Berlin - As German analysts are estimating an economic shrinkage of some 6 per cent in 2009, voices are now beginning to warn of the dangers of social unrest.

Presidential candidate Gesine Schwan said Thursday that popular anger could grow significantly in coming months, as initial measures to counter the economic downturn wore off.

"If there isn't a glimmer of hope that the situation is improving, the mood could become explosive," the Social Democratic (SPD) candidate told the daily Muenchener Merkur.

Berlin - Germany is to expand its cultural diplomacy abroad, reaching out to academics by building a series of missions to highlight German scientific and engineering achievements, officials said Thursday in Berlin.

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the offices were part of a push to invest more in cultural diplomacy.

The first such House of Science has been opened in Sao Paolo,

Brazil, and more are planned in Moscow, New Delhi and New York.

Berlin - An elderly German woman who was taken hostage by self-described Islamists three months ago in Mali was being cared for at the German embassy in Bamako, the German Foreign Ministry said in Berlin Thursday, one day after her release.

The 77-year-old retired teacher was one of four western tourists abducted on January 22 in the Sahara desert during a cross-country adventure tour in four-wheel-drive vehicles in Niger and Mali.

Hamburg - Europe's biggest carmaker Volkswagen AG plans to strengthen ties with its parent, the luxury sports car group Porsche, VW chief Martin Winterkorn said Thursday amid speculation that his company was weighing up mounting an audacious bid for Porsche.

VW is considering a push to take out a majority stake in Porsche as part of an effort to help bring relief to the indebted Stuttgart- based Porsche, London's Financial Times reported Thursday.

Berlin - The German government opened an office in Berlin Thursday to educate the country's ethnic Turkish minority on issues such as saving energy , sorting refuse for recycling, and nature conservation. The Turkish German Environmental Centre is to offer brochures and also provide a venue for environmentalists and the minority to meet.

Hanover - Around three thousand employees of German car parts group Continental AG protested outside its annual shareholders' meeting Thursday against the company's plans to close factories as it faces up to the global auto crisis. The demonstrators included about 1,200 French Continental workers, who had travelled to the meeting to protest about the group's moves to shut down operations in Clairoix in northern France.