Cottbus, Germany - Fans of struggling Bundesliga club Energie Cottbus have rejected an offer from the players to refund their ticket costs following a 4-0 defeat at Schalke 04.

An open letter from the club's supporters club said the offer was an "utter mockery" and called instead for the team to repay their support by an improved performance on the pitch.

"We would rather see a reaction on the pitch. This is about how you wear our club's shirt," the letter said.

Frankfurt - Shares in Europe's biggest telecoms group Deutsche Telekom AG dropped more than 10 per cent Tuesday after it warned about a fall in profits this year as the global recession and intense market competition hit the company's earnings.

German-based Telekom said it expects adjusted 2009 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) to fall between 2 and 4 per cent. Its shares stood at 8.67 euros in early afternoon trading.

Berlin, April 21: Scientists have developed a novel reaction scheme by which CO2 can be efficiently converted into methanol under very mild conditions.

The technique was developed by researchers working with Yugen Zhang and Jackie Y. Ying at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology in Singapore.

As reported in the journal Angewandte Chemie, the scheme is based on an N-heterocyclic carbene catalyst and a silane as the reducing agent.

Berlin, April 21 : Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, Cornell University, USA, and the University of Cologne, Germany, have detected two of the most complex molecules yet discovered in interstellar space: ethyl formate and n-propyl cyanide.

Their computational models of interstellar chemistry also indicate that yet larger organic molecules may be present - including the so-far elusive amino acids, which are essential for life.

Waldkirchen, Germany - Four teenage girls died in a car accident in southern Germany late Monday night, police reported Tuesday.

The car in which the four girls were travelling was being driven by a 19-year-old, who is thought to have lost control of the vehicle after being overtaken by another driver, police said.

The car veered onto the opposite side of the road and hit an oncoming vehicle, driven by a 49-year-old woman.

The impact set both cars on fire. The two girls in the front seats were flung out of the car, while the other two were trapped inside the burning vehicle.