Chancellor Angela Merkel-led new German government has been jolted by its first political crisis after a minister resigned over claims he leaked confidential information about an international child pornography probe involving an Indian-origin ex-member of parliament.

An Indian-origin German lawmaker's residence and offices have been raided on suspicion of possessing or attempting to acquire child pornography, a media report said on Wednesday.

Defending men's champion Laban Moiben of Kenya, last year's runner-up Raji Assefa of Ethiopia and third-placed John Kyui of Kenya have all confirmed to run in the US $3,50,000 10th Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon, on January 20.

Inter Milan and Bayer Leverkusen cruised into the Europa League knockout stage with emphatic wins on Thursday but holders Atletico Madrid and former winners Liverpool suffered surprise defeats.

Landon Donovan, the US national team's all-time leading goal scorer, was named in the 24-man squad on Monday for the next CONCACAF region World Cup qualifiers after shaking off a knee injury.

Gagan Narang's bronze at the London Olympics on Monday was India's third in shooting and eighth individual medal overall from the quadrennial extravaganza.

Hit by a series of corruption scandals, Germany's youngest president Christian Wulff resigned on Friday, dealing a major blow to Chancellor Angela Merkel in a crisis being described as unprecedented in post-war Germany. Wulff, 52, announced his resignation, admitting he had lost the trust of the public, after the state prosecutor announced plans to open a criminal investigation against him and asked the parliament to lift his immunity.

Juergen Klinsmann named his first squad as coach of the United States men's soccer team on Thursday, going with a mix of youth and experience for next week's international friendly against Mexico.

The world's fourth largest tyre manufacturer Continental has taken over full control of India's Modi Tyres Company in an all-share deal valued at 18.6 million euros.

Adolf Hitler and his Nazi followers tried to train dogs to talk, read and spell to help them win World War II, a new research has revealed. According to the research, led by Dr Jan Bondeson of Cardiff University, the Germans viewed canines as being almost as intelligent as humans and they attempted to build an army of fearsome 'speaking' dogs. In fact, Hitler hoped the animals would learn to communicate with their Nazi masters and he even had a special dog school set up.

Experienced striker Brian Ching was surprisingly left off the United States World Cup squad on Wednesday when coach Bob Bradley named his final squad of 23 for South Africa.

The spectacular opening ceremony for the Shanghai World Expo on April 30 would have surprised no one.

Scientists have inched closer to creating a virtual smart home that lets users perform everyday tasks with thoughts alone, a development that could prove a boon for people with physical disabilities.

Indian IT companies, which participated in the CeBIT 2009 in Hannover, expressed confidence that innovative skills of the software engineers and IT professionals along with their ability to adapt to the rapidly changing situation in the markets around the world will help cushion the impact of the global economic meltdown on the industry in India.

Days after the standoff between terrorists and NSG commandos at the Taj Palace hotel came to an end, Hemalatha Kasi Pilai, a Malaysian, is still missing.

Ace Indian shooter Gagan Narang won the gold and set a new world record in the men's air rifle category at the Olympic test event in Hannover, Germany. Gagan, who shot a score of 704.3 on Thursday, toppled Austrian shooter Thomas Farnik record score 703.1 set in the 2006 World Cup finals at Garnada.

General Insurance Corporation, the country's only reinsurer, will be launching Retakaful -- reinsurance based on Shariah principles -- in this financial year. Retakaful will provide reinsurance support and will be based on the Islamic principles called Shariah. Reinsurance refers to insuring insurance companies. Similarly, a Retakaful company provides reinsurance support to Takaful insurance companies (insurance companies following the Islamic concept of insurance).

"The German market so far has been largely unexplored by Indian IT companies and they should make serious efforts to enter the market and to consolidate their existing presence because the business opportunities in this country are immense," said S R K Prasad, who led the delegation to Frankfurt on a two-week tour said.

Only three months since his return to the tour after an injury, the German has clawed his way back to 131 from 404.

India and Germany have examined ways to expand and intensify cooperation between the two countries, especially in trade and in the field of science and technology.

The focus of the festival is to raise the cultural profile of India in Europe in general.

Earlier, liquor bottles went missing from the same flight and Air India's Vigilance Department conducted an enquiry.

e 23-man lists of the 32 teams for the 2006 football World Cup after the May 15 deadline to confirm squads ended on Monday.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday invited increased foreign investment pointing out that the country had ventured on a series of programmes to improve infrastructure which will require about $150 billion over the next decade.

The Euro 25 billion German software & service market offers very good opportunities for Indian companies keeping in view the software market growth by about ten per cent in Germany last year.\n\n\n\n