Berlin - Airbus SAS is considering an extended 1,000-passenger version of the A380 aircraft, Louis Gallois, chief executive of Airbus's parent company, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) NV, told a German newspaper in an interview to be published Friday.

The airlines, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Air France-KLM SA, were both interested in the extended version of the A380, Gallois told the Dresden-based Saechsische Zeitung.

Frankfurt  - Germany's Commerzbank AG and insurer Allianz SE said Thursday their boards are to meet Sunday amid mounting speculation of a merger between two of the nation's leading banks.

While an Allianz spokesman declined to comment on what the insurer's board members will discuss, the meeting in Munich is widely expected to agree to selling off its troubled banking offshoot Dresdner to Commerzbank for up to 9 billion euros (13.3 billion dollars).

Berlin  - This year's most exciting new electrical gadgets surface on Friday at the IFA consumer-electronics fair in the German capital Berlin.

An annual parade of flat-screen televisions, sleek digital cameras and mobile phones with all the extras, this year's IFA has been expanded to include home appliances such as dishwashers and stoves.

That reflects the fact that many electrical retailers - the main target of the show - sell both types of product. Many big electrical conglomerates, who pay for the show, make both sorts of device too.

Berlin - German marriages are lasting longer and the number of divorces is falling, but the proportion of marriages ending in a split is still around a third, according to official figures released Thursday.

The average marriage now lasts 13.9 years, on the basis of 2007 data, up from 13.7 years in 2006 and considerably longer than the 11.5 years recorded in 1990.

The number of divorces has been falling slowly but steadily for the past three years, reaching 187,072 in 2007. In 2003, there were 214,000 divorces.

The statistics are skewed, however, by the fact that fewer marriages are being contracted - 368,922 in 2007. Over the past 15 years, the number of marriages has fallen a full
20 per cent.

Berlin  - The former chief of the German building giant Hochtief AG, Hans Peter Keitel, is to become the new president of the nation's influential federation of industry (BDI), the association anno

Berlin - Air Berlin plc Thursday posted a reduced loss in the first half of the year on increased turnover and higher passenger numbers.

The loss before interest and tax (EBIT) at Germany's second- largest airline after Lufthansa came in at 53.9 million euros (80 million dollars), from a loss of 66.3 million euros in the first half last year.

The net loss at the airline, with its subsidiaries LTU and Belair, was 50.8 million euros, compared with red-ink of 60.4 million in 2007.

The company's share rose almost 4 per cent on the news to trade at around 4.00 euros at mid-morning.