Hanover, Germany - Paul McCartney has been a vegetarian for years. The same applies to French actress and animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot.

Go back in history and the list of famous vegetarians grows even longer and includes St Francis of Assisi and Roman author Lucius Annaeus Seneca.

A recent survey in Germany found that 6 million people in the country do not eat meat. People who decide to join their ranks quickly find a large variety of items as alternatives to animal-based products.

Indian pharmaceutical major Lupin Limited has acquired Hormosan Pharma, a German Sales and Marketing firm for an undisclosed amount.

Bamberg, Germany  - A 63-year-old senior priest in Germany's Catholic archdiocese of Bamberg resigned Wednesday after four men said he had fondled them as boys when they were attending a Catholic boarding school.

The priest headed the diocesan department for pastoral personnel and was on the cathedral council in the Bavarian archdiocese.

Michael Kleiner, deputy spokesman for Archbishop Ludwig Schick, said it was unclear as yet how grave the allegations were.

Jerusalem - German public broadcaster ARD on Wednesday closed its office in the Gaza Strip in protest against the detention of one of its cameramen by Hamas five days earlier, while Israel's Foreign Press Association again called for his release.

Sawaf Abu Saif was arrested in a crackdown by the radical Islamic Palestinian movement on its rivals, including the moderate Fatah party of President Mahmoud Abbas.

Berlin - Germany Wednesday welcomed Russian moves to begin withdrawing troops from the breakaway Georgian province of Abkhazia.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Jens Ploetner said the move was an "urgently necessary contribution to reducing tension" in the region.

He expressed the hope that further substantive measures would be taken by both sides to reduce tension further.

Ploetner said Germany was closely involved in attempts to arrange high-level talks between the conflicting parties.

Passau, Germany - German officials said Wednesday they had dug up a neo-Nazi's grave to remove a swastika flag which was draped over the coffin.

The Nazi-style burial of Friedhelm Busse on Saturday at Passau, south-eastern Germany ended in violence at the cemetery and a mid-town rampage where neo-Nazis punched a Mongolian woman in the face.

Police detained a right-winger after he slipped the swastika flag out from under his jacket and placed it at the last moment on the casket of Busse, last leader of the Free German Labour Party which was outlawed in 1995.

The display of swastikas and advocating Nazi doctrines are crimes in Germany.