Dortmund, Germany - Paragua

Hanover, Germany - Subcontractors and parts suppliers in Germany warned Monday that they might have to shed as many as 100,000 of their collective workforce if the recession persists.

The sector, which supplies parts to bigger industry, currently employs about 1 million people.

Theodor L. Tutmann, spokesman for the Supplier Working Party, representing 8,000 companies, said at the Hanover Fair, a major industry expo which began in Germany Monday, that the scale of layoffs depended on how long the recession continued.

Hamburg - The Toyota and BMW-Sauber Formula One teams are looking to challenge at the front of the grid in this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix in Sakhir after mixed starts to a so far unpredictable 2009 season.

Both teams will be hoping to leave the rain in Malaysia and China behind them and instead take on the challenge of heat and dust in the Arab Emirate.

Berlin - Germany plans to create a so-called bad bank by July to help rid the nation's banks of troubled assets and rebuild confidence in the financial sector, the government announced Monday.

Coming in the wake of banking industry pressure, Berlin is set to unveil further details of its proposals to allow the banks to remove so-called toxic assets from their balance sheets at a meeting Tuesday of industry and government leaders, which is to be chaired by Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Hanover, Germany - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was picking up signs of hope Monday as she toured booths at the Hanover Fair, a trade show for the world engineering and machinery industry.

"Perhaps the Hanover Fair is a tiny sign that it is bottoming out," said Merkel in reference to the worldwide recession.

VDMA, Germany's federation of machinery makers, said Monday that world sales of machinery were likely to decline 10 per cent this year.

Berlin - The German Central Council of Jews welcomed on Monday Germany's boycott of a United Nations conference on racism.

The Vice President of the Central Council of Jews, Dieter Graumann, said Germany's decision was a "courageous step".

At the same time, German Human Rights commissioner Guenter Nooke defended the German boycott.