Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel offered Tuesday to help Kazakhstan diversify its economy and ensure it does not suffer too much from the fallout of the global economic crisis.

"Close economic relations need to be expanded," the chancellor told a news conference after talks in Berlin with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Nazarbayev said his energy-rich country was interested in deepening its relations with Germany and was in need of new technology and know-how from Europe.

Munich - German Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich on Tuesday announced that midfielder Alexander Baumjohann will be joining them for next season.

The 22-year-old joins the former Champions League winners on a free transfer from Borussia Moenchengladbach. He signed a three-year contract.

"I believe I can make it in Munich, otherwise I would not have accepted the offer. I will receive a chance and then it is up to me to use it," said Baumjohann, who has played
18 Bundesliga games for Schalke 04 and Moenchengladbach.

Berlin - Catholic bishops in Germany attacked the Vatican Tuesday over the re-admission to the church of an ultra- traditionalist who denies evidence of the Holocaust, with one German cardinal demanding "a high-level apology."

Last week, German-born Pope Benedict XVI ended the 21-year excommunication of Argentina-based Richard Williamson and three other bishops to heal a schism with the 600,000-strong Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX).

Dusseldorf - German police Tuesda

Hamburg - Two biathletes tested positive for doping subst

Munich - A strike over pay crippled public transport in Munich and seven other cities in the southern German state of Bavaria on Tuesday, union officials said.

Up to 900 workers walked off their jobs at the start of the early shift, affecting subway, tram and bus services, a spokesman for the service union Verdi said.

In Munich, public transport authorities operated a skeleton service of 200 buses provided by private operators as subway stations remained closed throughout the morning.