Hamburg - Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich are seeking to sign Ukrainian midfielder Anatoly Timoschuk from Zenit St Petersburg and are ready to release frustrated forward Lukas Podolski, general manager Uli Hoeness said.

Hoeness, who met Timoschuk for talks in Munich on Sunday, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa Monday that Timoschuk was a possible signing for next season.

"We had informational talks on a possible transfer from July 1, 2009," Hoeness said.

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Berlin - Germany criticized Kosovo Monday for detaining three of its intelligence agents for more than a week, but said it was not planning to cut back aid to the tiny Balkan state.

Deputy government spokesman Thomas Steg said in Berlin that Germany had an interest in stability in both the region and in Kosovo and was not considering "reducing aid in reprisal."

But he added, "It is common to review aid after a certain period."

Koblenz, Germany - A Pakistan-born man who is accused of raising funds for al-Qaeda remained silent Monday at the start of his trial in Germany.

Prosecutors told the trial in the western city of Koblenz that he had visited a terrorist camp.

The defendant, 46, claimed to police his four trips to the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan between April 2005 and June 2007 had been purely connected to his work as a gem merchant.

He was accused of being a member of a terrorist organization, sending it funds and supplies. The trial is expected to last into next year.

Hamburg - In the Ruhr area city of Gelsenkirchen, they've been waiting 50 years. In Berlin, it's been even longer.

Passions run high in the former, one of the traditional heartlands of German football, where a pall of gloom hangs over Schalke 04 after what is turning out to be a disappointing Bundesliga season.

Another disappointing season, one could say, for despite huge ambitions - and a huge outlay on new players - Schalke's last league title was in 1958, before the Bundesliga was formed in 1962.

Berlin - German retail sales plunged in October, data released Monday showed, as t