Aschaffenburg, Germany - So ancient is Europe that even a "new" building often seems as battered and worn as an "old" one. East of Frankfurt, restorers have struggled to remove the scars of nearly 160 years from a reproduction Roman villa which used to offer a vision of luxury living in the Italian city of Pompeii before a volcanic eruption on August 24 in 79 AD.

Heidelberg, Germany  - Heidelberg Cement, the indebted German building materials group, is seeking an infusion of 3 billion euros (4 billion dollars), the newspaper Financial Times Deutschland reported Thursday.

Quoting a "person familiar with the situation," it said the procedure to raise the money had begun. Heidelberg Cement had spoken with various potential new investors, but it was proving difficult to raise funds without ceding control.

Amman  - Two agreements were signed in Amman Thursday under which the German government extended 92.5 million euros (122.8 million dollars) in economic aid to Jordan, an official statement said.

The two accords, part of the German development cooperation programme with Jordan for the fiscal year 2008-2009, were signed by the Jordanian Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Suhair al-Ali and the German ambassador in Amman Joachim Heidorn.

Stuttgart  - Clerics of the ultra-conservative Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) are to continue their Good Friday practice of praying for the conversion of the Jews, a spokesman for the group said Thursday.

SSPX superior Father Franz Schmidberger said the intercession dated back to a Church tradition originating in the fourth century, and was not aimed at provoking or hurting the religious feelings of non-Catholics.

Vilseck, Germany - The final trial of a group of US servicemen who were accused of murdering four blindfolded Iraqi men and dumping their bodies in a Baghdad canal begins in Germany next week.

One of the accused received life imprisonment last month and another up to 35 years at the series of trials in Vilseck, Germany, where their unit is based. Master Sergeant John Hatley, 40, the highest-ranked accused, goes on trial from Monday, US officials said.