Berlin - Europe factory orders slumped sharply in May, data released Wednesday showed, led by falling demand for electronic equipment and manufacturing goods.

Berlin - German pilots union Cockpit expressed satisfaction Wednesday with a strike targeting Lufthansa subsidiaries CityLine and Eurowings as it entered its second and last day.

Hamburg - Within a decade, most new cars will be equipped with clean-drive technology and a host of easy to serve technical gadgets that will make driving much more comfortable and safer than today.

Engineers are currently working on several technologies that were still fiction in the 1980s American television series Knight Rider in which David Hasselhoff is partnered by an autonomous car called KITT with artificial intelligence.

Berlin - A pilots' union in Germany called a sudden strike Tuesday to disrupt the air-passenger operations of two Lufthansa domestic subsidiaries and back up demands for a big hike in pay.

There was only two hours of warning that many flights by the Eurowings and CityLine units of Lufthansa, which operate short-haul connections within Germany and to nearby nations, would be grounded for 36 hours from noon till midnight Wednesday.

The union, Vereinigung Cockpit, represents pilots and flight-deck engineers. Some flights were expected to continue, since the union does not represent all the pilots employed at the two lines.

Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed Tuesday the arrest of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, calling it "good news for the entire Balkans."

Herzogenaurach, Germany  - Privately owned German ball- bearing manufacturer Schaeffler increased Monday its unsolicited takeover offer for its larger listed competitor Continental to 70.12 euros per share.

Schaeffler, controlled by widow Maria-Elisabeth Schaeffler, 66, and her son, stunned Germany a week ago with the bid for brake and tyremaker Continental and plans to combine the two auto-industry suppliers.