Berlin  - Germany's President Horst Koehler signed a controversial bill into law Tuesday enabling the state to seize control of troubled mortgage lender Hypo Real Estate (HRE).

The measure, described as a last resort to stabilize the German financial market, marks the first time in modern-day Germany that bank shareholders face possible expropriation.

The approval followed adoption by both chambers of the German federal parliament and comes after the government took an 8.7-per- cent stake in the shaky lender as a first step to gaining full control.

Berlin - The Kennedy Museum in Berlin is putting on an exhibition about US President Barack Obama, drawing parallels with his predecessor John F. Kennedy.

Around 50 exhibits are to be included in the exhibition, which carries the subtitle "On the tracks of the Kennedys?"

Many of the photos on display will be from the official White House photographer Pete Souza, who had accompanied Obama as a senator before his inauguration.

Berlin  - The work of German-born composer George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) is being celebrated in a major way in Europe this year with concerts and music festivals marking the anniversary of his death in London 250 years ago.

Handel, who was born in Halle, Germany, spent the last 36 years of his life in London composing a prolific array of operas and oratorios, the most famous of which is The Messiah with its rousing Hallelujah chorus.

Berlin  - Vaccinations can alleviate the symptoms of hay fever when conventional methods such as nasal sprays, eye drops and antihistamines fail, according to Germany's Berlin-based Professional Association of Dermatologists.

This form of treatment is called immunotherapy and should be initiated weeks in advance of pollination.

Those who are allergic to the pollen of the hazel and alder trees, which blossom in early spring, should begin a course of immunotherapy in autumn.

Berlin - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier phoned his Afghan counterpart Saturday to voice concern at a new marriage law applying to Afghanistan's Shiite Muslim minority.

The German Foreign Ministry said Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta replied that Afghan President Hamid Karzai had suspended the gazetting of the law and ordered a legal review of it.

Critics say the law legalizes rape within marriage, because a Shiite woman would not be allowed to refuse her husband sex without a valid reason.

Berlin, April 4 : A new research has suggested that a sharp bend in the middle of the Hawaii `necklace' of islands is a result of a rapid drift of the region's `hotspot' in a southward direction between 80 and 40 million years ago before it came to a complete halt.

More than 80 undersea volcanoes and a multitude of islands are dotted along the Hawaii-Emperor seamount chain like pearls on a necklace.

A sharp bend in the middle is the only blemish.

This characteristic bend in the trail of the 5000-kilometer long Hawaii-Emperor seamount chain is one of the most striking topographical features of the earth, and is an identifying feature in representations of the Pacific Ocean floor.