Frankfurt  - Volkswagen's banking unit said it was cleared Wednesday to receive 2 billion euros (2.6 billion dollars) in guarantees from Germany's bank bailout fund, Soffin.

The finance unit, which lends to people who buy Volkswagen Group cars, but also operates as an online bank, is the first car company bank to receive backing from the fund. No immediate comment could be obtained from Soffin in Frankfurt.

Frankfurt - Giant German carmaker Daimler AG reported Tuesday a dramatic slump in earnings amid reports the maker of luxury Mercedes-Benz vehicles is considering forging closer co-operation with arch rival BMW AG.

Stuttgart-based Daimler said its 2008 profit before interest and tax fell from 8.7 billion euros (11 billion dollars) in 2007 to 2.4 billion euros last year and predicted a tough year ahead as the global car sector faces up to the fallout from the world economic downturn.

Frankfurt, Germany  - A few years ago, customers shied away from digital photo frames. Nowadays, they are the centre pieces of slide shows often with accompanying, background music.

But then, some people are already using the frame as an alarm clock or a digital photo album.

Digital photo frames first hit the market in 2007. It took them a few years to achieve widespread popularity, but now the digital multi-taskers are flying off shelves, said Constanze Clauss, a spokeswoman for the German Photo Industry Association in Frankfurt.

Frankfurt  - Accenting the steep fall in the world economy, orders taken by the German heavy machinery industry sagged 40 per cent in year-on-year terms in December, the VDMA trade association said Tuesday in Frankfurt.

In real terms, orders from German customers fell 39 per cent while non-German orders fell by 41 per cent compared to December 2007. In November, the year-on-year decline had been 30 per cent.

The VDMA represents engineering companies that install plant and heavy machines and compiles the data from members' reports.

Frankfurt  - An online

Frankfurt  - Wanted Nazi war criminal Aribert Heim is long dead, Germany's ZDF television channel reported Wednesday, citing information it discovered together with the New York Times.

The former concentration camp doctor died of cancer in the Egyptian capital Cairo on August 10, 1992, research by the two media outlets showed.

Heim, known as Dr Death, was thought to have been living in South America.