Meiningen, Germany  - In the southern part of the German state of Thuringia, between the Rhoen Mountains and Thuringian Forest, lies a mecca for lovers of old-time trains: the Meiningen Steam Locomotive Works.

Dozens of visitors arrive on the first and third Saturdays every month to admire the last of these old iron horses that still run, and to examine their exposed innards. In the small city of Meiningen, the engines undergo safety inspections to ensure that their boilers, pistons, and other component parts are in good working order.

Berlin  - Graphic scenes of young people in drunken incidents form the backbone of a campaign launched in Germany to raise awareness of the negative consequences of heavy drinking.

They include a young man covered in vomit after a night out, a club- goer who has soiled his trousers after excessive alcohol consumption and a teenage football fan beaten up in a drunken brawl.

The images decorate 1.5 million beermats and are also available for viewing as video spots on websites frequented by young people.

The campaign, bearing the slogan: Don't drink too much - Stay Gold, was initiated by police after statistics showed an alarming rise in binge drinking.

Berlin - Germany increased Monday its humanitarian aid for Zimbabweans, giving 1 million euros (1.3 million dollars) to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to supply hospitals.

Stuttgart - Daimler AG has put thousands of workers at its biggest car plant on short time in a bid to offset a dramatic slump in sales, the head of the employees' council said Monday.

Eric Klemm said two-thirds of the 30,000 employees at the Sindelfingen plant in southern Germany would be affected by the move, which is due to last from January 12 until March 31 in 2009.

Discussions on working hours with employees at other Daimler plants in Germany are also taking place, he said.

Hamburg - Bayern Munich have joined the list of clubs interested in signing SV Hamburg's Croatia striker Ivica Olic, according to a report to appear in Germany's Bild newspaper.

The German champions have made a firm offer for the player who has also been linked in various media reports with moves to Juventus, Valencia, Villareal and Liverpool, Bild reports.

The mass-circulation daily, in its edition to appear Tuesday, quotes Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge as saying Olic would make a perfect partner for strikers Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose.

Berlin - The marathons at the 2009 world athletics championships will pass Germany's parliament, the Reichstag, with the start and finish as planned at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, organizers said on Monday.

It will be the first time in world championship history that the marathon races don't end in the stadium used for the other competition.

The walks will also start and finish at the Brandenburg Gate, with a two-kilometres course for walkers to be set up on the Unter den Linden avenue.