Washington  - US Vice President Joe Biden will attend an annual conference on security

Berlin  - German police are checking yet another Islamist video found on the internet in which a terrorist threatens an attack on Germany, ARD television news reported Tuesday.

The video appeared to have been made about a week ago by the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU), a shadowy group based in Pakistan or Afghanistan that some see as effectively taking the place of al-Qaeda as a principal threat to the West.

Berlin  - Scientists began strewing iron powder on hundreds of square kilometres of Antarctic ocean Tuesday in a momentous experiment that may yield a solution to the global warming crisis.

Some environmentalists have opposed the work of Indian and German scientists aboard the Polarstern, a German research icebreaker, but Berlin ruled Monday the project is safe and breaks no laws.

The Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) based in the German port of Bremerhaven said a radio buoy was released on the water and ferrous sulphate powder was mixed with seawater in two tanks on the vessel, then broadcast on the ocean.

Berlin - With the global economy in the grip of severe slowdown, a leading German banker warned Tuesday that parts of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) could face a major shakeout in their economies and banking systems.

"The economic crisis threatens to broaden out and engulf nations such as Ukraine," Juergen Fitschen, who called on the European Union (EU) and other key international groups to step up efforts to help shield more economically fragile parts of the CEE from the financial firestorm currently sweeping the world economy.

The 74-year old, who has served as a judge of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) since 2000, had been invited by several Dutch Holocaust organizations to deliver the annual Auschwitz Never Again lecture.

The lecture is traditionally held on the anniversary of Auschwitz's liberation on January 27, 1944.

Berlin - German state television on Tuesday threatened to reduce its broadcasts from less popular Olympic sports in-between Games if the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is snubbed for the television rights for the 2014 and 2016 Olympics.

The EBU, and through it the German networks ARD and ZDF, has broadcast the Olympics since 1956.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recently dismissed an EBU offer for 2014 Winter and 2016 Summer Games, aiming to generate more income by selling the rights in each country which could involve private networks.