Bonn, Germany  - Microsoft has eliminated 23 vulnerabilities in its Windows and Office products. Users of those programs should install the corresponding security updates as soon as possible, the German Federal Agency for Security in Information Technology (BSI) in Bonn, central Germany, is advising.

This can be handled by activating automatic updates in the Windows Security Centre or visiting Microsoft's update site at http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate.

Berlin  - The curtain goes up May 15 on the Berlin adaptation of Mel Brooks' Broadway smash musical hit "The Producers" at a pre- war theatre which once sported box seats for the fuehrer - and critics will be listening to hear whether Germans can finally laugh at "you know who," at least for a limited two-month run.

Duisburg, Germany - German state prosecutors' hands remain tied over a Mafia killing spree at a German pizzeria 18 months ago, German Spiegel magazine reported Saturday. The legal team in the city of Duisburg said they had refused the extradition to Germany of the prime suspect, Giovanni Strangio, who was arrested in Amsterdam last month, as they lacked evidence to proceed in court against the him.

Next week, a Dutch court is to formally decide whether 30-year-old Strangio should be extradited to Italy or Germany.

Bad Koenig, Germany - An unusual spectacle greeted the residents of a small town near Darmstadt on Saturday, as participants took to the streets to race each other on office chairs. At Germany's second annual office chair championships in Bad Koenig, 30 kilometres south-east of Darmstadt, around 80 participants competed on a downhill stretch of road using especially adapted desk furniture.

Berlin - The German government has demanded that potential Opel investors preserve jobs and factories in Germany, the German daily Bild reported. "Every investor must strengthen Germany," Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee said in an interview to be published Sunday. "Anyone who wants to close plants and cut jobs is not a suitable Opel partner," Tiefensee added.

Essen - Ruediger Grube, a top executive at car company Daimler, was nominated Saturday as the new head of German state-owned railway company Deutsche Bahn. The 57-year-old Grube replaces Hartmut Mehdorn, who quit last month after Deutsche Bahn had admitted to illicit surveillance of its employees.

"I look forward to the new task," Grube said after a special meeting convened by Deutsche Bahn's management on Saturday. He is to take over the role on May 1.