Copenhagen - German Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee and his Danish colleague Carina Christensen were due Wednesday to sign an agreement in Copenhagen to build a bridge connecting Germany and Denmark across the Baltic.

The bridge for rail and car traffic between Roedby in Denmark and Puttgarden on the German island of Fehmarn will shorten the 4.5 hour trip between Hamburg and Copenhagen by an hour and also improve the rail connection between Berlin and Copenhagen.

The project forms part of a larger infrastructure project which the Danish parliament agreed Tuesday. Costs are estimated at 5.6 billion euros (8.1 billion dollars). The Danish government is to contribute 4.8 billion euros.

Copenhagen - One of two Tunisian nationals held on suspicion of planning to murder a Danish newspaper cartoonist has voluntarily left Denmark, his lawyer said Friday.

The two Tunisians were arrested in February after the Danish security and intelligence service PET said it had uncovered a plot to murder cartoonist Kurt Westergaard.

Westergaard's controversial cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban was one of 12 images published in September 2005 by the Jyllands-Posten newspaper. They sparked worldwide violent protests in 2006 and Danish companies were boycotted in many Muslim countries.

The two suspects faced deportation to Tunisia as threats to state security.

Copenhagen  - SAS Group chief executive Mats Jansson described the plane crash that killed over 140 people in Madrid Wednesday as "deeply tragic" and expressed his sympathy for the victims.

The Spanair flight from Madrid-Barajas airport veered off the runway during takeoff and crashed. Of the 164 passengers and nine crew members on board, only 26 are believed to have survived.

Spanair is owned by Scandinavian parent company SAS.

Jansson was speaking late Wednesday at a news conference in Copenhagen. He was then heading to Madrid along with SAS Group deputy CEO John Dueholm.

Copenhagen  - Danish prosecutors Monday presented their case in a trial against two men arrested in terrorist raids last year, accused among other things of bomb-making.

The men, aged 22 and 21, were suspected of "preparing one or several bombs for use in a terror act" and for making the explosive triacetone triperoxide (TATP), the prosecution said.

Copenhagen - Danish Queen Margrethe and her French-born husband Prince Henrik said Friday that they planned to watch broadcasts from the Beijing Olympics.

The royals currently on holiday at their estate Château de Cayx, southern France, told reporters about their interest in the Games.

"The TV is switched on in there," Prince Henrik said.

Queen Margrethe also said that she believed it would benefit Denmark if her son, Crown Prince Frederik, succeeds in his aim to be elected as member of the International Olympic Committee (ICO) next year.

The 40-year-old crown prince arrived earlier this week in Beijing.

Copenhagen - Seven Danish Muslim associations were planning to appeal to Denmark's highest court over the publication of 12 cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that sparked violent protests in 2006, r