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Berlin - Germany criticized Kosovo Monday for detaining three of its intelligence agents for more than a week, but said it was not planning to cut back aid to the tiny Balkan state.

Deputy government spokesman Thomas Steg said in Berlin that Germany had an interest in stability in both the region and in Kosovo and was not considering "reducing aid in reprisal."

But he added, "It is common to review aid after a certain period."

Koblenz, Germany - A Pakistan-born man who is accused of raising funds for al-Qaeda remained silent Monday at the start of his trial in Germany.

Prosecutors told the trial in the western city of Koblenz that he had visited a terrorist camp.

The defendant, 46, claimed to police his four trips to the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan between April 2005 and June 2007 had been purely connected to his work as a gem merchant.

He was accused of being a member of a terrorist organization, sending it funds and supplies. The trial is expected to last into next year.

Hamburg - In the Ruhr area city of Gelsenkirchen, they've been waiting 50 years. In Berlin, it's been even longer.

Passions run high in the former, one of the traditional heartlands of German football, where a pall of gloom hangs over Schalke 04 after what is turning out to be a disappointing Bundesliga season.

Another disappointing season, one could say, for despite huge ambitions - and a huge outlay on new players - Schalke's last league title was in 1958, before the Bundesliga was formed in 1962.

Berlin - German retail sales plunged in October, data released Monday showed, as t

Munich - Hard-hit by the global financial crisis, German state-owned bank Bayerische Landesbank is planning to axe about every fourth job as it launches a new restructuring drive, banking industry sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Monday.

The 5,600 job cuts in its workforce of 19,000 are to fall both in the Munich-based BayernLB's domestic and international operations.

The ailing bank said in October that was tapping the Federal Government's special 500-billion-euro (645-billion-dollar) bank rescue package to help it limp through the financial crisis. The bank is half-owned by the Bavarian state government.