Hamburg - The carnival season is underway in Cologne and many locals would like to see it capped by the return of their football prince Lukas Podolski.

Plenty of revellers dressed in Podolski's Germany jersey with the number 20 and even mayor Fritz Schramma got involved once the carnival action started at 11:11 local time on Tuesday.

"Poldi is just the striker we need next to Milivoje Novakovic. We need a personality like Lukas on the pitch. He is the one who delivers what we need: Goals! Poldi and Cologne belong together," the Bild daily on Wednesday quoted Schramma as saying.

Munich - Hypo Real Estate, the German finance company which nearly collapsed in September, reported a third quarter pre-tax loss of 3.1 billion euros (3.8 billion dollars) on Wednesday.

The deficit, which was greater than analysts expected, was due mainly to 2.5 billion euros in writedowns for its Dublin-based subsidiary Depfa, the company said in a statement.

The loss came after a profit of 237 million euros for the same period of 2007.

Berlin - European leaders travel to Washington this week for the summit of Group of 20 (G20) major economies with an ambitious set of plans for reforming the world financial system and facing up to the threat of a sharp economic slowdown.

But the package of measures that French President Nicolas Sarkozy is to present in Washington on behalf of the 27-member European Union has been shorn of the high-minded calls for overhauling capitalism which emerged at the height of the financial firestorm that swept global markets only weeks ago.

Hamburg - This is a small car with a big mission: Alfa Romeo's new Mito hatch is designed to grab sales from BMW's iconic Mini and breathe new life into the famous Italian marque at the same time.

Getting the looks right is essential, if young people are to be lured to the brand and the makers of this sporty three-door hatchback have come up with a cheeky shape which oozes style.

Wolfsburg, Germany - Volkswagen is testing a wireless mobile Internet WLAN access on a VW Tiguan which it presented recently at the International Suppliers Fair (IZB) in Wolfsburg.

The Tiguan is in constant contact with the Internet portal, which provides it with information on current events in the city and various search engines. The selected information then appears in the display of the navigation system.

Munich  - The Toyota Prius hybrid continues to lead the Eco-Test rankings conducted annually by Germany's automobile association (ADAC) which measured fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions in a special test.

None of the 800 cars tested achieved the maximum number of five stars. The ADAC says its test is more realistic than the fuel consumption tests conducted under laboratory conditions by the car makers. The Eco-Test takes the cars on motorways, stop-and-go city traffic while the air conditioning systems run.