Berlin - Germany completed Tuesday the demolition of a communist-era building that doubled as a house of parliament and palace of culture, clearing the site for a replica of the earlier Berlin royal palace.

Last week, a design for the old-new palace, to be named the Humboldt Forum, was picked, but building work at the centre-city site will not start for another two years.

Completing two years of work, diggers ripped down a staircase of the Palace of the Republic, which was once a 180-metre-long building lined with the lethal asbestos insulation and clad with copper- colour glass.

Frankfurt - VfL Wolfsburg coach Felix Magath is on a collision course with German football authorities after saying he would not accept a 10,000-euro (12,700 dollars) fine for insulting a referee.

The German football federation DFB reacted angrily Tuesday after Magath criticized the fine imposed last Friday by its control panel and said he would be appealing.

DFB vice-president Rainer Koch said Magath had "trivialized" an insulting comment to a referee and was "stirring up opinion" against match officials.

Berlin - German police pathologists are close to identifying the remaining two of the three Germans killed in last week's Mumbai attacks, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Tuesday.

India has already said three died, but Germany normally declines to say someone has died in a disaster until it has unquestionable proof.

Ralph Burkei, a Munich television executive, died from injuries he suffered in a fall as he attempted to escape down the facade of the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.

Hamburg - Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, the choreographer, has won

Berlin - The UN Security Council is close to passing a new resolution that authorizes a European Union fleet to fight piracy, according to German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Tuesday.

The EU operation, using seven warships that mostly already patrol near the Gulf of Aden, is scheduled to form up on December 8 to protect merchant ships from pirates on the Somali coast.

Answering questions from Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Steinmeier said he welcomed the progress in Security Council consultations on a new resolution. Last week the United States demanded changes.

Hamburg - Mercedes and BMW have both come out strongly in support of Germany continuing to host a Formula One grand prix in the wake of reports at the weekend that the country could be without a F1 race in 2010 for financial reasons.

Hockenheim GmbH, the cash-strapped company that runs the Hockenheim circuit, is considering withdrawing from the 2010 German Grand Prix and officials from the Nuerburgring have already said they would be unable to stage the event, which would leave the country without a F1 race for the first time in nearly half a century.