Berlin - Watch out for geo-tagging. A previously nerdy hobby that aims to map and describe every spot on the Planet Earth may be about to go mainstream, thanks to a rash of new, easy-to-use gadgets.

All the devices use the Global Positioning System (GPS), the network of orbiting satellites which issue signals that are currently best known for guiding satellite navigation (sat-nav) devices in cars.

GPS can also be used to calculate the exact latitude and longitude of a place - a "point of interest" in geo-tagging jargon - or of a route, which simply consists of a series of fixes known as "waypoints."

Beijing - German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck on Monday said the purchase of Dresdner Bank by Commerzbank, in the face of competition from a Chinese bank, would be "good for Germany."

"This is good for Germany as a financial location and strengthens the financial centre," Steinbrueck said in a statement issued in Beijing, where he met top Chinese officials on Monday.

Deputy Finance Minister Joerg Asmussen said his government had used "no political influence" over the sale by Germany's Allianz of Dresdner Bank for 9.8 billion euros

Kabul- A suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vehicle near a convoy of NATO-led German soldiers in northern Afghanistan on Monday, killing himself and a civilian, but causing no casualties among the soldiers, police said.

The bomber detonated the explosives before reaching a convoy of German soldiers on the Shirkhan Bandar road, north of Kunduz city, in the province of the same name, on Monday morning, Abdul Rahman Aqtash, security chief of the provincial police department, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Berlin - The Federation of German Industries (BDI) said Monday it was opposed to sanctions being imposed on Russia over the conflict in Georgia and called for dialogue rather than confrontation.

The BDI issued its call as European Union (EU) leaders prepared to hold an extraordinary summit in Brussels to discuss the bloc's response to the crisis in the Southern Caucasus.

Proposals to put Russia under pressure through sanctions or to halt World Trade Organization (WTO) accession talks or partnership with the European Union (EU) "lead in the wrong direction," BDI President Juergen Thumann said.

"We would all lose if this were to happen," Thumann said.

Berlin - German retail sales fell for the second consecutive month in July falling by a bigger-than-forecast 1.5 per cent amid concerns about high inflation and deepening economic uncertainty, data released Monday showed.

Analysts had expected monthly seasonally adjusted retail sales data, which was drawn up by the nation's statistics office, to drop by a more modest 0.3 per cent in July. On a yearly basis, retail sales in Europe's biggest economy were unchanged.

The July fall in retail sales was despite a continuing improvement in the German labour market.