GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats suffered a crushing defeat in a regional election in the northern German city-state of Hamburg yesterday that will make it harder for her coalition to pass laws.

RUSSIA moved to ease tensions with the west ahead of an EU emergency summit on the Georgia conflict, as Britain pushed yesterday for a “root-and-branch” review of the bloc’s relations with Moscow.

HORST ECKEL, a member of West Germany’s 1954 World Cup winning team, insisted yesterday he had received one glucose injection during the tournament but it was not before the final against Hungary.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said today that the threat posed by Iraq does not justify a war.