Hamburg  - TSG Hoffenheim kept their cool with a 3-1 victory in Cologne o reclaim the Bundesliga lead from Bayer Leverkusen who were caught out cold by losing
2-1 at Arminia Bielefeld on Saturday.

As winter weather hit Germany, league top scorer Vedad Ibisevic struck twice for a tally of 16 and fed Demba Ba for the other as promoted Hoffenheim won a tense match in Cologne which both teams ended with 10 men.

Berlin - Three Germans arrested in Kosovo in connection with a bomb attack on the European Union (EU) headquarters were intelligence service operatives, German media reported Saturday.

Hamburg - Snow and ice played havoc on German roads, causing numerous accidents that left two dead and more than a dozen injured, police said Saturday.

The abrupt arrival of winter turned roads in skating rinks, forcing police to close the A4 autobahn near the eastern city of Dresden for several hours after it was blocked by trucks unable to move forward.

Berlin - The US economy needs 300-600 billion dollars in additional support measures to help it weather the financial crisis, billionaire George Soros was quoted as saying by German news magazine Der Spiegel on Saturday.

"A major stimulus programme" was needed to help the ailing economy and provide US cities and states with sufficient cash, said Soros, one of the world's richest men. In addition, an infrastructure programme was needed, he said.

Berlin - Germany, the first of the G7 powers to declare an official recession, can expect more bad news on the economic front in 2009, Chancellor Angela Merkel said in an interview released Saturday.

"We have to be prepared for the fact that the coming year, at least in the first few months, will be a year of bad news," she told the newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

She said the current business climate made it much more difficult to predict how the economies of Germany, its partners in Europe and the world at large would develop.

Karlsruhe, Germany  - Karlsruhe SC was defeated at home by Borussia Dortmund 1-0 Friday night, continuing their dramatic downward spiral in the German Bundesliga.

Karlsruhe have now lost seven of their last eight matches and remain third from bottom in the league, while Dortmund climbed to fourth place.

KSC manager Edmund Becker acknowledged his team was in a "difficult situation" only 14 matches into the football season. Dortmund manager Juergen Klopp said his side's win was "deserved."

Mohamed Zidan scored the match's only goal in the 20th minute on a cross from former Karlsruhe player Tamas Hajnal.