Berlin - European economic confidence recorded its biggest fall since the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, a key survey released Wednesday said as concerns set in about the economic out

Frankfurt - Germany's Postbank AG reported Wednesday a 21 per cent drop in second-quarter earnings on the back of writedowns stemming from the global financial crisis.

Net income dropped to 119 million euros (186 million dollars) from 151 million euros a year ago after Postbank booked write downs totalling 143 million euros.

Postbank's parent, the German mail and logistics group Deutsche Post AG, is considering selling off the group later this year amid speculation that it could eventually form part of a new financial powerhouse in Germany.

Berlin - German chemicals and pharmaceuticals concern Bayer Wednesday raised its forecast for sales over 2008, following an unexpectedly strong second quarter in which the Crop Science division performed strongly.

"The successful first half of 2008 has strengthened our confidence for the full year," company chairman Werner Wenning said. "We now plan to increase group sales by more than 5 per cent on a currency- and portfolio-adjusted basis."

The company had previously set 5 per cent as the target.

"We are particularly pleased at the strong performance of Bayer Crop Science and are again raising our full-year guidance for this subgroup," Wenning said.

Munich - Germany's biggest engineering group Siemens AG confirmed Wednesday its business year outlook after reporting a surge in both orders and sales in the company's fiscal third quarter.

The Munich-based group said that new orders jumped by 21 per cent to 23.7 billion euros (37.29 billion) with sales rising by 10 per cent to 19.18 billion euros.

Singapore - A German firm has opened a plant on Singapore's Jurong Island to provide oil additives to the Asia-Pacific region, company officials said Wednesday.

The plant, operated by Evonik RohMax Asia-Pacific, is the local subsidiary of Evonik RohMax Additives GmbH.

"We can expand capacity quickly when the need arises and market demand grows," general manager Bonnie Tully said.

The plant, which opened Tuesday, includes a production unit, laboratory and logistics unit.

Berlin - The German airline Lufthansa AG cancelled long-haul flights Wednesday for the first time as a pay strike by ground and cabin staff entered its third day.

The services union Verdi said about 5,000 workers had joined the strike Monday and Tuesday, causing the cancellation on Tuesday of 70 domestic and European flights.

Lufthansa said it expected eight long-haul flights to be cancelled Wednesday. In addition, 70 shorter flights would not take off because the required aircraft had not received necessary maintenance, it said.

Nine of the airline's fleet of 520 aircraft are out of action.