Freiburg, Germany - Bundesliga club SC Freiburg Friday extended coach Robin Dutt's contract until the end of the 20011/2012 season.

Dutt, 44, last season won promotion with Freiburg in his second season in charge of the team after succeeding Volker Finke, who had been 16 years at the helm.

Dutt's present contract expired at the end of the season.

Club president Achim Stocker said: "We have together decided on a longer-term contract because the coach and his team enjoy our complete confidence and are doing very good work here."

Freiburg, Germany - Freiburg's 19-year-old defender Oemer Toprak, who suffered severe burns in a kart accident in June, is optimistic of returning to the game.

"I am lucky and content. I am really fine," he said on Friday.

It was feared the under-19 Germany international might never play again after the accident.

Toprak suffered burns to his legs and back when a petrol tank exploded in a kart collision.

He underwent seven operations before beginning rehabilitation treatment late last month.

Freiburg, Germany  - An equine statue has become a cult figure in the south-western German city of Freiburg and beyond, as a public canvas for talented artists and those of more modest pretensions.

The flanks of this cantering horse, called Holbein, are always coated in paint but the birthday greetings or confessions of undying love regularly give way to a new outfit or embellishments. Holbein can be seen variously in virginal white or wearing the stripes of somebody's favourite football team.

Freiburg, Germany - SC Freiburg have hired South Korean Cha Du-Ri from German second division club Koblenz.

Freiburg said on Monday that the 39-times capped Cha joins them on a free transfer. Cha, 28, has also played at Arminia Bielefeld, Eintracht Frankfurt and Mainz in the past.

Freiburg won the second division in the past season to gain promotion into the Bundesliga. (dpa)

Freiburg, Germany - Cyclists Andreas Kloeden and Matthias Kessler have been implicated in a report on doping practices in the university clinic of Freiburg published on Wednesday.

The report said Team Telekom/Team T-Mobile doctors Lothar Heinrich und Andreas Schmid, both from the Freiburg clinic, conducted "systematic doping" among riders of the team 1995-2006.

A three-man experts panel spoke to 77 witnesses as it conducted its report over two years after Heinrich and Schmid were linked with doping in the team.

Freiburg, Germany - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Thursday he does not expect a radical change in US climate policy after Barack Obama takes over as president.

"America as a whole is not ready for the contribution it needs to make in order to lessen the negative affects of global warming," Steinmeier said.

Fribourg, Switzerland  - Calls by Al-Qaeda extremists to attack Switzerland and Austria during Euro 2008 are being taken seriously by authorities, a senior Swiss security official said.

Messages on "sos minbar" and "As-Sahab", two internet sites favoured by the terrorist group and calling for attacks on the two host nations, had multiplied in recent weeks, the official was quoted as saying by La Liberte daily published Thursday.

"We are taking these threats seriously," he said.