After an injury-enforced lay-off Cian O’Connor is set for a return to jumping action this coming weekend in Germany. The Meath rider heads for Wiesbaden’s four-star meeting with his top horse Good Luck, along with Copain du Perchet and his newly-acquired Cybell.

A masked man was shot dead yesterday after entering a movie theatre in southwestern Germany with what appeared to be a rifle and taking several hostages, authorities said. No one else was hurt in the incident.

Latest: Hesse's interior minister, Peter Beuth, said it was not clear whether the weapon was real.

Andy Reid is determined his return to the Republic of Ireland squad will not be a token gesture.

Andy Reid has reacted with delight to the news of his recall to the Irish squad — and admitted that there was a time when he thought the day would never come.

The rising star of Irish show jumping, Bertram Allen, shone brightly again yesterday when taking the individual silver medal at the Junior European Show Jumping Championships in Vejer de la Frontera, Spain.

The clock put a stop to show jumper Denis Lynch’s challenge in the €285,000 Longines Global Champions Tour class in Wiesbaden, Germany, on Saturday, a single time fault in the second round with the stallion All Star 5 denying him a place in the third-round decider.

Considering the horse power Cian O’Connor has put through his hands, when he describes a new mount as “the greatest” you take notice.

The British economy shrank in the fourth quarter as companies scaled back investment, underlining the risks to a recovery that Bank of England governor Mervyn King says will be “slow and uncertain”.

GERMANY may be on the brink of recession after the sovereign debt crisis caused the economy to contract in the final quarter of 2011.

Berlin: Exports in Germany increased more than economists forecast in May, adding to signs the sovereign debt crisis isn’t harming Europe’s largest economy.

GIOVANNI TRAPATTONI says that if the game against Macedonia was happening today, Richard Dunne would be able to play.

Frankfurt: German economic growth slowed in the third quarter, after record expansion in the second, as the cooling global recovery crimped export demand.

Ireland's Denis Lynch claimed a €23,000 victory in this afternoon's German Grand Prix at Wiesbaden, narrowly beating Germany's World No. 2 Marcus Ehning to the prize.

Ireland's Denis Lynch made a 600km dash to win today's show-jumping Grand Prix Qualifier at Wiesbaden in Germany.

ANDY REID is the victim of an ‘over-reaction’ from Giovanni Trapattoni on the night his international future was thrown into limbo – so says Ray Treacy, who was a bystander on the fateful evening in 2008.

FOR A guy who isn’t even getting his game, you’d have to say that Andy Reid is playing a blinder for Ireland.

GIOVANNI TRAPATTONI often preaches about the virtues of having a settled team but, as the Irish squad flies out from Frankfurt to Podgorica today, the manager hasn’t ruled out the possibility of changes in the team to play Montenegro on Wednesday.

THOUGHT for a minute there that I’d come up with a wizard idea for this week’s column. Letter From Tbilisi, I was going to call title it, beneath which I’d pen the single word, ‘oops’.

SOME 10,000 people, including US soldiers, were at the Wiesbaden Garrison yesterday commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Berlin airlift — one of the largest humanitarian undertakings of all time.

President Mary McAleese will hold talks tomorrow with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during an official visit to Germany.

President Mary McAleese is making a three-day official visit to Germany next week.

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin insisted yesterday he would travel to Iran today despite reports about a possible assassination attempt, arguing direct contact and “peaceful means” were the only way to deal with the country’s nuclear program.

Jessica Kurten finished third at the Youngster Cup Final

A Co Tipperary man, who was questioned about a murder in Clonmel last year, has fallen to his death in Germany.

BRITAIN and France, the second and third-biggest European economies, racked up record trade deficits last year as an appreciation in the euro and the pound curbed export growth.

US forces stationed in Europe will increasingly shift their stance towards Africa and the former communist eastern bloc countries as they move to a more agile force countering post-Cold War threats such as terrorism, Nato’s top European commander says.

A tank commander who shot dead an injured Iraqi prisoner and said it was the honourable thing to do was thrown out of the US army today.

President George Bush’s rapprochement tour to Europe reached Germany today - his first visit since the war in Iraq, which caused deep divisions that the two countries are still smoothing over.

British transport group Arriva today said it was entering the German bus market with the acquisition of one of the country’s largest privately owned bus companies.

GERMANY’S economy expanded at the slowest pace in more than a year in the third quarter as exports declined, underlining the nation’s reliance on demand from abroad as the euro trades close to a record.

THE eurozone economy is picking up momentum, the European Central Bank says, but strong oil prices could derail the recovery.

A US soldier was arrested yesterday over the stabbing death of an Italian teenager and the wounding of three other men in a nightclub brawl.

German exports fell in February, breaking the longest run of gains in more than a decade, as the euro’s climb to a record against the dollar made goods from Europe’s largest economy more expensive abroad.

GERMAN retail sales fell 1.8% in November, the biggest drop in eight months, evidence that an export-led economic recovery in Europe’s largest economy has yet to bolster consumer spending.

Hamburg officials were today accused of overreacting when they placed a ring of steel around a German military hospital after being told of a terror threat.

THE parents of a 12-year-old British girl who ran off with a former US Marine yesterday told of the moment she phoned to say she was coming home.

Missing schoolgirl Shevaun Pennington was reunited with her parents today five days after disappearing with a former US marine she met on the internet.

German police do not suspect terrorism in a blast, which brought down parts of the second-floor ceiling in the menswear department today.

An explosion at a department store injured at least five people in the German city of Wiesbaden today.