Karlsruhe, Germany - Taking a tough line on the bribery scandal that has shaken conglomerate Siemens, Germany's top appeal court ruled Friday that it was a crime to set up a slush fund.

It instructed a lower court to hear anew a case against two executives who misappropriated corporate money to bribe managers at Italian electricity company Enel into buying Siemens power equipment.

The ruling was part of the German legal system's toughening stance towards corporate corruption and may lead to harsher sentences on the two men. The trial court had believed it was a crime to pay a bribe, but not to set aside the money in corporate coffers to do so.

Cologne, Germany  - One of Germany's main Islamic groups voiced relief Friday after winning planning clearance to build a controversial new mosque expected become a landmark in the western city of Cologne.

Right-of-centre German groups had campaigned against the mosque, which will have a dome reaching 37 metres high and two 55-metre minarets. They charged that it would bring a "foreign" touch to a city skyline dominated by Cologne's 11th-century Catholic cathedral.

Ditib, a foundation funded by Ankara to build mosques for Turkish- speaking Moslems, said Friday it would build the mosque as a "symbol of co-existence in peace and trust and without fear" and open it as a place of communication with non-Muslims.

London, August 29: Despite being condemned by Pope Benedict, a sculpture of a crucified frog displayed in the inaugural exhibition of the Bolzano’s new modern art museum will continue to be exhibited.

The decision has been taken by the museum’s governing committed “by a clear majority”.

The sculpture was made by late German artist Martin Kippenberger. It features a lurid green frog nailed to a cross with its tongue hanging out, but holding a foaming tankard of beer in one hand and an egg in the other.

Berlin - Flat-panel televisions were the dominant product at the opening to the public Friday of the IFA fair, an annual consumer-electronics extravaganza in the German capital Berlin.

Ticket booths and turnstiles matched the pace of arrivals of trade buyers from around Europe and gadget lovers streaming into the fairgrounds during the morning.

The event this year features 1,245 manufacturers of screens, cameras, phones and sat-navs from 63 nations.

Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia are among countries represented for the first time at the event, which has been expanded this year to include home appliances such as washing machines for the first time.

Berlin - Russia's actions in Georgia earlier this month had destroyed the order in Europe established after World War II, President Mikheil Saakashvili told German public radio Friday.

The Georgian president warned that Russia would be emboldened by its military success. "They are not going to stop here," he said in an interview with Deutschlandfunk.

"What Russia has done undermines and destroys the whole post-Cold War, post-Second World War European order," he said.

It was the first time since then that a European power had sought to annex territory in a neighbouring country.

Hamburg - At the western tip of Hamburg's harbour redevelopment, the dramatic design of the new Elbe Philharmonic Hall emerges slowly from the mists.

Expected to be completed in two years, it will bring to the northern German port not only a new concert hall, but also a 110-metre landmark visible to approaching ships from way down river.

The designers are Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, whose portfolio includes the Tate Modern in London, the Allianz Arena in Munich and the de Young Museum in San Francisco.