Stuttgart, Germany - Luxury sports carmaker Porsche SE launched a 100-million-euro (129-million-dollar) cost-cutting program Friday after the global economic slowdown triggered a dramatic slump in its sales.

The manufacturer of 911, Boxster, Caymen and Cayenne sports cars, Porsche said sales will drop by 27.3 per cent to 34,000 vehicles during the first half of the company's
2008-2009 fiscal year.

Speaking at the at the group's annual shareholders meeting in Stuttgart, Porsche Wendelin Wiedeking announcing further production cuts.

Stuttgart  - Peugeot has treated its 10-year-old 206 to a makeover in a bid to keep it near the top of the supermini registration league, Germany's auto motor und sport magazine reports.

The Lion marque designers have restyled the front of the car to give it the same gaping grille and heavily-sculpted look of the 207 hot hatch which it is sold alongside. The new model for Europe will be officially unveiled at the Geneva show in March.

Stuttgart  - A striking new museum which celebrates German sports car manufacturer Porsche is to open in Stuttgart on January 31.

The finishing touches are currently being made to the landmark building close to the company's head office in the suburb of Zuffenhausen.

Stuttgart - Daimler of Germany confirmed Tuesday its desire to sell the one-fifth of US automaker Chrysler which it still owns after their unhappy marriage.

"We continue to be interested in selling the 19.9 per cent," said a spokeswoman in Stuttgart, the same day as Chrysler and Fiat announced a preliminary agreement to merge.

The German carmaker's talks with private-equity investor Cerberus on a sale of the stake ground to a stop last autumn, when Cerberus demanded compensation from the Germans in connection with the earlier sale of the majority of Chrysler shares.

Stuttgart  - A woman, 85, who could not throw anything away spent days trapped under a collapsed pile of yellowing paper in her apartment, police in the German city of Stuttgart said Monday.

After her rescue, she was taken to hospital suffering from severe dehydration. It was not clear how many days her ordeal lasted.

The building's landlady called police after the tenant failed to answer her doorbell. Officers said gnats were flying around the paper and other stinking rubbish that filled the home almost to the ceiling.

Stuttgart  - World motorsport supremo Max Mosley on Friday spoke out in favour of an identical budget for all Formula One teams.

"Nothing is more fair than having all teams competing with the same budget," the FIA president Mosley told the website of German auto, motor und sport magazine.

"I reminded the teams that this measure would solve all problems at once."