Berlin

The intensive odour in many new cars results from a toxic cocktail of more than 100 different chemicals that can have serious health effects, the German environmental organisation Bund has warned. Bund and its sister organisation in Austria, Global 2000, conducted tests on six cars including models from Opel, Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Mitsubishi, Volkswagen and Alfa Romeo.

A Chinese SUV, the Landwind built by Jiangling Motors, on Tuesday received some of the worst ratings to date in crash tests carried out be Germany’s influential ADAC automobile club. The results, reported in the latest issue of the ADAC’s monthly Motorwelt magazine, termed the â,¬15 000 ( 000) vehicle’s crash results as ”catastrophic”.

Conservative leader Angela Merkel said on Monday she will be the next chancellor of Germany at the head of a coalition uniting the country’s two main parties, and will focus on reviving the economy. "The union will occupy the chancellery," Merkel said, in a reference to her Christian Democratic Union.

Gerhard Schröder’s Social Democrats agreed on Monday that conservative leader Angela Merkel should replace him as German chancellor at the head of a coalition government, a party spokesperson said. Schröder will play no role in the coalition government, the head of the Christian Social Union said on Monday.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and his conservative rival, Angela Merkel, were back on the campaign trail on Friday ahead of weekend voting in the eastern city of Dresden, which will complete the country’s inconclusive general election. About 220 000 voters will go to the polls on Sunday.

Europe’s newspapers agreed on Tuesday that Germany was in an ”awful mess” after a weekend election left it politically adrift rather than at the helm of a long-anticipated economic recovery. Editorials in Germany focused on the likely makeup of a new government, with many facing the dreaded possibility of a so-called grand coalition.

BMW have signed Nick Heidfeld to drive for their new formula-one team on a three-year contract beginning next year. The 28-year-old German currently races for Williams, who part company with BMW at the end of this season. The German manufacturer has bought the Sauber team, and Heidfeld is the new outfit’s first driver signing.

Angela Merkel is bidding to become the first woman, and the first citizen of the former communist East, to lead a modern, reunified Germany. Her rise from being an obscure East Berlin physicist to leading Germany’s conservatives, her pledge for economic reform and her no-nonsense dress sense have led to comparisons with Margaret Thatcher.

World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) president Dick Pound said it is ”highly probable” that seven-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong did test positive for the banned blood booster erythropoietin. Armstrong has been forced on the defensive since a newspaper detailed test results from the Tour de France in 1999.

The exploits of seven-times Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, who is alleged to have used the banned blood booster erythropoietin in 1999, are also down to the use of other banned substances, including anabolic steroids, according to one expert.

Germany’s seven-time formula-one champion Michael Schumacher refused on Monday to quash speculation that he has met McLaren sporting chief Norbert Haug to discuss a possible move from Ferrari. ”I do not want to discuss the rumours about me leaving Ferrari,” Schumacher said on his website.

Europeans have been invited to throw themselves into the river on Sunday for their first ”Big Jump,” a day called to advocate clean and living waterways through public awareness events across 12 European Union countries.

With 12 months to go until the 2006 World Cup, football fans will have an early taste of what to expect when the Confederations Cup starts in Germany on Wednesday. For Germany coach Jurgen Klinsmann’s team and the World Cup organising committee the competition serves as a dress rehearsal for the main event.

About 40 000 prostitutes will offer their services to football fans at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, according to experts. Cologne and Dortmund, two of the host cities for the World Cup, have even erected a number of wooden ”sex huts” for the football showpiece, with condoms and showers at hand.

A German woman was astonished to find deutschemark banknotes and account savings books worth €100 000 (R821 000) tucked in the lining of an old washing basket she bought at a flea market. The woman, from Bavaria, bought the basket for just €7 (R57),

A German woman in her 80s said on Tuesday she has been ordered by her pension fund to produce a certificate to prove she is still alive. Martha Kruse telephoned the Bundesknappschaft fund after her payments were suddenly stopped, only to be told by an employee: "Don’t get upset, but you died on January 28."

A German who stabbed and dismembered his gay lover, stored some of his organs in the fridge to eat later and fed other body parts to his cat was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Tuesday. The case has drawn comparisons with a cannibal trial that intrigued and appalled Germany last year.

Justine Henin-Hardenne doesn’t want to hear that she’s the French Open favourite — she just wants rest. The Belgian remains unbeaten on clay this year and ran her winning streak to 17 matches by winning the German Open on Sunday, a key tune-up for the grand-slam event starting in two weeks.

Bidding for Pope Benedict XVI’s old Volkswagen, on offer on eBay Germany, topped €100 000 (R772 000) on Thursday, 10 times the price the current owner paid for it. A few hours before the sale was set to close, the page on the internet auction website had registered 6,3-million hits.

If Maria Sharapova wants to claim the world’s top ranking at the German Open, she may have to earn it the hard way. Sharapova needs to win the title at the €1-million event, a major French Open tune-up, to unseat Lindsay Davenport. On Wednesday, the 18-year-old Russian breezed past 40th-ranked Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany.

Hundreds of toads have met a bizarre and sinister end in Germany in recent days, it was reported on Saturday: they exploded. According to reports, as many as a thousand of the amphibians have perished after their bodies swelled to bursting point and their entrails were propelled for up to a metre.