Frankfurt  - German publishing house Deutsche Fachverlag (dfv) has acquired a 26-per-cent stake in Indian publishing group Images Multimedia, a spokesman for dfv has announced.

"The Indian market is still at the beginning of its development, and offers great growth opportunities," said Rolf Griesbach, spokesman for dfv's management in Frankfurt on Tuesday.

The Delhi-based firm owns nine trade journals, and specializes in fashion and consumer titles, employing some 140 staff. The company's revenues for the 2007-2008 financial year totalled 6.1 million euros.

Munich - The German business community's mood showed a surprisingly sharp downturn in August, the Ifo-Institut for economic research in Munich reported Tuesday.

Berlin - German economic confidence slipped again, two key surveys to be released Tuesday are forecast to show, amid worries about the outlook for Europe's biggest economy.

While analysts predict Germany's closely watched Ifo business confidence index edged down to 97.2 points in August from 97.8 points in July, consumer sentiment in the country also fell back again.

Johannesburg  - German shipbuilding giant MAN Ferrostaal warned that the allegations of bribery levelled at it by a South African newspaper in connection with a multi-billion-dollar state arms deal could "endanger the creation of thousands of jobs" by scaring off partners in an offset project.

Vienna - Four mountaineers missing after an avalanche on the Mont Blanc massif in France are possibly Germans, an Austrian Foreign Ministry spokesman said Monday.

French authorities presume that eight alpinists were killed by an ice avalanche on Mont Blanc du Tacul on Sunday. Three have been identified as Swiss, and one as Austrian mountain guide Stefan E.

Four more missing mountaineers were initially believed to be Austrians, but they were probably Germans, Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, spokesman of the Austrian foreign ministry, told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa.

Stockholm - Strained relations with Moscow over the recent conflict in Georgia will not affect the construction of a gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea to provide Russian gas directly to Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday.

Speaking during a visit to Stockholm for talks with Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, Merkel said the approval process would be carried out in all the countries affected and brought to a conclusion.

"The pipeline is a strategic European project," Merkel said.