Berlin - Executive pay would become more transparent under tough new rules adopted Wednesday by German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet.

The plans include steps to extend from two to four year the period after which managers can exercise their stock options. Such options often form part of executive remuneration.

This is intended to motivate executives to work for a company's long-term interests instead of concentrating on short-term results.

The cabinet rules call for executive pay to be in reasonable proportion to performance and to other salaries paid in the branch.

The rules also allow for boards to reduce executive pay retroactively if a company's financial situation deteriorates.

Berlin - Corporate Germany stepped up moves Wednesday to place employees on short-term working contracts as the global recession tightens its grip on Europe's biggest economy.

While giant German carmaker Daimler AG reduced the hours of another 18,000 workers, chipmaker Infineon AG said it was placing a further 4,000 workers on shorter hours at its plant in Munich and in other parts of the country.

Berlin - A Munich court on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant John Demjanjuk, 88, who is accused of being the brutal Ivan the Terrible guard at a Nazi death camp.

Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel dismissed criticism of her style of leadership on Wednesday and called for unity among her conservative Christian Democrat (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU) alliance.

At times of crisis, the people wanted her and the CDU-CSU to get on with the job, Merkel said in an interview with the mass- circulation Bild newspaper six months before general elections.

Berlin - German factory orders plunged by a dramatic 8 per cent in January, the nation's Economics and Technology Ministry said Wednesday, underscoring the stricken state of Europe's biggest economy at the start of the new year.

The seasonally adjusted fall in the nation's key industrial orders was far worse than the 2.2 per cent drop that analysts had forecast and followed the release of figures Tuesday showing a massive 20.7- per-cent year-on-year slump in German exports in January.

Berlin  - A firebomb erupted beneath the car of a high- ranking employee involved with the expansion of Frankfurt's airport Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, police announced Wednesday.

Two fire accelerants were found under the company car, which reportedly belongs to the Fraport project manager in charge of the airport's enlargement programme, the police said.

Investigators say there may be a political motive behind the attack, in light of previous opposition to the airport development, managed by Fraport.