Stuttgart  - Fears of dangerous mosquitoes from Italy spreading across the Alps and fanning out to spread fatal disease are overstated, a leading academic entomologist said Tuesday.

The Asian tiger mosquito, scientific name Aedes albopictus, has become widespread in the Tuscany region and other parts of Italy since the 1990s and has been sighted in Germany. Striking in daytime, it bites rapidly before it can be swatted.

Claus Zebitz, entomologist at Hohenheim University in Stuttgart, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, "Even if it can spread dengue fever, which is dangerous and common in Africa, the risk in this country is very limited.

Berlin - The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) called on industrial natio

Berlin  - Helmut Kohl, 78, the former German chancellor, has married his female companion, Ma

Frankfurt  - Institutional investors were offered options Tuesday on government-owned shares in Deutsche Telekom, the telecommunications giant which remains one-third controlled by the German feder

Frankfurt  - A German civil-defence team was flying Tuesday to Myanmar to assess sites for water-purification plants in the disaster area after Cyclone Nargis, the THW agency said in Frankfurt.

Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel