Berlin  - When toy manufacturers unveil the new playthings of 2010 this week at the Nuremberg Toy Fair in Germany, many will be silently praying that the industry will be recession-proof.

"People reduce all sorts of other expenses before they cut spending on their children," observes Otto Umbach, chief buyer for a cooperative of German toyshops, Idee und Spiel, before the event.

Berlin  - An action thriller about the dark and often crooked world of global banking opens the Berlin Film Festival on Thursday.

German director Tom Twyker's The International stars Clive Owen as an Interpol agent and Naomi Watts as a New York attorney who go after the world's biggest bank to try to expose the dirty business it runs in financing wars and terror.

"Anyone who has moved against this bank has ended up dead", warns Owen's character a short way into the movie.

Washington  - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is to hold her first two meetings with counterparts since taking office on Tuesday, meeting with Britain's David Miliband and Germany's Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Iran and Afghanistan would likely top the agenda, as Clinton first meets with Miliband followed by her lunch with Steinmeier, US State Department officials said.

"I expect these will be very, very substantive meetings," said State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood.

Stuttgart  - World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko predicted Monday he would knock out Cuban Juan Carlos Gomez in a mandatory bout in Stuttgart in March.

"You're difficult to send to the floor but I'll manage it," the 37-year-old Ukrainian told his challenger in Stuttgart.

"You talk too much," Gomez countered at a news conference ahead of the March 21 bout at the Hans-Martin-Schleyer hall.

Zirndorf, Germany  - Hans Beck, who invented the Playmobil dolls and matching model cars collected by millions of children, has died at the age of 79, the German manufacturing company which employed him said Monday.

Playmobil men and women, which are 7.5 centimetres tall and have moveable arms and legs, have developed over the years into a complete fantasy world with police stations, trains, boats and castles.

Gelsenkirchen, Germany  - Schalke 04 Monday sold midfielder Fabian Ernst to Turkish side Besiktas but denied striker Kevin Kuranyi was for sale.

Ernst, 29, who won 24 caps for Germany between 2002 and 2006, moves immediately for an unconfirmed fee of 4.5 million euros.

The Bundesliga club confirmed unsettled midfielder Albert Streit was joining SV Hamburg on loan but denied it wanted to sell former Germany international Kuranyi.