Cairo - Fire trucks rushed to one of the Egyptian capital's main squares on Thursday, only to find a crowd of curiosity seekers gawking at a man hanging from a wall by one bare hand.

German street performer Johan Lorbeer was putting on a display at the entrance of the Goethe Institute in central Cairo as part of an open day organized by the German cultural centre.

The arrival of the fire trucks sent a ripple of fright through the crowd.

Dusseldorf - One of the main business backers of the Nord Stream gas pipeline to be built under the Baltic Sea, the giant German chemicals company BASF, affirmed the plan Thursday after seeming doubts in Russia.

"My most recent talks with Alexei Miller, the chief of Gazprom, confirmed that all the parties are working with firm resolve ... to create the Nord Stream pipeline in the time frame," BASF chief executive Juergen Hambrecht said.

His response was released by the German business daily Handelsblatt a day in advance of publication.

Heidenheim, Germany - Five men were found dead Thursday in a soot-filled apartment in the southern German town of Heidenheim and police were investigating the likelihood that they were killed by smoke from a gas heater.

"They probably died several days ago from inhaling the toxic fumes," said police spokesman Horst Baur.

The building's landlord called police about a week after another tenant had noticed soot on the windows and said the apartment had been quiet for days.

Hamburg - Germany cancelled the licences of two Turkish-language Islamic television stations Thursday, eight weeks after senior executives were sent to jail for embezzlement.

The stations, Kanal 7 INT and TVT, were linked to the Deniz Feneri charity, which collected alms for the poor from devout Muslims living in western Europe.

Berlin - Germany's parliament Thursday extended the mandate of German troops serving in global anti-terror operations, but reduced the number from 1,400 to 800.

Legislators voted 428-130 in favour of allowing troops to continue serving in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), which was set up in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

Berlin - Germany slumped into a recession for the first time in five years, official data released Thursday showed, amid signs that a global economic downturn was taking hold.

Europe's biggest economy shrank by 0.5 per cent in the third quarter of 2008, after it contracted 0.4 per cent in the three months to the end of June, the Federal Statistics Office said.