Bonn, Germany - A David-and-Goliath takeover offer for the German factories of General Motors sent the share price of the bidding company, SolarWorld, crashing
16 per cent lower Wednesday.

SolarWorld, which assembles and installs electricity generating systems that rely on wind or the sun, offered 1 billion euros (1.25 billion dollars) for the Opel brand, four factories and a German research centre.

It said it intended to convert Opel into "Europe's first green automobile maker."

New Delhi - India and Germany plan to discuss responses to the global financial crisis and ways to deal with climate change during the visit of German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier due to begin Wednesday night, officials said.

Steinmeier scheduled talks with India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and opposition leader LK Advani on Thursday.

Frankfurt - Only the sky was the limit when Yvonne Buschbaum soared to big heights as one of the leading women's pole vaulters in Germany.

Now the sky is wide open for Buschbaum, who feels the lightness of being after revealing her transsexuality last year and undergoing a gender change to Balian Buschbaum since then.

"Courage is the road to freedom. I woke up in complete freedom today. The sky is wide open," said a recent diary entry on his website.

Wolfsburg, Germany  - The new Golf VI generation has been given a top safety rating in the independent EuroNCAP crash test.

Testers described the model as an improvement on the predecessor Golf V, which scored lower marks against its main competitor, the Opel Astra.

The Golf scored 36 out of 37 possible points on occupant, pedestrian and child safety, with a maximum five-star rating for occupant safety.

Stuttgart  - Porsche is said to be downplaying plans to build a special economical four-cylinder version of the Boxter, the British Autocar magazine has reported, quoting company sources.

A Porsche spokesman described the report as "pure speculation." The next generation of the Boxter Roadster and the Cayman coupe would still be offered with a six-cylinder engine, the spokesman added. He pointed out that they would be more economical because of direct injection systems.

London  - England's preparations for Wednesday's friendly against Germany in Berlin were dealt another blow late Tuesday when Arsenal winger Theo Walcott was ruled out because of a dislocated shoulder.

The 19-year-old, who scored a hat-trick in England's World Cup qualifying win in Croatia, suffered the injury in training in Berlin.

He was taken to hospital, where the shoulder was put back into place, but Walcott is now set to fly home.