Berlin  - Tourists are pouring into the German capital, bent on soaking up the fairyland atmosphere of Berlin's extraordinary range of Christmas markets.

Christian Taenzler, the city's tourism marketing media manager, says there are close on 50 such markets, including one on Gendarmenmarkt, the city's most prestigious square.

A thriving trading point in earlier centuries, Gendarmenmarkt is renowned for its German-French church architecture and ornate concert hall.

Berlin, Nov. 29 : Pakistani militants have become the focus of the investigation following the terror strikes in Mumbai, according to the Washington Post.

A Pakistani source said Islamabad is "already bending over backwards" to be cooperative, but did not "want to create more opportunities for Pakistan-bashing."

Pakistan''s Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, told reporters in Islamabad, "I will say in very categoric terms that Pakistan is not involved in these gory incidents."

Magdeburg, Germany - Germany's former backstroke world champion

Hamburg - UEFA has agreed to pay compensation to broadcasters who lost live pictures as a result of a power blackout during a Euro 2008 match, Germany's Spiegel news magazine reported.

Football's organizing body in Europe has agreed to pay "a high six-figure sum" to the German public broadcaster ZDF, according to the report released in advance of Monday's publication.

All broadcasters affected will be paid unspecified compensation, according to the report.

Cologne, Germany - Japan makes better use of the abilities of senior citizens than Germany does, according to a German expert in the field.

"Public services, families and companies in Japan can access the expertise of older people through regional centres and networks, said Hartmut Meyer-Wolters, professor of gerontology at the University of Cologne. "We're a long way from reaching this stage in Germany."

Pristina  - Three German intelligence agents accused of throwing an explosive device at a European Union office in Kosovo left the territory on Saturday, witnesses said.

The trio took off in a small plane from the military airport in the capital, Pristina, after spending the night in the German embassy, following their release on Friday evening.

The three men, members of the BND foreign intelligence service, were kept in detention for 10 days despite their protestations of innocence.

Germany, the second biggest donor to the new ethnic Albanian republic after the United States, was angered by the arrest, which it said was "a breach of the rule of law."