CRANBERRY, ruby or gold ruby glass will not be ignored. You can set a single piece on a mantle, or crowd it at the back of a glazed cabinet.

The death toll from Indonesia’s tsunami and volcano eruption rose to more than 400 today as more bodies were recovered.

The death toll from the quake-fed tsunami that hit the remote western islands and the eruption of Indonesia’s Mount Merapi reached 377.

An orphaned baby was found alive today three days after the Indonesian earthquake that has killed more than 350 people.

GERMANY’S attempts to create a multicultural society in which people from various cultural backgrounds live together peacefully have failed, Chancellor Angela Merkel has said.

GERMANY’S Free Democrats rejected overtures from the Social Democrats yesterday and indicated they would stay in opposition if they were unable to form a centre-right coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Blankets of snow fell across northern Europe today, closing an icy Eiffel Tower in Paris and causing flight cancellations.

A 13-YEAR-OLD German schoolboy corrected Nasa’s estimates on the chances of an asteroid colliding with Earth after spotting the boffins had miscalculated.

ISLAM has overtaken Roman Catholicism as the biggest single religious denomination in the world, the Vatican said yesterday.

Hollywood couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are planning to move to Berlin, Germany, so they can bring up their children out of the limelight.

The foreign ministers of Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed today to increase cooperation after meeting with Group of Eight counterparts concerned that acrimony between the two neighbours is helping the Taliban inflict mounting losses on NATO troops and Afghan civilians.

US President George Bush today seemed resigned to the possibility that World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz could lose his job over conflict-of-interest charges involving his girlfriend.

German defence minister Franz Josef Jung today said that six suspects were under investigation in the scandal over pictures of German soldiers posing with a skull in Afghanistan.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed disgust at photos that appeared to show German troops in Afghanistan posing with a human skull and pledged that any soldiers found to be involved would be punished severely.

GERMAN chancellor Angela Merkel promised tough action after German soldiers in Afghanistan were photographed playing and posing with a skull.

Authorities today worked to disarm a Second World War bomb in the Berlin suburb of Potsdam, evacuating 12,000 people and closing the local train station.

World powers are prepared to give up on demands that Iran commit to a long-term moratorium on uranium enrichment and now are asking only for suspension during talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme, diplomats said today.

German customs agents raided 41 companies across the country last week suspected of illegally selling equipment and technology to Iran intended for use in its nuclear programme, authorities said today.

EU defence ministers meeting in Austria today struggled to finalise plans to send hundreds of troops to Congo, where the UN has requested peacekeeping back-up as the vast African nation prepares for elections designed to end years of civil strife.

German leaders are gathering to mark the 15th anniversary of the country’s reunification, an occasion that comes amid economic gloom and uncertainty over the future.

Michael Jackson wants to become a Berliner, according to German newspaper reports. The singer’s father Joe Jackson has revealed that his son is in love with the city.

Some 5,000 residents of Potsdam in Germany were evacuated from their homes today while explosives experts defused a 250-kilogram (550lb) US Second World War bomb, police said.

ONE of the largest collections of model soldiers ever to be auctioned will be going under the hammer later this month.

More than 80 people are searching for a young German tourist missing in Co Donegal for almost a week.