Frankfurt  - The European Central Bank said Wednesday it sold 33.5 tons of gold up to end of March.

At a price of around 28,600 dollars per kilo, the sale fetched an estimated 1 billion dollars.

The ECB said the sale was in full conformity with a 2004 agreement among central banks restricting their annual sales of gold.

Central bank gold stocks are part of their currency reserves.

Frankfurt - Orders for German machinery have slumped by nearly half compared to one year ago in the worst slump since industry-wide records began in 1958, the sector said Wednesday.

The data for February, as reported by members of the VDMA German machinery and plant engineering federation, showed both domestic and export orders sharply down. In real terms, the overall order tally was 49 per cent lower than in February 2008.

Frankfurt, Germany  - Three U. S. cruise companies have published details of their European schedules: NCL has released its programme for 2010/11 while Celebrity Cruises and Royal Caribbean International (RCI) have announced their summer 2010 schedules. All of the cruise companies will be travelling to ports in Europe.

RCI will send eight ships across the Atlantic including the Adventure of the Seas for the first time. The Adventure is the replaces the smaller Legend of the Seas which had 1,310 fewer berths for passengers on board.

Berlin/Frankfurt - Several thousand demonstrators took to the streets of Berlin and Frankfurt on Saturday to protest the measures being taken to tackle the global financial crisis in Germany and other countries.

"We will not pay for your crisis," was the motto of the campaign spearheaded by the anti-globalization network Attac and including unions, environment groups and Germany's Left Party.

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