin and Botswana signed the statement at the end of a two-day conference at Berlin's Humboldt University, more than a century after Africa had been carved up at a meeting convened by then-chancellor Otto von Bismarck in 1884.

Berlin - Britain's Prince Charles watched a football match between different religious groups at the start of a two-day visit to the German capital on Wednesday.

The heir to the British throne was accompanied by his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, when he attended the game in Berlin's multicultural district of Kreuzberg.

Hundreds of schoolchildren waving homemade British and Turkish flags welcomed the royal couple as they arrived at the stadium where an integration project "Strength without Violence" was also held.

Berlin - Around 10,000 dairy farmers in three German cities protested Wednesday about the collapse of milk prices to around 0.20 euros (26 cents) per litre.

"We are standing with our backs to the wall," said Romuald Schaber, chairman of the Federation of German Dairy Farmers (BDM), at a rally in the northern city of Hanover.

Dairy farmers are seeking a two-fold increase in the amount they are paid for their milk as well as a retention of milk quotas due to disappear under European Union regulations in 2015.